Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s2.t2.2

c7.s2.t2.2

2. All three lists of Ātreya-Charaka (Bheḍa), Suśruta, and Vāgbhaṭa I, correctly state the number of shoulder-blades to be two; but there is a difficulty attending them which requires a word of explanation. The shoulder-girdle (Fig. 12) comprises two bones, and no more. These are the scapula or shoulder-blade, and the clavicle or collar-bone. Examining the traditional lists of Ātreya-Charaka, Suśruta, and Vāgbhaṭa I, we find a curious state of things. Charaka apparently enumerates three bones (§ 4)—*aṃsa*, shoulder, *aṃsa-phalaka*, shoulder-blade, and *akṣaka*, collar-bone. Vāgbhaṭa I has the same threefold enumeration (§ 37). On the other hand, Suśruta appears to enumerate only a single bone, namely *akṣaka*, or the collar-bone (§ 27). As regards Charaka, it has been shown in § 6 that the separate mention of *aṃsa*, shoulder, is an early error of the manuscript text caused by an inadvertent repetition, by some scribe, of the word *aṃsa* inherent in *aṃsa-phalaka*. In reality, therefore, the genuine list of Charaka (§ 7) knows only two bones as comprised in the shoulder, viz. *akṣaka*, clavicle, and *aṃsa-phalaka*, scapula. It is different with the list of Vāgbhaṭa I. That list deliberately enumerates the shoulder-peak as a third bone by the side of the shoulder-blade and the collar-bone; for otherwise (see § 37) its total of 120 bones does not work out correctly. This, however, is only one of the numerous incongruities and blunders of the list of Vāgbhaṭa I; and how he came to be betrayed into committing it has been explained in § 39, cl. 4.