Explore the knowledge

Urvi marma lies in the middle of the thigh; piercing it causes bleeding and so swelling of the thigh (the verse adds wasting).

Ani, three finger-breadths above the knee, gives pain, thigh stiffness and spreading swelling when wounded; urvi, in the middle of the thigh, gives bleeding and swelling of the thigh.

The wise physician is told to leave aside patients afflicted by pain from injury to the vital points, together with those showing fatal signs, and to treat the remaining patients.

The body is said to have 107 vital points (marma).

Utkshepaka and sthapani kill when the lodged dart is drawn out; forty-eight marmas, from janu and urvi to krikatika and katikataruna, cause disability; eight (four kurchashira, two…

Rohitaksha marma lies above urvi and below the groin joint, at the root of the thigh; a wound there causes bleeding, paralysis and swelling of the leg, and sometimes death with severe pain.

Totals the 107 marmas (19, 29, 3, 48 and 8). Those wounded at a marma mostly die of the pain within a fortnight; survivors helped by a good physician live maimed, deaf, mute, insane or with…