Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s1.t3.12

c7.s1.t3.12

By referring to Fig. 7, it will be seen at once that the bone here described as the head of the cluster is the astragalus (No. 2). It forms the lower part of the ankle-joint, and lies below the distal ends of the tibia and fibula with both of which it articulates. In the list of Suśruta (§ 27) it is not specially enumerated, because, of course, it is included in the cluster (*kūrca*) of which it merely forms the head-bone. But in his chapter on the ‘vital spots’ it had to be mentioned separately by the side of the cluster, on account of its being the location of a particularly dangerous spot, in addition to another dangerous spot located in the remainder of the cluster (Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6). The astragalus (No. 2) and the os calcis (No. 1) are the two largest bones of the tarsal cluster, and Suśruta distinguishes them by the names ‘head of the cluster’ (*kūrca-śiras*) and ‘heel’ (*pārṣṇi*) respectively. That fact definitely proves that he was aware of the real nature of the tarsus as being composed of a cluster (*kūrca*) of bones. Ātreya-Charaka, on the other hand, knew nothing of a head of the cluster, and his heel (*pārṣṇi*), as we shall see in the next paragraph, is merely the projecting tuberosity of the os calcis. With him both the astragalus and the os calcis are included in his *adhiṣṭhāna*, or base, and there is nothing to prove definitely that he knew anything of the real composite nature of the organ which he called *adhiṣṭhāna*.