The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c9.71

c9.71

² On *AV*, I, 17-3 Sāyaṇa explains that the *dhamánis* are the main *nāḍīs* which go to the heart (*hṛdayagatānām pradhāna-nāḍīnām*) and that the *hirās* are the *sirās* (classical form), the *nāḍīs* of the branches (*śākhā-nāḍīnām*), that is to say of the limbs; this implies that they, themselves, are the vascular ramifications. On II, 33-6, he explains *dha.* as denoting the thick *sirās* (*sthūlāḥ*). [The passage, II, 33-6 is found as a variant of XX, 96-22. Shankar Pandurang, Vol. IV, p. 794, *dhamáni* is found here after *snāva* which is rendered by Sāyaṇa as fine (*sūkṣmāḥ*) *sirās*]. On VI, 90-2, (Ed. Shankar, Hymn, 263-2), he simply replaces *dhamáni* by *nāḍyāḥ*. On VII, 35-2, an incantation for making a woman sterile, he interprets *hirās* as being the small vessels found inside for supporting the embryo *garbha-dhāraṇārtham antar avasthitāḥ sūkṣmāḥ* and the *dh.* as the big vessels which are the external support for the womb (*avaṣṭambhikā bāhyaḥ sthūlāḥ*); it is however, in this passage that the *hirās* are 100 in number and the *dh.* 1000.