The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c9.11

c9.11

² *mastīṣkam asya yatamó lalāṭam kakāṭikām prathamó yáh kapālam/citvā cityam hánvoḥ pūruṣasya dīvam ruroha katamáh sá deváḥ*. 8. *citya*, as has been observed by Senart (*Légende du Buddha*, Paris, 1882, p. 99, n. 3) has a double meaning, signifying "that which is to be constructed" and the "wood pyre, the pyre having the jaws of the cosmic Man as an image". V. Henry says (*Livres*, X, XI, & XII., p. 48) that the preceding verse shows the tongue as placed "on (between) the jaws" (*hánvor hí jihvām ádadhāt . . .*), and that in consequence *citya* must denote the tongue. In any case, this is in no way an anatomical term but a technical term of liturgy and at the same time a commonplace term used to denote simultaneously the organ which is between or over the jaws and the fire of the sacrifice represented by this organ. Hoernle sees therein the confirmation of his comparison with Caraka (p. 177) because he claims that the piling up on the jaws ["structure (pile) of the two jaws"] denotes the teeth, the alveolars, the osseous palate and the climbing branches of the lower maxillary. But the preoccupation of the author of the hymn is not that of the osteologist; he saw in the Cosmic Man something else than a skeleton—*lalāṭa* denotes the lower part of the front, the arcs of the eyebrows.