In the texts, Jīvaka is depicted performing complicated medical procedures, including those that could be interpreted as brain surgery.

This stratum includes rules and regulations about medicine, also relating the life and work of Jīvaka, and can be found in various textual traditions.

Historian C. Pierce Salguero argues that they were probably based on a translation made by Zhu Fahu (233–±308 CE), as well as early Vinaya and 5th-century apocryphal material.

There are also numerous references to him in Indian literature that is not Buddhist, such as the Māṭharavṛtti, a commentary to the Sāṃkhyasūtra, and the satirical poems of Kṣemendra, the 11th-century Kashmiri poet.

[11] Zysk notes that the Pāli recension is more practical, whereas the traditions influenced by Mahāyāna teachings deploy more magical and miraculous motifs.

In what appears to be the earliest version of the narrative, Jīvaka is described as a foundling discarded by a courtesan with no royal blood, and was later found and raised in the court by Prince Abhaya.

In later versions, the story has been embellished to appeal to a wider audience, as Jīvaka's mother is identified with the courtesan of divine origin and Buddhist disciple Āmrapālī, and the previously unnamed father becomes none other than King Bimbisāra.

[15] In the Sanskrit and Tibetan version, Jīvaka is recognised and named the "Medicine King" by the court on three occasion, each time after a medical miracle.

[18] Texts from the earliest, Pāli tradition,[2][6] as well as the Chinese Dharmaguptaka Vinaya and the T. 553 sūtra,[19] describe that Jīvaka was born in Rājagṛha (present-day Rajgir) as a child of a gaṇikā (Sanskrit: gaṇikā; in the Pāli and Dharmaguptaka canons this was not Āmrapālī, but Salāvatī), who had him discarded on a trash heap by a slave.

[24] As he grew up, Jīvaka learnt about his humble origins, and determined to find himself good education to compensate for his background.

In the Sanskrit and Tibetan recension, however, the wife of the merchant remains unnamed, whereas Āmrapālī is considered to be the mother of Prince Abhaya instead of Jīvaka.

[24] He was trained for seven years in Takṣaśilā by a ṛṣi (seer) called Ātreya Punarvasu,[27][30][note 3] which Tibetan texts say used to be the physician of Bimbisāra's father.

[26] In the Pāli and Chinese version of the story, Ātreya then sent Jīvaka and his fellow pupils to look for any plant in the forest that did not have medicinal qualities.

[36] In the Sanskrit and Tibetan recensions, however, the test of the forest is done before accepting Jīvaka in Takṣaśila, as opposed to the exam at the end of his studies.

After Jīvaka passed the test, was admitted and learnt at the centre for several years, he started to demonstrate his medical superiority and was recognised as such by Ātreya.

[41] "Jivaka remarked, 'Those are footprints of an elephant, not male but female, blind of the right eye, and about to bring forth young today.

Lastly, he explained, 'the woman riding the elephant was blind in the right eye because she picked flowers that grew on the left side upon descending, and the heels of her feet made deeper than usual impressions, the backward lean suggested that she was pregnant.'"

According to the Pāli texts, on his way back to Rājagṛha, Jīvaka needed money for his travelling expenses, so he was forced to start working in Sāketa.

[56] Accounts in medieval Japanese and Chinese literature depict Jīvaka offering baths to the Buddha and dedicating the religious merit to all sentient beings.

[64] Jīvaka tried to heal the Buddha using only objects that are regarded as reverential, such as parts of the lotus flower instead of herbs from trees.

On a similar note, Jīvaka is described to donate robes made of woollen material, to be used in the winter.

Since Jīvaka gave priority to the Buddhist monastic community, some people needing medical help sought ordination as monks to get it.

Jīvaka only changed his mind as Paṇṭhaka showed another supernatural accomplishment, stretching his arm very long to help take the Buddha's alms bowl for him.

[78] Medieval Chinese accounts about Jīvaka tend be hagiographic in nature, and were used more in the proselytising of Buddhism than regarded as medical biography.

[85] There is also evidence that shows Jīvaka was regarded as an important figure for Indian Āyurvedic medicine:[86] for example, Ḍalhaṇa, an Indian scholar who lived between the 11th and 13th centuries, wrote in a commentary on the Suśruta Saṃhitā that "Jīvaka's compendium" was regarded as an authoritative text on children's diseases, though this text has now been lost.

[24] This does not mean that Jīvaka was revered unanimously by all of Asia; several medieval Indian texts such as the Māṭharavṛtti, and the poems of Kṣemedra, depict him, as well as other physicians, as impostors.

[88] The former may be related to the doctrine of salvation of Buddhism, in which the Buddha is often described as a doctor that cures the ills of the human race.

[90] In the early Buddhist texts which were translated in Chinese, Jīvaka was deified and described in similar terminology as used for Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

[91] There is evidence that during the Tang dynasty (7th–10th century), Jīvaka was worshipped along the Silk Road as a patron deity of children's health.

He is therefore described in Buddhist texts as still being alive on a mountain peak called Gandhamādana, between India and Sri Lanka.