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XII] Organs in the Atharva-Veda and Ayur-veda 289 larger intestine (vanișthu, explained by Sāyaṇa as sthavirāntra), the abdomen (udara), the colon (plāśi)', the umbilicus (nābhi), the marrow (majjābhyaḥ), the veins (snāvabhyaḥ) and the arteries (dhamanibhyaḥ)?. Thus we see that almost all the important organs reported in the later Atreya-Caraka school or the Susruta school were known to the composers of the Atharvanic hymns).
Bolling raises the point whether the Atharva-Veda people knew the difference between the širā and the dhamani, and says, “The apparent distinction between veins and arteries in 1. 17. 3 is offset by the occurrence of the same words in vii. 35. 2 with the more general sense of internal canals' meaning entrails, vagina, etc.showing how vague were the ideas held with regard to such subjects." But this is not correct; for there is nothing in I. 17.3 which suggests a knowledge of the distinction between veins and arteries in the modern sense of the terms, such as is not found in VII. 35. 2. The sūkta 1. 17 is a charm for stopping the flow of blood from an injury or too much hemorrhage of women. A handful of street-dust was to be thrown on the injured part and the hymn was to be uttered. In 1. 17. u it is said, “Those hirās (veins?) wearing red garment (or the receptacles of blood) of woman which are constantly flowing should remain dispirited, like daughters without a brothers.” Sāyana, in explaining the next verse, 1. 17.2, says that it is a prayer to dhamanis. This verse runs as follows: "Thou (Sāyaṇa says thou sirā') of the lower part, remain (i.e. 'cease from letting out blood,' as Sāyaṇa says), so thou of the upper part remain, so thou of the middle part, so thou
Plāśi is paraphrased by Sāyana as “bahu-cchidrān mala-pātrāt" (the vessel of the excreta with many holes). These holes are probably the orifices of the glands inside the colon (mala-pätra). The Satapatha-brāhmana, XII. 9. 1. 3 enumerates all these organs as being sacred to certain gods and sacrificial instruments--hydayam etāsyaindrah purodāśah, yakrt sāvitrah, klomā värunah, matsne etāsyāśvattham ca pătram audumbaram ca pittam naiyagrodham antrāni sthalyah guda upāśayāni śyena-pătre plīhāsandi nābhih kumbho vanişthuh plūsih śātātrnnā tad yat să bahudhā vitrnņā bhavati tasmāt plāśir buhudhi vikrttah. Vasti, or bladder, is regarded as the place where the urine collects (A.V.1.3.6).
? Sayama says that snāra means here the smaller sirās and dhamanī the thicker ones (the arteries)-sūksmāḥ sirāh snäva-sabdena uryante dhamani-sabdena sthūlāh (A.V. 11. 33).
3 A.V. X. 9 shows that probably dissection of animals was also practised. Most of the organs of a cow are mentioned. Along with the organs of human beings mentioned above two other organs are mentioned, viz. the pericardium (puritat) and the bronchial tubes (saha-kanthikā). A.V. X. 9. 15.
* Encyclopaedia of Rcligion and Ethics, “Diseases and medicine: Vedic."
5 Sāyana paraphrases hiră as sirā and describes it as a canal (nüdi) for carrying blood (rajo-vahana-nūdyah), and the epithet "lohita-vāsusah" as either" wearing red garment" or "red," or "the receptacle of blood" (rudhirasya nitūsa-bhūtā).
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