The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c9.53

c9.53

*sthūragudā* (f): big intestine (*TS, MS, KS*). *sthūlagudā* (f): big intestine (*VS*). *snāvan, snāván* (n): tendon (cf. Cl. *snāyu*) but Sāy. (on *AV, II, 33-6*) fine vessel (cf. *dhamani*) (*AV, VS, TS*). *snāvanyá* (m or n, dual): base of five tendons (Sāy.) (*TS, KS*). *srákva* (m or n): mouth of carnivorous animals ? (*RV*). *svéda* (m): sweat. *hánu* (f, dual): jaw (*V, Cl.*) cf. *uttarahanu*, “upper jaw” and *adharahanu*, “lower jaw” (*AV*). *hálikṣṇa* (m or n): (*AV, II, 33-3*; in *TS, V, 7-23*, name of animal). *hásta* (m): hand, also fore-arm (cf., *aratni*); trunk of elephant. *hārdi* (n. m): heart (*RV, AV*). *hirā* (f): blood-vessel (*AV, VS, MS*, later Vedic *hitā*, Cl. *sirā*), (cf., p. 160.) *hṛd* (n): heart. *hṛdaya* (n): heart cf., *sthūlahṛdayá*, (*TS*). “big heart?” *hṛdayāgrá* (n): point of the heart (*VS, Cl*). *hṛdayaupaśá* (m): organic mass located near the heart (*YV*). The interpretations “aorta” (*VS, XXV-8*) or “heart and pericardium” (dual, *TS, V, 7-16*) proposed by Böhtlingk & Roth are not justified by the Commentaries. Mahī.: *hṛdaye upaśete hṛdaya-upaśam hṛdayastham māṃsam*, “flesh which lies on the heart, which is situated on the heart” and the aorta is not a “piece of flesh”. One should rather take it as referring to the left auricle or to the fatty and conjunctive mass which cover the heart. On *TS*, Sāy.: *hṛdayamadhyam aṣṭadalam māṃsapadmam aupaśam tadveṣṭaṇam māṃsam*, “the centre of the heart is a lotus with eight petals, the *aupaśá* is the flesh which surrounds it”. The heart is usually compared, in the classical period, to a lotus and in the *Chānd-up.*, VIII, 1, 1-2, but the description of the pericardium as flesh is not satisfactory.