Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s1.t3.8

c7.s1.t3.8

5. The only difficulty about Suśruta’s *kūrca*, or cluster, arises from the fact that the Traditional Recension of his statement on the skeleton (§ 27) ascribes to him, by implication, the doctrine that there are eight *kūrca*, or clusters, in the four extremities, two in either hand and two in either foot. It has been shown, however, in § 31, that this is a complete error, foisted into the system of Suśruta, in all probability, from the system of Vāgbhaṭa I (§ 37, also pp. 99, 103). The true doctrine of Suśruta, stated by himself in explicit terms (§ 31), knows only four *kūrca*, or clusters, one in either hand, i.e. the carpus, and one in either foot, i.e. the tarsus.