Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s3.t2.11

c7.s3.t2.11

5. We will now turn to the commentators. Suśruta, speaking about hiccough in the passage above quoted, mentions *jatru-mūla*, the base of the neck. His statement is quoted by Mādhava in the seventh verse of the twelfth chapter of his *Nidāna* (Jīv. ed., p. 105). Vijaya Rakshita, commenting on this statement, quotes the explanations of Jaijjaṭa and Gayadāsa, two of the oldest commentators on the Compendium of Suśruta. Jaijjaṭa explains *jatru-mūla* to be *kaṇṭh-orasoḥ sandhiḥ*, that is, the junction of the throat with the breast-bone.¹ This shows that he understood *jatru* to be synonymous with *kaṇṭha*, throat, and to denote the anterior part of the neck (*grīvā-purobhāga*). Gayadāsa explains *jatru-mūla* by *grīvā-mūla*, base of the cervical column, which shows that by him *jatru* was understood to be a synonym of *grīvā*, neck. Again Chakrapāṇidatta (c. 1070 A.D.), in his *Bhānumatī* commentary on Suśruta, explains the phrase *jatruṇa ūrdhvam* in Suśruta I. 7, (Jīv.ed., p. 71, top line), by *hanu-sandhau*, ‘at the point of junction of the jaw (apparently the temporo-mandibular articulation).’ This shows that he also took *jatru* to denote the throat (*kaṇṭha*). Again Daḷḷana, in his commentary on Suśruta, IV. 1, verse 139 (Jīv. ed., p. 644), explains *jatru* by *vakṣo-’ṃsayoḥ sandhi*, the point of junction of the breast-bone and clavicle, which points to the base of the neck. In fact, in his comments on Suśruta, I. 23, clause 2 (Jīv. ed., p. 91, top line), as well as on Suśruta, I. 21, clause 30 (Jīv. ed., p. 86, l. 20), he explicitly identifies *jatru* with *grīvā-mūla*, the base of the neck. Again Aruṇadatta in his comments on Vāgbhaṭa II’s *Aṣṭāṅga* Hṛdaya, I. 20, verse 1 (in 1st ed., vol. I, p. 368), repeats the explanation of Dallana that jatru signifies vakṣo-'ṃsayoḥ sandhi, the articulation of breast-bone and clavicle. This definition is noteworthy as it modifies the meaning of jatru, which is no longer the throat or neck, but the base of the neck, and, for the first time, brings it into connexion with the clavicles. (For the original text of the passages, see § 98.)