Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s1.t2: § 48. The Long Bones

Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s1.t2

Language: English

§ 48. The Long Bones

c7.s1.t2.1

1. *Pāṇi-pāda-śalākā*, or the long bones of the hands and feet. These are the metacarpal and metatarsal bones. Charaka counts twenty of them, five in either hand and foot (§ 4), which agrees with the actual number. Suśruta, in his list (§ 27), aggregates them under the term *tala*, which signifies the palmar and plantar portion of the hand and foot respectively. The Atharva Veda (§ 43) denotes that portion by the term *uchlakha*.

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2. It may here be useful to note that the combined term *tala-kūrca-gulpha*, sole-cluster-ankle, employed by Suśruta in his list (§ 88) denotes the whole (roughly rectangular) portion of the foot and hand, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7, exclusive of the phalanges. That is to say, it signifies the metatarsus (tala), tarsus (kūrca), and malleoli (gulpha) of the foot, and similarly the metacarpus (tala), carpus (kūrca), and styloid processes (maṇibandha) of the hand.

Linked texts (1)

Atharvavedasaṃhitā — Atharvan & Aṅgiras, Sanskrit