The Sinhalese medical tradition harkens back to well over 2000 years. Besides a number of medical discoveries that are only now being acknowledged by western medicine, the ancient Sinhalese are perhaps responsible for introducing the concept of hospitals to the world.

According to the Mahavansa, the ancient chronicle of Sinhalese royalty written in the 6th century A.C. King Pandukabhu (4th century B.C.) had lying-in-homes and hospitals (Sivikasotthi-Sala) built in various parts of the country after having fortified his capital at Anuradhapura.
This is the earliest literary evidence we have of the concept of hospitals
(i.e. a special centre where a number of patients could be collectively housed and treated until they recovered) anywhere in the world.


Prof. Arjuna Aluvihare ("Rohal Kramaya Lovata Dhayadha Kale Sri Lankikayo" Vidhusara Science Magazine, Nov. 1993) contends that there is no evidence, literary or otherwise, to show that hospitals were known elsewhere before and during the time of King Pandukabhaya. According to Prof. Aluvihare, the oldest archaeological evidence we have so far of a hospital is in the ruins of Mihintale, where the remains of a hospital built in the ninth century could still be seen.
The layout of the building and the discovery of a medicinal trough and surgical instruments proves this beyond doubt.
 
Heinz E Muller-Dietz (Historia Hospitalium 1975) describes Mihintale Hospital as being perhaps the oldest in the world. All medieval Sinhalese hospitals so far discovered appear to have comprised of a central courtyard surrounded by cells for the treatment of the sick and an adjoining second courtyard with surrounding rooms which were used for the storage and preparation of medicines, besides other purposes.
 
Ancient and medieval Sri Lanka it should be noted, had a corporate social organization where the state provided welfare services to the people in return for the cuvee labor provided by masses to build irrigation works, palaces and religious edifices.

As such, the state provided free medical care to all its citizens regardless of race, caste, sex, religion or status. Although traditional Sinhalese medicine has a number of distinctive features, it is primarily based on the science of Ayurveda (a Sanskrit term meaning "science of life") an essentially herbal system set forth in the medicinal texts (Sanhitas) of the great Indian physicians, Shushruta and Charaka who lived about the same time as the "Father of modern medicine" Hippocrates the Greek.


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