Pulse diagnosis (nadi pariksha)
AI-drafted · awaiting admin review
Is pulse diagnosis an ancient Indian invention, or did it appear earlier in China and Greece?
Earlier elsewhereMedicine & health
Indian claim
Nadi pariksha, reading the pulse at the wrist to judge the doshas, is presented as an ancient Ayurvedic method.
Evidence for the Indian claim
- Nadi pariksha is a living and important part of Ayurvedic practice today.
Commonly credited to
Herophilus in Alexandria studied the pulse in the 3rd century BCE, and Chinese medicine wrote about it at length, for example in Wang Shuhe's Mai Jing (3rd century CE).
Evidence for the other claim
- Historians of Ayurveda note that pulse examination is not described in the Charaka and Sushruta Samhitas and first appears as a diagnostic method in the Sharngadhara Samhita, around the 13th or 14th century.
- Pulse reading was already well developed in Greek and Chinese medicine many centuries earlier; whether India borrowed it is not settled.
What historians and scientists say
Pulse diagnosis entered Ayurvedic texts late, in the medieval period. It was described earlier in Greece and China.