Hela Wedakama

Hela Wedakama is one of several names for the indigenous medical tradition of Sri Lanka. A study from the library of the University of the Visual and Performing Arts records three names in use: Deshiya Chikitsa, Sinhala Vedakama and Hela Vedakama.

Official bodies place it within a wider field. The Indigenous Medicine Section of the Ministry of Health describes that field as drawing on Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Deshiya Chikitsa. The Provincial Department of Ayurveda in the Central Province explains that in Sri Lanka the term Ayurveda is used for all of these together: the Ayurvedic system from North India, the Siddha system from South India, the Unani system of the Arabs, and the traditional system called Desheeya Chikitsa, popularly known as the indigenous system of medicine. This article describes the tradition's history and institutions only.

The Institute of Indigenous Medicine at the University of Colombo states that an indigenous system of medicine was practised on the island before Ayurveda arrived from North India. Tradition, it notes, carries the system back to the time of King Ravana. The Institute describes it as made up of several disciplines, each kept by a different teaching lineage, or guru kula. The library study adds that such knowledge was passed on within families or to apprentices.

Both sources describe a later merging. The Institute says that after the arrival of Mahinda Thero the indigenous system began to blend with the main theories of Ayurveda, so that the indigenous medicine practised today is an amalgamation of the two. The study, citing the 1947 report of the Commission on Indigenous Medicine, places this at the introduction of Buddhism in the third century BC. The Institute also notes that structural remains of ancient hospitals have been found at the monasteries of Mihintale, Medirigiriya and Alahana in Polonnaruwa.

The Faculty of Indigenous Medicine at the University of Colombo traces modern teaching to the end of the nineteenth century, when the island had an indigenous system of medicine but no college for it. Three bodies prepared the ground: the Sinhalese Medical Association (1891), the Sri Lanka Vaidya Maha Mandalaya (1901) and a third society formed in 1915.

In 1926 a committee proposed a college with a teaching hospital attached. A council named the Ayurveda Sammelana Sabha was appointed in 1928 with Dr K. Balasingham as its chairperson. On 10 June 1929 the Swadeshiya Vaidya Vidyalaya, or Indigenous Medical College, was established in the Bauer building on Cotta Road, Borella, and inaugurated by Sir Herbert James Stanley. Its first Principal was Dr A.N.N. Panikkar. The Indigenous Medical Ordinance No. 17 of 1941 followed, brought forward by S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike as Minister of Health.

The Ministry of Health's Indigenous Medicine Section lists the main steps after independence. A Department of Indigenous Medicine was established in 1957. The Ayurveda Act No. 31 of 1961 was passed, a Ministry for Indigenous Medicine was created in 1980, and in 1994 it became a Cabinet ministry.

The 1961 Act repealed the 1941 Ordinance. According to the Faculty, it created four statutory bodies: the Ayurveda Medical Council, the Ayurveda College and Hospital Board, the Ayurveda Research Committee and the Ayurveda Drug Formulary Committee. The Department of Ayurveda states that the Act provided a legal framework for indigenous medicine in Sri Lanka. The Department also reports that a national policy on traditional medicine is being drafted by three committees, a coordinating committee, a policy drafting committee and a steering committee, with support from bodies including the World Health Organization.

In 1977 the college became the Institute of Indigenous Medicine, affiliated to the University of Colombo. In 1979 its Siddha section was transferred to the University of Jaffna. The Institute's strategic plan for 2020 to 2024 lists a Unit of Desheeya Chikitsa, whose stated purpose is to protect, preserve, develop and propagate the indigenous system in Sri Lanka.

In February 2023 a gazette order established the Faculty of Indigenous Medicine as the tenth faculty of the University of Colombo. One of its six departments is the Department of Kayachikitsa and Deshiya Chikitsa, which the Faculty translates as Ayurveda Medicine and Indigenous Medicine. A founding Dean took office on 1 March 2023.

The tradition is also a subject of research. The library study referred to in this article was published in 2018. It describes the tradition as one that takes in ritual practice, astrology and religious observance as well as medicine.