Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s5.t3.14

c7.s5.t3.14

Because of the conciseness of the statement of the bones of the body, he makes the comment which begins with *kīkasa*, &c. ‘*Kīkasa*, or the bones of the skeleton, number three hundred’; this is said on the authority of the count in surgical text-books; for this is meant by the phrase ‘in accordance with the count in the Surgical Text-book’. But that count itself must be learned from treatises other (than the *Śārīra Padminī*). In order to explain how the number three hundred arises, he goes on to say ‘*viṃśati*, or twenty, &c.’ ‘*Adhiśākham*, or in all the limbs together,’ there are one hundred and twenty bones. As thus: in each digit of the foot there are three, making fifteen (i. e. 30 in both feet); in the sole, ankle, and cluster there are altogether ten (i. e. 20 in both feet; hence together 50). In the legs there are two (i. e. 4 in both legs; hence together 54). In the heel there is one (i. e. 2 in both heels; hence together 56). In the knee there is one (i. e. 2 in both knees; hence together 58). In the thigh there is one (i. e. 2 in both thighs; hence together 60). In either of the lower limbs there are sixty (i. e. altogether 120). ‘In the hips, sides, abdomen, breast, and back, there are one hundred and seventeen bones.’ As thus: In the anus and pubes there are two; in the hips, two; in the sacrum, one; hence in the pelvis there are together five. In the two sides there are seventy-two (i. e. together 77); in the back there are thirty (i. e. together 107); two are contained in the collar-bones (i. e. together 109); in the breast there are eight (i. e. together 117). Further, ‘above in the śirodhi, or head-holders,’ that is, from the neck upwards, there are sixty-three bones. As thus: in the neck there are nine; in the windpipe, four (i. e. together 13); in the jaws, two (i. e. together 15); in the nose, three (i. e. together 18); in the palate, one (i. e. together 19); in either cheek, ear, and temple, one (i. e. 6, or altogether 25); in the cranium, six (i. e. together 31). The teeth number thirty-two (i. e. altogether 63). By adding up all these items we obtain three hundred; as thus, 120 + 117 + 63 = 300.