The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c9.9

c9.9

² Hoernle places along with grīvā of the Atharva, jatru of Caraka which he gives as an equivalent of grīvā (although grīvā also appears in the list of Caraka) and which he translates as “wind-pipe”. The translation, which he has thought to justify by ten pages of discussion (Osteology, pp. 158-68) is inadmissible. He has, himself, shown clearly that jatru in singular denotes the base of the neck (p. 162) but he claims that it is also the synonym of grīvā, “neck”, which (although denoting, once again according to him, the osseous cervical column) is ranged among the cartilages by Suśruta; it can, therefore, denote the “duct”, hence the translation “duct” for jatru. But it is not exact that Suśruta “in his class-list of bones enumerating the cartilages, or tender bones (taruṇa), makes them to include “the nose, the ears, neck (grīvā) and eyeballs” (p. 160) because Suśruta says: ghrāṇakarṇa-grīvākośeṣu taruṇam, “the cartilages are in the nose, the ears, the neck and the coverings of the eyes.” (Śār., V, 17) as Hoernle had himself correctly understood at first (p. 77). Hoernle also says (p. 161) that in regard to the disease called manyāstambha, “hardening of the muscular mass of the neck” (torticollis and contraction), Caraka employs the expression grīvā antarāyamyate, “the neck becomes bent inward” (Car., Cik., XXVIII, 41) whereas Vāgbhaṭa (Aṣṭāṅga-hṛdaya, Nid., XV, 22) says jatrur āyamyate whence grīvā=jatru. āyamyate denotes “is drawn” (like a bow, the comparison in Vāgbhaṭa follows immediately) and it refers to the disease called antarāyāma, “tension inside” (that is to say here in flexion), a type of tetanus (emprosthotonos). The words of Caraka denote therefore that the neck is contracted (and therefore twisted as explained by the commentators, which Hoernle understands