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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 roots, are attributed to Suśruta Sushruta (ca. 6th century BCE) and Charaka (between 100 BCE and 100 CE), which makes Ayruveda about as old 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 take, again, the five elements: earth, water, fire, air and aether. Unlike in Greek thought, were 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 filled with something.
[[File:Ajurweda PL.png|thumb|left|upright|Elements, ''doshas'' and tastes. It's actually more complicated than that, but I'd have to make this infographic at least in 3D to avoid all of the excessive simplification.]]
Water bounded by earth produces a ''dosha'' called ''kapha'' (pronounced ''{{small|KAP}}-hah''). ''Kapha'' is heavy, cold and moist; in the human body, it's responsible for holding everything together and, when in excess, it manifests itself in the form of phlegm. Fire bound by water is ''pitta'', which is hot, light and… not dry. Wait, what? It's not dry, because it contains water, but it isn't moist either, because the moisture is evaporated by the fire. So what od you call something that's neither dry nor moist? Consider food: if it's too dry, then what you do is to baste it with something fat, right? And this is what ''pitta'' is like – fat, oily, unctuous. In your organism, in keeps digestion running and the associated "humour" is bile. And then there's the third ''dosha'', called ''vata'', which is a combination of air and void. It's dry, light and cold. In your body, it's responsible for breathing and motion and it's excess shows as… not a liquid this time, but somethign rather gaseous. What you get by combining air and void is wind, and this is exactly what builds up in your colon when you've got too much ''vata''.
Podobnie jak w teorii humoralnej, przewaga którejś z ''dosz'' determinuje wygląd i temperament danego człowieka. Osoba o przewadze ''waty'' jest z reguły chuda i koścista, ma ciemną, ogorzałą skórę, rzadkie, suche włosy, długą, pomarszczoną twarz, a do tego jest szybka, niespokojna i niezdecydowana. Człowiek typu ''kapha'' ma za to masywną budowę ciała z tendencją do otyłości, bladą cerę, gęste, przetłuszczone włosy, okrągłą, miękką twarz, jest powolny, ale wytrzymały i konsekwentny. Zaś osoba, w której organizmie dominuje ''pitta'', jest dobrze zbudowana i umięśniona, ma rumianą cerę, miękkie włosy z tendencją do wczesnego siwienia i łysienia, ostro zarysowaną twarz, jest impulsywna i zmotywowana. Ale to nie wszystko, bo oprócz osób z przewagą tylko jednej ''doszy'' są też takie, u których dominują dwie (''wata-pitta, wata-kapha, pitta-kapha''), oraz takie, u których wszystkie trzy są w równowadze (''wata-pitta-kapha''). Są więc tylko trzy ''dosze'', ale aż siedem możliwych temperamentów.