The physician of King Bimbisāra.

A highly skilled healer and personal physician of the Buddha Śākyamuni and King Bimbisāra, he figures into many stories of the Buddha and his disciples and is often, as here, referred to as the “king of physicians” or “king of medicine.”

A highly skilled healer and personal physician of Buddha Śākyamuni, he figures into many stories of the Buddha, his disciples, and other associates.

Jīvaka is a title meaning “physician.” Kumārabhṛta means “raised by the prince,” in this case Prince Abhaya, who was said to have fostered the future physician. He was personal physician to King Bimbisāra and the Buddha. He asked that ill persons would not be accepted into the order, for it would prove too great a burden on the king’s treasury, which paid for all the treatment he administered, and his own health.