Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c9.49.1

c9.49.1

§ 28. Surgical Instruments :—Descriptions of surgical instruments really agreeing in essentials are made only in Su ( 1.7 f. ), AS ( 1.34 ), AHr ( 1.25 f. )¹. Of the two kinds of instruments, namely the blunt ( yantra ) and the sharp ones ( sastra ), the former are divided into six kinds with 101 instruments in all. According to Su, the hand is the most important of all yantras, for without it no operation can be made². The main function of the yantra is extraction of foreign matter ( salya ) from the body, yet AS and AHr assert that yantras also serve to protect healthy limbs in difficult operations with knife, fire, cauteries, e. g. in diseases like hemorrhoids and fistula; they also assert that Basti, cupping horns, hollow calabash and other implements should be counted as yantras. 1. Svastikayantra " cross-shaped instrument " ( pair of tongs ) should, as a rule, be made of iron, 18 fingers long, the ends of the heads like beasts of prey and birds of prey, the arms of the pair held together by a pin the head of which is as big as a lentil and therefore bent where it is to be held. According to Susruta there are 24 Svastikayantras, 9 appearing at the end like the heads of lion, tiger, wolf and other beasts of prey and 15 appearing like the heads of crow, heron, vulture, falcon and other birds of prey. AS and AHr give no definite number.