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Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s1.t8: § 11. The Glosses of Chakrapāṇidatta

Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s1.t8

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§ 11. The Glosses of Chakrapāṇidatta

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1. It has been stated in § 3 that the genuineness of Jīvānanda’s Recension of Charaka’s statement on the bones of the human body is confirmed by the commentary of Chakrapāṇidatta written some time in the middle of the eleventh century A. D. Manuscripts of this work are very rare, and in a more or less incomplete state. The subjoined translation has been made from the Tübingen University Library MS., M. a. I. 463 (Cat. No. 146),¹ where the original passage occurs in vol. iii, fols. 284 *b* and 285 *a*. It runs as follows (Original Text in § 75):

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¹ The original of this MS. was in Benares in 1873, where a copy of it was procured by me for the late Professor von Roth. It is rather inaccurate, but fairly complete, there being only a very large lacuna in the sixth section (*Cikitsita Sthāna*). Through the kind inter-mediation of Professor R. Garbe I have the loan of it. Tübingen, No. 145, is another incomplete copy of the same Benares MS. A second MS. of the same commentary is recorded as No. 2160 in the *Notices of Sanskrit MSS.* It is described as ‘incomplete, containing only the first five books’. A third MS. is being used by Kaviraj Harinath Viśarada in his edition of Charaka’s Compendium with Chakrapāṇidatta’s Commentary (Calcutta, śaka 1817 = A.D. 1895). A fourth MS., ‘complet et bien conservé’ is announced by Dr. P. Cordier in his *Récentes Découvertes*, p. 10, and (according to a private letter from him, October 30, 1904) is being copied for him. From a few passages, kindly collated by him for me it appears to agree closely with the Benares MS. referred to above. A copy, from it, of the osteological statement was kindly supplied by him to me (§ 75). Further, two MSS., Nos. 2503 and 2855, are stated in *Notices*, vol. xi, p. 39, to exist in the Government of India Collection in Calcutta, but on inquiry I am informed that No. 2855 is lost; and No. 2503, which I obtained on loan, I find on examination to be not a MS. of Chakrapāṇidatta’s Commentary, but a fragment of the text of Charaka’s Compendium, viz. the 30th chapter of the *Sūtra Sthāna* and the *Vimāna Sthāna*.

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2. ‘With reference to the list of bones, the words “head and neck” (*śiro-grīvam*) must be taken together, and signify but one part, viz. the head. The word “trunk” (*antarādhi*) refers to the middle part of the body. The words “and sixty” (*ṣaṣṭa*) mean sixty additional to three hundred. The term “dental socket” (*dant-olūkhala*) signifies the place where the tooth is fixed. Though in the chapter on the various kinds of food and drink, the nails (*nakha*) are relegated to the waste products of the body on account of their being developed from the waste portion of what is taken as food, nevertheless, in the present case, on account of their resemblance to the bones, they are counted among the latter.² In each finger and toe there are three joints (*parvan*). Hence, as there are twenty fingers and toes, there are sixty bones in the joints. As to the third joint of the thumb and great toe, it must be understood to be contained within the respective hand or foot. The long bones (*śalākā*), too, of the thumb and great toe, must be understood to be of small size. The place where the long bones of the fingers and the toes meet, there is their base (*adhiṣṭhāna*). The word "knee" (*jānu*) signifies the knee-cap (*jānuka*), marking the articulation of leg and thigh. The "two collar-bones" (*akṣaka*) are the two pegs that run athwart the anterior part of the trunk between the articulations of the shoulder and the throat.¹ The two "palatal cavities" (*tālūṣaka*) signify the two palatal bones. The "pubic bone" (*bhagāsthi*) is the cross (*tiryag*) bone that serves to compact the two hip-bones in front. By the term "sockets" (*sthālaka*) are meant the shallow (*nimna*) bases for the ends of the ribs; and by the words "tubercles fitting into the sockets" (*sthālak-ārbudāni*) are meant the tubercle-like bones which occur in the middle between the ribs and the shallows. The "nose" (*nāsikā*), the "prominences of the cheeks" (*gaṇḍakūṭa*), and the "brows" (*lalāṭa*) must be taken together, and counted as a single bone. According to those who read the three items separately, the nose, the prominences of the cheeks, and the brows constitute three distinct bones; but in this way the total [360] does not work out.'

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² The reference is to the 28th chapter of the Introductory Section (*Sūtra Sthāna*) of Charaka’s Compendium. It is there explained that the food taken by man contains a good part (*prasāda*) and a waste part (*kiṭṭa*). The former is assimilated by the system and turned into chyle (*rasa*), which, in its turn, serves to build up the various parts of the body (blood, muscles, bones, &c.). The latter is secreted by the body as its waste products (*mala*), the nails, in particular, being secreted by the bones.

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¹ The original of this clause is very corrupt: it has been conjecturally restored; its general purport seems clear enough.—Koṣṭha signifies the whole of the anterior part of the trunk, as opposed to pṛṣṭha, or the whole of the ‘back’, or posterior part. The articulations referred to are the scapulo-clavicular (*aṃsa*) and the sterno-clavicular (*jatru*, see § 62).

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3. The main interest of this commentary lies not so much in the explanations which it gives of the several items of the list of bones, as in the evidence it affords of the state of the text of Charaka in the eleventh century. The value of the explanation is much impaired by its apparently fragmentary character. Out of the thirty items in the list of Charaka (§ 4), it comments only on twelve (viz. Nos. 1-6, 12, 17, 19, 21, 25 *a, b, c*, 28). For no less than eighteen items (Nos. 7-11, 13-16, 18, 20, 22-4, 26, 27, 29, 30) we have no comment; and as there are among them some not quite transparent terms (e. g. Nos. 9, 13, 18, 27), it is difficult to avoid the suspicion that the text of the commentary has not been preserved intact.

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4. Regarding the evidence on the condition of the text of Charaka’s statement, the fortunate preservation of Chakrapāṇidatta’s gloss on No. 19, *tālūṣake*, shows the misplacement of that item as already extant in his time. The extreme antiquity, indeed, of this particular misplacement, as has already been pointed out in § 5, is guaranteed by its occurrence in the Non-medical Version, as well as in the Medical Version of Bheḍa (§ 12). In default of any gloss on No. 18, *jatru*, and No. 23, *grīvā*, it must remain uncertain, whether they were misplaced in Charaka’s text as Chakrapāṇidatta saw it, or whether he read them in their right position as shown in the Non-medical Version (§ 16). Again the commentary’s silence on No. 9, *maṇika*, No. 13, *jānu-kapālika*, and No. 16, *aṃsa*, leaves it also uncertain how far Chakrapāṇidatta’s text may have supported the emendations suggested in § 6.

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5. Of great importance is the remark of Chakrapāṇidatta on No. 28, the complex bone of nose, cheeks, and brows. For, first, it shows that he must have read Charaka’s text as given in Jīvānanda’s recension, and that, accordingly, Gaṅgādhar’s recension is not genuine. For the latter breaks up the complex into three parts, and makes each part to consist of two bones. Its procedure, therefore, results in producing a total of six bones, where the genuine recension has only a single bone, and where even the rival text, which Chakrapāṇidatta mentions, has no more than three bones. Secondly it renders it very probable, that when speaking of this rival text, Chakrapāṇidatta was referring to the Medical Version as traditionally presented in the Compendium of Bheḍa. For that Version (§§ 12, 13) makes No. 28 to consist of three bones, and consequently works out a wrong total (362).

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§ 12. The Medical Version according to Bheḍa

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1. As stated in § 1, Ātreya’s theory of the skeleton is found also in Bheḍa’s Compendium (*Bheḍa Saṃhitā*). Of this compendium, at present, no more than a single manuscript is known to exist, dated about 1650 A. D., and preserved in the Palace Library in Tanjore (Burnell’s Catalogue, No. 10773).¹ The arrangement of the Compendium of Bheḍa agrees with that of the Compendium of Charaka. Accordingly his statement on the bones of the human body is also found in the seventh chapter of the Anatomical Section (*Śārīra Sthāna*). It runs as follows (Original Text in § 76):

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¹ Of this MS. I possess an excellent copy in Telugu, which I owe to the munificence of the Government of Madras, by whose orders it has been prepared for me (November, 1905). Dr. P. Cordier also possesses two copies, one in Telugu, the other in Devanagari, the latter being a transcript from his Telugu copy (information by letter of September 10, 1904; see also *Récentes Découvertes*, pp. 4, 5). Professor Aufrecht’s *Catalogus Catalogorum*, vol. i, p. 416, notices another MS., ‘Radh. 32,’ in a native library in Lahore; but the existence of it at present lacks verification.

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2. ‘There are three hundred and sixty bones. These are the following:

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1. 32 teeth (*danta*).
2. 32 sockets (*ulūkhala*) of the teeth.
3. 20 nails (*nakha*).
4. 60 phalanges (*aṅguli*).
5. 20 long bones (*śalākā*) of the hands and feet.
6. 4 bases (*adhiṣṭhāna*) of the long bones.
7. 2 heels (*pārṣṇi*).
8. 4 ankle-bones (*gulpha*) of the two feet.
9. 2 wrist-bones (*maṇika*) of the two hands.
10. 4 bones of the two forearms (*aratni*).
11. 4 bones of the two legs (*jaṅgha*).
12. 2 knee-caps (*jānu*).
13. 2 elbow-pans (*jānu-kapālikā*).
14. 2 hollow bones (*nalaka*) of the two thighs (*ūru*).
15. [2 hollow bones (*nalaka*) of the two arms (*bāhu*).] 16 *a*. 2 shoulders (*aṃsa*). 16 *b*. 2 shoulder-blades (*aṃsa-phalaka*).
17. 2 collar-bones (*akṣaka*).
18. 1 windpipe (*jatru*).
19. 2 palatal cavities (*tāl-ūṣaka*).
20. 2 hip-blades (*śroṇi-phalaka*).
21. 1 pubic bone (*bhag-āsthi*).
22. 45 back-bones (*pṛṣṭha-gat-āsthi*).
23. 15 neck-bones (*grīvā*).
24. 14 breast-bones (*uras*).

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25 *a*. 24 ribs (*pārśvaka*). 25 *b*. 24 sockets (*sthālaka*) in the two sides. 25 *c*. 24 tubercles (*arbuda*) fitting into the sockets.
26. 1 (lower) jaw-bone (*hanv-asthi*), or chin.
27. 2 basal tie-bones of the jaw (*hanu-mūla-bandhana*). 28 *a*. 1 nasal bone (*nās-asthi*). 28 *b*. 1 bone in the prominences of the jaw (*hanu-kūṭa*) 28 *c*. 1 bone in the brows (*lalāṭa*).
29. [2 temples (*śaṅkha*).]
30. 4 cranial pan-shaped bones (*śīrṣa-kapāla*).

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