Ayurveda is said to be anadi, beginingless, in the texts, as a particular period cannot be ascribed when it began, before which there was no Ayurveda. Preservation of life is the primary concern of all thing beings, animals, birds, reptiles, even plants, creepers etc. as can be observed very closely. The Vedas are the earliest literature available in India. They are codification of the experiences, experiments, and explanations in matter concerning life of the primitive peoples of Bharatha that is India, an area of land with Himalayas in the North, the Indian Ocean in the South, with the Arabian Sea in the West and the Gulf of Bengal in the East. It is said to extend up to the modern Afghanistan, which was known as Gandhara, he land of Gandhari the mother of the Kouravas, Duryodhana and his hundred brothers. It was not a political unit, but an extension of land with people of various customs and manners of life. Actually it may seem that the area between the Himalayas in the north and the Vindhya ranges in the South was the habitat of the Vedic people, with their culture and civilization, with a language from which Sanskrit originated with aberrations as local dialects. The land was called Aryavartha, the land South of it was called Dakshinapatha. Dakshinapatha had a language from which modern Tamil and the dialects of the south originated. It is claimed that the culture and civilization of the people is something thoroughly different from that of the Northern. But a study of literature will reveal that there was much in common in ideas and expression between the two civilizations. A study of Thirukkural, a classic text of the Tamilians will surely reveal it. Siddha vaidya, the particular medical system vogue in Tamilnadu has more or less the same fundamental principals based on the Panchabhutha, tridosha theories and practices of ayurveda, which find mention in Thirukkural. Thirukkural has many Sanskrit words. Some pundits of Tamilnadu claim that the siddhavaidyawith Tamil culture was the original, which spread up to the Himalayas, formed the basis of Ayurveda, and Sanskrit language. The fact that can be inferred from all these arguments is that the people of the area of land, from the Himalaya to the Indian Ocean, have more or less a common heritage. Ayurveda is an aspect of that heritage. 

Ayurveda is a natural system of medicine. In the Atharvaveda there are certain hymns, in which mention is made of the beasts, bids, and snakes knowing medicine. Naturalists can observe animals bringing and eating some particular herb by instinct when they are not well. In the list of such birds and animals man also is included and mention is made of the physician, also, prescribing medicine. Man naturally endowed with intelligence in addition to instinct, surely thought on the knowledge gained by experiences and observations. In the texts, how experiences can be experimented and conclusions can be arrived are explained. All these can be taken as the origin of Ayurveda, as can be understand from the texts. The early texts are which all these things are documented are extant and the texts now available are redactions of the original ones.

The system of studying Ayurveda was in the form of ‘teacher to the student method’ (Gurusishya-parampara-sampradaya). Students from Bharathawent to the other parts of the universe in search of knowledge. It is said in the texts that selected students went from Bharatha were sent to Svarga(heaven) where there were efficient scholars and physicians. The lord of Swarga, Indra, was an efficient scholar, teacher and practitioner of Ayurveda. The earliest teacher mentioned in the texts is Brahma. His heredity is not known. Some take BrahmaCharaka, Susrutha and Vagbhata form even now the basis of teaching, practising, experimenting and researching in Ayurveda, through out the world. Many texts are written, through the centuries, even now to make the system up to date. Vagbhata the latest of the acharyas says in his text that he is trying to make the system up to date, suitable to the times (yuganuroopa). The changes are only in application, not in principles, as their validity is vouched by experiences through the ages. The texts contain and explain all aspects of treatment, medicine and surgery, though through negligence and negative conditions, much of it is lost in actual practice, for example, surgery. Actually the words Ayurveda became, used when the knowledge and practices gained by observation and experiences and experiments were co-related and codified as a system of medicine. Ayurveda means the knowledge of life, how to live easily and happily, avoiding disease and unhappiness. Body is the instrument of action for realization of the values of life. Particular attention is to maintain the safety and efficiency of the body, perfecting health, avoiding illness, healing when ill. Much importance is given to curative measures, as arogya meaning health denotes. Arogya means, cured of disease, roga. Actually the term health also means the same thing, as it is devised from the term heal to cure. Perhaps it is disease that forced man to think of health.

Ayurveda has been said as a herbal system of medicine even though animal products and minerals also are used for medicine. Whatever used as food to nourish the body, can be used as medicine, as medicine is mostly corrective in nature, disease being an observation in the systematic working of the system, caused by faulty habits of diet etc. Herbs being the natural sources of food of the human beings, though animal items are included by a section of the people. Mineral materials, which are not digested and assimilated in their natural form are refined and processed for use as medicines. The system using minerals, as medicine is known siddhavaidya, as the basic principles of siddhavaidya are mainly and mostly Ayurvedic, it can be considered as an off shoot of Ayurveda. Siddhavaidya uses herbs in the process of preparation of medicines, and as adjunct to the mineral treatment. as the creator of the universe, and consider the basic knowledge of sustaining life-Ayurveda, inherently originated with the universe. When creatures were created, they were granted with instinct to preserve themselves, with readily available herbs also created with them. It became a system of knowledge, when inferred ideas became systematically codified. As it is natural, the system of treatment based on this knowledge is prevailing even now, in essential aspects. The earliest texts, as available today