Ayurveda is considered the oldest complete system of medicine. It has its roots in the Vedic tradition of ancient India. The first written records of ayurvedic healing principles and therapies are found in the Vedas. There are four main Vedas: the Rig Veda, the Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda. Although the Rig Veda contains references to the three doshas of ayurveda and its healing principles, it is the Atharva Veda that describes ayurveda in detail, including its eight arms: internal or general medicine, surgery, opthalmology and otolaryngology, toxicology, pediatrics, psychiatry, gerontology or rejuvenation, and fertility. Ayurveda existed before the written word: before there were texts, it was a part of the vedic way of life.

The sages of ancient India are believed to have cognized this body of medical knowledge during meditation. Some of these vedic sages compiled the first treatises devoted exclusively to ayurveda. Other sages recompiled and reorganized the knowledge. The Charaka Samhita and the Sushruta Samhita, named for the sages who compiled the treatises, are ayurvedic textbooks that are available and used today by ayurvedic healers thousands of years later. The Ashtanga Hridaya, by Sage Vagabhatta, is a succinct version of the works of Charaka and Sushruta and is also extensively used today. While the Charaka Samhita deals with medicine, the Sushruta Samhita expounds on surgery. Sushruta's work describes over one hundred surgical implements and procedures such as rhinoplasty and prostate gland removal. Around 1500 B.C., there were two main schools of ayurveda in India -- atreya, or the school of physicians, and dhanvantari, or the school of surgeons. More supplemental texts on ayurveda were written to expand and refine the knowledge. Almost two thousand healing plants were identified.

Ayurveda is believed to have influenced other ancient systems of medicine, including ancient Chinese medicine, Unani medicine and western medicine.