A Concise History of Science in India c8.s1.3

c8.s1.3

As far as recorded knowledge goes, the earliest instances of rational medical knowledge are to be found in the *Ṛgveda* and the *Atharvaveda*, both of the second millennium B.C. But there is much evidence to show that the *Āyurveda* was preceded by an earlier medical knowledge developed by the builders of the Indus civilization. The Aryans developed it by taking up the beliefs and practices of the 'black-skinned indigenous people', speculating and experimenting freely in their own way, learning much and unlearning only that which was patently wrong.