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[[File:Ayurvedic man.jpg|thumb|upright|Human anatomy according to Ayurveda. Nepal, ca. 1800.]]
Let's begin with Ayurveda, or literally the "knowledge of longevity". The oldest medical compendia from which Ayurveda took its root, are attributed to Sushruta (ca. 6th century BCE) and Charaka (between 100 BCE and 200 CE), which makes Ayurveda about as old as Greek humoral medicine. If you look at the similarities between the two (as we will in a moment), it's hard to think that they've developed completely independently. But who copied from whom? That's hard to tell.
As the starting point we're going to take, again, the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and aether. However, unlike in Greek thought, where aether only existed in celestial bodies and was thus of little importance to medicine, all five elements are relevant to Ayurveda. Besides, the Ayurvedic counterpart of aether is not so much a volatile substance as it's just vacuum, an empty space with the potential to be filled with something.
