Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s1.t2: § 5. Ancient Inconsistency

c6.s1.t2.1

There is a slight inconsistency in the statement of Charaka which it may be well to point out at once. In the introductory clause which enumerates the six *aṅga*, or constitutive parts of the body, Charaka places these parts into three divisions, viz. (1) the extremities (two arms and two legs), (2) the head and neck, and (3) the trunk. That Charaka looked upon the head and neck as constituting but one division, apart from the extremities and the trunk, is shown by his using a peculiar compound word śiro-grīvā, made up from śiras, head, and grīvā, neck, to indicate that division—a circumstance which the commentator Chakrapāṇidatta is careful to point out (§ 11). Now, though Charaka does not (as Suśruta and Vāgbhaṭa I do, §§ 28, 37) expressly state that his enumeration of the bones follows the three divisions, yet certain divisions are clearly discernible in it: only they are not quite consistent with his introductory clause. First, we have a small preliminary division, comprising Nos. 1–3, the teeth, their sockets, and the nails, altogether eighty-four bones. That these form a kind of supplemental division is, indeed, indicated by Charaka himself in the introductory clause. Next, there comes the first proper division, comprising Nos. 4–15. It refers to the four extremities, and includes 108 bones. Thirdly, we have the second division, referring to the trunk. It comprises Nos. 16–25, and includes 158 bones. Lastly, there is the third division, comprising Nos. 26–30. It refers to the head alone, and includes ten bones. The bones belonging to the neck are found classed in the second division, which deals with the trunk. They form Nos. 18 and 23, and include sixteen bones. There is also No. 19, two palatal cavities, which properly belongs to the head. Agreeably with Charaka’s own introductory clause one would expect these eighteen bones to be classed with those of the head in the third division, and to stand immediately before No. 26, jaw-bone. The probability is that they did stand so in the text as it left Charaka’s hands, and that the misplacement is due to unintelligent copying in later times. This surmise receives considerable support from the fact that in the parallel Non-medical Version of Ātreya’s system (§ 16) we find that the bones of the neck, Nos. 18 and 23 (Nos. 19, 20 in § 16), actually take their proper place immediately before the bones of the head (see § 17, cl. 1 a). It is true that in this Version, too, No. 19, the palatal cavities, is similarly misplaced, and that the Medical Version of Bheḍa (§ 12) shows exactly the same misplacements as the Medical Version of Charaka. But this circumstance only proves that the misplacements must be of very ancient date.