Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s8.210

v2.c4.s8.210

This system presents marked similarities with the later system of Caraka and Suśruta,⁴ which render certain the names ascribed to the several terms by Hoernle. Kaphoḍau, which is variously read in the manuscripts,⁵ is rendered ‘collar-bone’ by Whitney, but ‘elbow’ in the St. Petersburg Dictionary. Skandha in the plural regularly⁶ denotes ‘neck-bones,’ or, more precisely, ‘cervical vertebræ,’ a part denoted also by uṣṇihā in the plural.⁷ Pṛṣṭīḥ⁸ denotes not ‘rib,’ which is pārśu,⁹ but a transverse process of a vertebra, and so the vertebra itself, there being in the truncal portion of the spinal column seventeen vertebræ and thirty-four transverse processes. The vertebræ are also denoted by kīkasā in the plural,¹⁰ which sometimes¹¹ is limited to the upper portion of the vertebral column, sometimes¹² to the thoracic portion of the spine. Anūka also denotes the vertebral column,¹³ or more specially the lumbar¹⁴ or thoracic¹⁵ portion of the spine; it is said in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa¹⁵ that there are twenty transverse processes in the lumbar spine (udara) and thirty-two in the thoracic, which gives twenty-six vertebræ, the true number (but the modern division is seven cervical, twelve thoracic, five lumbar, and two false—the sacrum and the coccyx). The vertebral column is also denoted by karūkara,¹⁶ which, however, is usually found in the plural¹⁷ denoting the transverse processes of the vertebræ, a sense expressed also by kuntāpa.¹⁸