Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s3.t1.17

c6.s3.t1.17

5. The inconsistencies, or incongruities, mentioned above are not the only ones of the list of Vāgbhaṭa I. There are others, affecting his Nos. 5, 6, and 8. In No. 5, he counts eight clusters (*kūrca*), that is, two in either hand and foot. But in the same fifth chapter of his Anatomical Section (*Śārīra Sthāna*) he says that there are altogether only six clusters, of which, moreover, two are in the neck (*grīvā*) and penis (*meḍhra*), leaving only four for the hands and feet (Original Text in § 96, cl. 5). According to his own statement, therefore, there is only one cluster in either hand and foot. Again in No. 6, Vāgbhaṭa I counts eight bones in the ankles, that is to say, according to the homological principle of his list, four ankle-bones (*gulpha*) in the feet, and four wrist-bones (*maṇibandha*) in the hands. But in the seventh chapter of his Anatomical Section, treating of the ‘vital spots’ (*marman*), he counts only two ankle-bones and two wrist-bones (Original Text in § 96, cl. 6). Again in No. 8, Vāgbhaṭa I counts four heels; that is to say, one in each of the four limbs; and thus commits the incongruity of ascribing a heel to either hand.