Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s4.t7.16

c7.s4.t7.16

[Verse 86.] In each digit (aṅguli) there are three bones; hence in all the digits together there are sixty bones. The heels (pārṣṇi) are the posterior parts of the two feet. They contain two bones. At the place where the leg and heel join there are, externally, in each foot, two ankle-bones (gulpha); and hence the ankle-bones of the two feet number four. *Aratnikā* is a synonym of *aratni*, forearm: though the word 'forearm' (*aratni*) does not really include the arm (*bāhu*), yet here, for the sake of obtaining the number four of the bones, it is employed in that sense [i.e. as including the arms]. The author is speaking really of the whole upper limb; hence the bones of the 'forearms' (*aratni*) number four. Similarly the word 'leg' (*jaṅgha*) here signifies the whole lower limb; and hence the bones of the two legs also number four. These items together number seventy; and these, together with the aforementioned one hundred and eight, amount to one hundred and eighty-two bones. Further: