India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c8.s7.26

c8.s7.26

BODY (*ŚARĪRA*)—Anatomy of the body was a subject which had attracted the attention of the Indians even in the Vedic times (*Vedic Index*, II.358). The popularity of the subject is proved by the fact that even a grammatical treatise like the *Ashṭādhyāyī* contains a comprehensive list of terms for the various parts of the body. Body (*śarīra*) consists of two kinds of limbs (*svāṅga*), viz. *dhruva* (vital, VI.2.177) and *adhruva* (non-vital, III.4.54). The former is defined by the *Kāśikā* to include those limbs the loss of which results in death; the latter signified parts or limbs injury to which did not cause death. Pāṇini regards the costal bones (*parśu*, VI.2.177) as *dhruva* or an essential limb.