The principal medical tradition of India developed from the ancient Vedic texts, and has been practised in India for over two thousand years. It is known by its Sanskrit name Ayurveda meaning 'the knowledge of life'. Treatments are mainly herbal, but also include purification and massage techniques, with a strong emphasis on a balanced lifestyle.

This image is entirely drawn from the Ayurvedic understanding of the human anatomy, unlike other Indian images of the human body. The channels and organs drawn on the torso are specified as in Ayurvedic literature, with organs named as receptacles for one or other of the organic fluids. However, the organs in Ayurveda, are seen in a much wider context than in the West. They are the seats of the humours (wind, bile and phlegm) and do not generally engage in the kind of processing which modern western biomedicine expects of an 'organ'.

Nepalese; c.18th/early 19th century.
Wellcome Library no. 574912i. (Image no.V36133 or L17592)