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Speculations in the Medical Schools [CH. small, so thou the big dhamani1.” In the third verse both the hirās and dhamanis are mentioned. “These in the middle were formerly letting out blood) among a hundred dhamanis and thousands of hirās (and after that) all the other (nādis) were playing with (others which have ceased from letting out blood).” Hymn VII. 35 is for stopping the issue of a woman who is an enemy. The third verse says, “I close with a stone the apertures of a hundred hirās and a thousand dhamanis." Sāyaṇa, in explaining this verse, says that the hirās are fine nādīs inside the ovary (garbhadhāranārtham antar-avasthitäh sūksmā vā nādyah) and the dhamanis the thicker nāļis round the ovary for keeping it steady (garbhāsayasya avastambhikā bāhyā sthūlā yā nādyaḥ). The only point of difference between this verse and those of 1. 17 is that here širās are said to be a hundred and dhamanis a thousand, whereas in the latter, the dhamanis were said to be a hundred and the sirās a thousand. But, if Sāyaṇa's interpretation is accepted, the dhamanis still appear as the bigger channels and the sirās as the finer ones. Nādi seems to have been the general name of channels. But nowhere in the Atharva-Veda is there any passage which suggests that the distinction between veins and arteries in the modern sense of the terms was known at the time. In A.V.1.3.6 we hear of two nādis called gavinyau for carrying the urine from the kidneys to the bladder3. The gods of the eight quarters and other gods are said to have produced the foetus and, together with the god of delivery (Sūṣā), facilitated birth by loosening the bonds of the womb4.
1 The previous verse referred to sirās as letting out blood, whereas this verse refers to dhamanis as performing the same function. Sāyaṇa also freely paraphrases dhamani as sirā (mahi mahatī sthūlatară dhamanih sirā tişthad it tişthaty eva, anena prayogena nivștta-rudhira-stāvā avatişthatām).
2 Here both the dhamani and the hiră are enumerated. Sāyaṇa here says that dhamanis are the important nādis in the heart (hrdaya-gatānām pradhānanādinām), and hirās or sirās are branch nādis (sirāņām sākhā-nāļinām). The number of dhamanis, as here given, is a hundred and thus almost agrees with the number of nādis in the heart given in the Katha Upanişad, vi. 16 (satam caikā ca hrdayasya nādyah).
The Praśna Upanişad, III. 6 also speaks of a hundred nādis, of which there are thousands of branches.
3 antrebhyo vinirgatasya mūtrasya mūtrāśaya-prāpti-sādhane pārsva-duayasthe nadyau gavinyau ity ucyete. Sāyaṇa's Bhāşya. In I. 11. 5 two nādis called gavīnikā are referred to and are described by Sāyaṇa as being the two nādis on the two sides of the vagina controlling delivery (gauinike yoneh pārsva-vartinyau nirgamana-pratibandhike nädyau-Sāyaṇa). In one passage (A.V. II. 12. 7) eight dhamanis called manya are mentioned, and Sāyaṇa says that they are near the neck. A nāļi called sikatāvati, on which strangury depends, is mentioned in A.V. 1. 17. 4.
. Another goddess of delivery, Sūşāņi, is also invoked.
