Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s2.t4.10

c6.s2.t4.10

3. It is evident, therefore, that Ḍallaṇa’s explanation of the aggregate ten involves a doctrine which was not held by Suśruta. It is, as will be shown in § 39, in reality the doctrine of Vāgbhaṭa I. An aggregate of ten, in fact, directly conflicts with the explicit doctrine of Suśruta. According to the latter, the sole (*tala*) consists of five long bones (*śalākā*, § 28, cl. 3) ; and there are one cluster (*kūrca*) and one ankle-bone (*gulpha*). The true aggregate, therefore, can be no more than seven; and it follows that Suśruta’s list of the bones, in its genuine form, must have contained that aggregate, but not ten.