Jantagharaya:
The bath house
by Kamalanath Liyanage
“Prevention is better than cure”
This saying is not a new one.
For centuries, the human race was concerned about their health in order
to prevent physical and mental illnesses. Our archaeologists have traced
an ancient place called ‘Jantaghara’ that suggests that bhikkhus
performed health activities during the times of the ancient Anuradhapura
kingdom.
Location
Jantaghara is located next to the great ‘Samadhi Buddha’ statue and
it belongs to the ‘Abhayagiri’ premises which is 500 acres in extent.
Jantaghara is surrounded by ‘Panchavasa complex’, ‘Dharanee Mandapa’ and
several unspecified ruins.
Purpose
Legend has it that the contemporary documents reveal there were over
5000 bhikkhus in the Anuradhapura region during its golden era. These
bhikkhus had to undergo some kind of exercises to lose weight and
maintain their physical fitness because of their stationary positions
while meditating. The Jantaghara was actually built to meet this
purpose.
Records
The ruins of Jantaghara complete with stone towers and slabs emphasis
its size. Several items pertaining to it have been discovered such as
the ‘herbal spa’. At the centre of the complex, we can still observe the
pond with by stone slabs, where the bhikkhus used to pour hot water. The
drain system attached to the pond was used to emit the excess water.
Ruins of brick hearths which the bhikkhus to heat water are found near
the pond. At the top of the pond is a carved stone slab used to chop,
grind, mix and keep the herbals stone grinders were also used to grind
nuts and other solids.
Archaeological hypothesis
Archaeologists believe that the Jantaghara was a closed building,
which had the characteristic of resisting heat transmission to an
external area. For this purpose, the wall of the Jantaghara had been
made using bricks and its roof was made with clay tiles.
The water
supply path to the pool is yet undiscovered. Maybe it was done by bhikkhus themselves as an additional exercise to draw water from a
nearby water pond.
Buddhism is a philosophy which involves the natural environment. So
this might be the reason for building such a nature-friendly complex for
the benefit of bhikkhus. Today, we can say that this would have inspired
the foundation of modern herbal treatment and herbal spas.
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