2 956 900 vessels/k.sutila/ku.duba

[Christophe Vielle]

Dear colleagues,
could someone help me in giving the Sanskrit text of Vaagbha.ta (the
Elder)'s A.s.taa;ngasa.mgraha, /saariirasthaana 5.59 (reference from
Meulenbeld's HIML), which gives the total amount of the vessels in the body
as being 2 956 900.
The number is interesting because in the Yaajñavalkyasm.rti (III, 101) the
number is slightly different, viz. 2 900 956 (ekonatri.mza.l lak.saa.ni
tathaa nava zataani ca / .sa.tpañcaazac ca), clearly confirmed by the
commentator Vijñaanezvara.
In Caraka it is only 29 956.
But in a physiological passage (which follows an embryological one) in the
Jaiminiiyasa.mhitaa of the Brahmaa.n.dapuraa.na (that my colleague Sandra
Smets is studying with me), which is usually very close to the text of the
sm.rti or to the content of Vijñaanezvara's commentary, however in this
case the total amount of the vessels is the same than in Vaagbha.ta:
navottaraa.ni dehe 'smin niyutaani ca vi.mzati.h /
.sa.tpañcaazat sahasraa.ni zataani nava caadhikam /
siraadhamanyor milita.h zaakhaabheda udiirita.h //JaiSa 47 .58
viz. 29 niyutas (= 2 900 000) and 56 900 = 2 956 900

In addition to that, two little things:
- the JaiSa says that when the embryo is going out of the uterus, he has
"the form of a k.sutila"
ni.hsaare k.sutilaakaaro vaasanocchvaasamaatraka.h /
what is this k.sutila (given by all the manuscripts)??
- the JaiSa in its measurement of each substance of the body (a passage
quite original in comparison with other sources) uses the term ku.duba :
instead of the more classical ku.dava? (a dialectal/dravidian variant?)

Thank you very much for your help

Dr. Christophe Vielle
Centre d'Etudes de l'Inde et de l'Asie du Sud
Institut orientaliste
Place Blaise Pascal 1
B - 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
BELGIUM
Tel. +32-(0)10-47 49 54 (office)/ -(0)2-640 62 66 (home)
E-mail: vielle at ori.ucl.ac.be