Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s2.t4.21

c7.s2.t4.21

2. Suśruta, in his statement on the skeleton (§ 27), explicitly states that the pelvic cavity is constituted of five bones, namely, the anal bone (guda), the pubic bone (bhaga), the two hip-bones (nitamba or śroṇi-phalaka), and the triangular bone (trika, or sacrum). This agrees with the actual constitution of the pelvic cavity. For the pelvis includes the coccyx or caudal bone (guda), the triangular sacrum (*trika*), and the two ossa innominata. These last-mentioned bones consist, each of three parts, the ilium, ischium, and os pubis. The Indian anatomists prefer to divide the ossa innominata into two parts, namely a posterior and an anterior portion. The former, consisting of the ilium and ischium, exists in duplicate, one on the right, the other on the left side of the skeleton, and is named *śroṇi-phalaka* (or *nitamba*), blade of the pelvis, hip-blade. The latter is formed by the prominent pubic arch, and is called *bhag-āsthi*, bone of