Ayurveda is a system of medicine thatdeveloped in early India. The Sanskrit word Ayurveda has two components: ayur and veda . The former means "life" and the latter "knowledge", or more precisely, "science". Its earliest concepts are set out in the sacred writings called the Vedas, especially in the metrical passages of the Atharva Veda, possibly dating as far back as the second millennium BC.