Gampaha Wickramarachchi Ayurveda Oils & Medicines — page 8

Gampaha Wickramarachchi

Gampaha Wickramarachchi is one of the best-known names in Sri Lankan Ayurveda. The company behind it, Gampaha Wickramaratchi Siddhayurveda Ausheda (Pvt) Ltd, is a family business now in its fourth generation, with its pharmacy at Yakkala in the Gampaha District. It handles every stage itself, from the herbs and natural ingredients to the manufacturing, its own dispensaries and distribution, and its preparations are made from natural herbal ingredients, most of them sourced in Sri Lanka.

The founder. Pandith G.P. Wickramaratchi was a physician and Ayurveda scholar, and the first to receive the Sri Lankan government's highest honour for an Ayurveda physician, the title "Ayurveda Chakravarthi Raja Vaidya". In 1928 he opened the island's first college for the Siddhayurveda tradition, which later became affiliated with the University of Kelaniya and on 4 March 2021 became the Gampaha Wickramarachchi University of Indigenous Medicine. He also founded the Gampaha Wickramarachchi Ayurveda Teaching Hospital, still one of the leading Ayurveda hospitals in Sri Lanka.

Oils and balms. The best known are the external oils. Shulahara adds the essence of wela (Cleome gynandra) leaves to coconut, mee and mustard oil with camphor, and is a traditional massage oil for tired muscles and stiff joints. Thripala blends the three fruits of triphala (harithaki, vibhitaka and amalaki) in sesame oil as an everyday body massage oil, and Kumari is a hair oil of ivy gourd, aloe vera and heart-leaved moonseed with sandalwood, vetiver and jasmine. The range also includes Maha Narayana, Maha Neelyadi, Sarshapadi, Irimedhadi for oral care and Pinda, a cooling ointment of manjishta, liquorice and Indian sarsaparilla in sesame oil and beeswax. Among the balms (lepa), Rujahara is a herbal rub, Nimbadhi is based on neem, and Warnaka Grutha combines saffron (kumkumadi), turmeric and sandalwood in a ghee base for the skin.

Classical medicines. The catalogue follows the classical Ayurvedic forms: arishta and asava (fermented herbal tonics) such as Ashwagandharishta, Dashamularishta, Arjunarishta, Saraswatharishta and Kumaryasava; kwatha decoctions such as Dashamula and Paspanguwa; guggulu tablets such as Yogaraja and Maha Yogaraja Guggulu; vati pills such as Triphala Vati; and the rasayana and avaleha jams, including Chyawanprash. There are also choorna powders, herbal syrups (paniya), medicated ghee (grutha), arka distillates, herbal teas such as Kothala Himbutu, and everyday items such as mouthwash and pure sesame oil.

These are traditional Ayurvedic preparations from Sri Lanka, shipped worldwide. Medicines taken by mouth are best used on the advice of a qualified Ayurvedic physician.