Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s1.t7.5

c7.s1.t7.5

3. The term *kapola*, for the elbow-pan, which is found in the Non-medical Version (§ 16), is undoubtedly, as has been explained in § 19, cl. 4, an ancient misreading for *kapāla*, pan, of which *kapālikā* is a diminutive. By way of corroboration it may be mentioned that the Smaller Petersburg Dictionary quotes the form *kapolaka* as a misreading for *kapālaka*, pan. The antiquity of the misreading may be seen from the fact that ancient Sanskrit dictionaries mention *kapoli*, with the meaning knee-cap. The true form, of course, is *kapālī*, a feminine diminutive of *kapāla*, meaning a small pan, or any small pan-like bone, such as the knee-cap or elbow-pan. Similarly, *kapāla* itself is used to denote the larger pan-shaped bones of the cranium (§ 63).