The Compendium of Caraka 4.7: saptamo 'adhyāyaḥ/

Now we shall expound the chapter on the Enumeration of the Body.

Thus spoke the venerable Ātreya.

Agniveśa questioned the venerable Ātreya regarding the enumeration of the body, dividing the entire body part by part, for the sake of knowing the enumeration and measure of the whole body.

The venerable Ātreya said to him: “Listen attentively and accurately to me, Agniveśa, as I explain the entire body according to your question. In the body there are six layers of skin; namely: the outermost skin is the water-bearing; the second is the blood-bearing; the third is the seat of the origin of sidhma and kilāsa; the fourth is the seat of the origin of dadru and kuṣṭha; the fifth is the seat of the origin of alajī and vidradhi; and the sixth is that which, when cut, makes one swoon and enter darkness as if blind, and resting upon which boils arise on the joints—dark reddish, thick-rooted, and most difficult to cure; these are the six layers of skin. These remain covering the six-limbed body.

Therein, this is the division of the body's limbs: two arms, two thighs, head-and-neck, and the trunk—thus the body is six-limbed.”

Three hundred and sixty are the bones, together with the tooth-sockets and nails; namely: thirty-two teeth, thirty-two tooth-sockets, twenty nails, sixty bones of the fingers and toes, twenty long bones of the hands and feet, four bases of the long bones of the hands and feet, two heel bones, four ankle bones of the feet, two wrist bones of the hands, four forearm bones, four lower leg bones, two knees, two kneecaps, two hollow bones of the thighs, two hollow bones of the arms, two shoulders, two shoulder blades, two collarbones, one collar bone junction, two palates, two pelvic blades, one pubic bone, forty-five bones belonging to the back, fifteen in the neck, fourteen in the chest, twenty-four ribs in the two sides, as many sockets, and just as many tubercles of the sockets, one jawbone, two base attachments of the jaw, one bone for nose-cheeks-forehead, two temples, and four cranial plates—thus, three hundred and sixty are the bones together with the tooth-sockets and nails.

There are five seats of the senses; namely: skin, tongue, nose, two eyes, and two ears.

There are five cognitive senses; namely: touch, taste, smell, vision, and hearing.

There are five motor organs; namely: hands, feet, anus, genitals, and tongue.

The heart is the single substratum of consciousness.

There are ten seats of vital breath; namely: head, throat, heart, navel, rectum, urinary bladder, ojas, semen, blood, and flesh.

Among them, the first six are counted as vital points.

There are fifteen visceral organs; namely: navel, heart, kloman, liver, spleen, two kidneys, urinary bladder, receptacle of feces, stomach, colon, upper rectum, lower rectum, small intestine, large intestine, and omentum.

There are fifty-six minor parts connected to the six limbs; those that were not enumerated previously when the limbs were enumerated are to be explained here by other designations.

Namely: two calves of the lower legs, two muscular bulges of the thighs, two buttocks, two testicles, one penis, two sockets of the hips, two groins, two hollows of the hips, one bladder head, one abdomen, two breasts, two locations of phlegm, two muscular bulges of the arms, one chin, two lips, two corners of the mouth, two gums, one palate, one uvula, two tonsils, one epiglottis, two cheeks, two pinnae of the ears, two earlobes, two eye sockets, four eyelids, two pupils, two eyebrows, one nape of the neck, and four centers of the hands and feet.

There are nine large orifices: seven in the head, and two below.

This much is visible and can even be pointed out.

Beyond this, what cannot be pointed out must be deduced by inference.

Namely: nine hundred ligaments, seven hundred veins, two hundred arteries, four hundred muscles, one hundred and seven vital points, two hundred joints; twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and fifty-six is the measure of the terminal openings of the veins and arteries when divided into fine particles; and just as many are the hairs of the head, beard, and body.

This, beginning with the skin, which can be seen, has been accurately enumerated; what is beyond it must be inferred.

Neither of these admits of doubt, because of the natural constitution of the body.

Now, we will explain that which is measurable in handfuls; that is to be known as the maximum measure, and it is subject to increase and decrease, and must be inferred. Namely: ten handfuls of water in the body, measured by one's own handful—that which, when excessively discharged, accompanies the feces, and likewise the urine, blood, and other bodily tissues; that which, coursing through the whole body, the outer skin holds; that which, situated in a wound between layers of skin, receives the name lymph; and that which, combined with heat, issues from the hair follicles and obtains the name sweat: that water is ten handfuls in measure; nine handfuls of the first tissue resulting from the digestion of food, which they call 'chyle'; eight of blood; seven of feces; six of phlegm; five of bile; four of urine; three of muscle fat; two of fat; one of bone marrow; half a handful of brain matter; just that much measure of semen; and just that much of phlegmatic ojas. Thus the reality of the body has been declared.

Therein, whatever bodily part is particularly gross, firm, material, heavy, rough, and hard—such as nails, bones, teeth, flesh, hide, feces, hair of the head, beard, body hair, and large tendons—is earthy, as are odor and the sense of smell; whatever is liquid, fluid, sluggish, unctuous, soft, and slimy—such as chyle, blood, muscle fat, phlegm, bile, urine, and sweat—is watery, as are taste and the sense of taste; whatever is bile and heat, and whatever radiance is in the body, all that is fiery, as are form and the sense of vision; whatever is inhalation, exhalation, opening and closing of the eyes, contraction, extension, movement, propulsion, retention, and the like, is airy, as are touch and the sense of touch; whatever is empty and what is called the large and minute channels is etheric, as are sound and the sense of hearing; that which is the agent of action is the principal entity, as are intellect and the mind.

Thus the enumeration of the body parts has been stated according to the distinction of the gross parts.

The parts of the body, however, by division into atoms, become innumerable, because of their extreme multiplicity, their extreme subtlety, and their imperceptibility to the senses.

In the union and disjunction of these atoms, wind and the inherent nature of past action are the cause.

This very body, enumerated with its many parts, when viewed as a unity leads to attachment; when viewed in its separateness, it leads to final liberation.

Therein, the principal entity, unattached, ceases [its involvement] upon the cessation of all existence.

Here are two verses:

The physician who knows the enumeration of the body in all its parts / is not joined with delusion caused by ignorance of it.

Undeluded, he is not overcome by the faults that have delusion as their root; / free from faults, free from craving, tranquil, he attains peace, free from rebirth.

Thus ends the seventh chapter, titled 'Anatomy on the Enumeration of the Body', in the Section on Anatomy of the treatise composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka.