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Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s1.t5: § 51. Forearm and Leg

Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s1.t5

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§ 51. Forearm and Leg

c7.s1.t5.1

Aratni or *prabāhu*, forearm, and *jaṅgha*, leg. The term *prabāhu* occurs only in certain manuscripts of the Vishnu Smriti (see § 84). In all the three statements, of Ātreya (that is, Charaka and Bheḍa, §§ 4, 12), Suśruta (§ 27), and Vāgbhaṭa I, (§ 37) these two organs are correctly described as consisting of two bones each—viz. the radius and ulna in the forearm, and the tibia and fibula in the leg. In the Atharva Veda (verse 3 in § 43) the figure made by the two bones of the leg is appropriately described as ‘a four-sided frame having its ends firmly knit together’; and this description of course is intended also to apply to the bones of the forearm. See Figs. 8 and 9.

c7.s1.t5.2

FIG. 8. FOREARM, Aratni. a. Radius. b. Ulna. c, c. Styloid processes, Maṇika. d. Olecranon process, Kapālikā.

c7.s1.t5.3

FIG. 9. LEG, Jaṅgha. a. Tibia. b. Fibula. c, c. Malleoli, Gulpha.

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