Ayurveda and Greek medicine: which came first?
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Is Ayurveda older than the medicine of Hippocrates and Galen, and did one borrow from the other?
Independent discoveriesMedicine & health
Indian claim
Ayurveda, with its theory of three doshas (vata, pitta, kapha), is the world's oldest system of rational medicine and predates or inspired Greek medicine.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Medical charms and herbs appear in the Atharvaveda, much earlier than either classical system.
- Britannica places Charaka between the 2nd century BCE and 2nd century CE, refining an older text by Agnivesha. The Charaka and Sushruta Samhitas are systematic works on diagnosis, treatment, diet and surgery.
Commonly credited to
The Hippocratic writings (c. 430–330 BCE) and Galen (2nd century CE) built a rational medicine based on four humours, which shaped European and Islamic medicine.
Evidence for the other claim
- Most scholars date the compiled Charaka Samhita to roughly the 1st century BCE–2nd century CE, with chapters added by Dridhabala some centuries later (around the 4th–5th century CE). Most Hippocratic texts are older than this written form, though Ayurveda draws on earlier teaching.
- No firm evidence shows borrowing in either direction; similarities such as the idea of balanced bodily humours can arise on their own.
What historians and scientists say
Ayurveda and Greek medicine grew up in roughly the same centuries, each with its own theory of the body. Scholars treat them as separate traditions, and neither can be shown to have copied the other.