Mihintale Hospital ruins

  

The ruins of the present hospital is attributed to King Sena II (853-887 AD). But it is believed that there was a hospital at Mihintale long before this building. The inner Chamber of the hospital is centered around a Buddha Shrine.

The entrance to the hospital complex lies on the southern side. The entrance opens up to a square open air area. A square tank made of stone slabs is found on the room on the right side which indicates that it has been the Janthagharaya (hot water and steam bath) of the hospital. There are 2 rooms on the left. The first and the smaller room is identified as the medicine store and the larger room as the Dana Shalawa (refectory). In the open area of the outer court, a large grinding stone is found similar to Kurahan Gala (quern) but much larger. This would have been used to grind medicine fro patients.

Waking past this open outer court, you reach the main hospital building. At the center on an open court lies the image house. There had been two standing Buddha statues at the center. However these statues are missing today and the only the bases of the statues carved in stone in form of a lotus are found at the site. Around it are the rooms for the patients. Each room entrance face the shrine and is about 10×10 feet in size. There are 31 rooms and roughly 2 patients can occupy a room. Therefore the capacity of this hospital would have been about 60 patients. The corners have larger rooms and the medicinal trough is on the North-Eastern eastern room.