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Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s1.t13: § 17. Merits, Defects, and Peculiarities of the Non-medical Version

Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s1.t13

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§ 17. Merits, Defects, and Peculiarities of the Non-medical Version

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1. As has already been pointed out in §§ 5, 6, the advantage of the Non-medical Version for text-critical purposes is that it confirms the corrections suggested in those paragraphs. For

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(a) It places the organs of the neck, that is, No. 19, neck-bones (*grīvā*), and No. 20, windpipe (*jatru*), in their proper place in connexion with, and immediately before, the bones of the head.

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(b) It avoids the reduplication of the words *aṃsa* in connexion with No. 13, and *jānu*, in connexion with No. 11.

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2. On the other hand, the Non-medical Version has three defects; namely:

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(a) It places No. 24, the ribs together with their sockets and tubercles, in the midst of the bones which belong to the head.

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(b) It also places No. 27, breast-bones (*uras*), at the end of the whole list, that is, practically along with the bones of the head.

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(c) The preceding two defects are mere misplacements, but the most serious defect of the Non-medical Version is that it entirely ignores the two bones of the arms (*bāhu*) and the four bones of the wrists (maṇika). These bones, as a reference to the lists of the Medical Versions of Charaka (§§ 4, 7) and Bheḍa (§ 12) shows, should have been enumerated between Nos. 7 and 8, and Nos. 12 and 13 respectively.

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3. Further, the Non-medical Version has three peculiarities; namely:

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(a) It uses the peculiar term aṃsa-samudbhava, sprung from the shoulder, to denote the shoulder-blade, instead of the term aṃsa-phalaka of the Medical Version (No. 16 b in §§ 4, 12).

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Of far greater importance than this verbal difference are the following two:

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(b) In No. 27 it counts seventeen breast-bones, instead of the fourteen of the Medical Version (No. 24 in §§ 4, 12).

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(c) In No. 23 a it adds the eyes to the brows and cheeks, which alone are named in the Medical Version (No. 28 in §§ 4, 12).

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4. With regard to the third peculiarity the following point is to be noted. The Medical Version, as preserved by Charaka, counts a single bone for the complex of nose, cheeks, and brows (No. 28 in § 4). But there existed, as Chakrapāṇidatta tells us (§ 11), another view, presented in Bheḍa’s Compendium (§ 12), according to which the Medical Version is interpreted as counting three bones, that is, one for each of the three items: nose, cheeks, brows. By adopting this rival view, and adding the eyes as a fourth item, the author of the Yājnavalkyan Law-book obtained four bones (Nos. 23 a, b) against the single bone of the Medical Version, that is, he obtained three extra bones. Similarly by his counting seventeen breast-bones against the fourteen of the Medical Version, he obtained another three extra bones. Thus both operations together gave him six extra bones. The rationale of his procedure is now obvious: its intention is to correct the shortage of six bones caused by the omission of the arms and wrists, as thus:

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Required total . . . . . . . . . . 360 Omitted : 2 arms, 4 wrist-bones . . . . . 6 Balance . . . . . 354 Add 3 breast-bones and 3 facial bones . . . 6

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It may be particularly noted that this corrective result affords a strong confirmation of the suggestion, put forward in § 6, that the true number of the bones of the wrists is four, not two, as the traditional list of Charaka (§ 4) now has it.

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5. With regard to the source from which the Non-medical Version derived its peculiarities, it will be shown in the sequel (§§ 29, 30, 33) that it was, in all probability, the statement of Suśruta on the bones of the human body.

Cites (3)