Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s1.t8.3

c6.s1.t8.3

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.'