Explore by the body

The face is called half of the body and its chief part, and within the face the eye is valued above the other senses; a person without eyes is likened to a tree surrounded by darkness.

The skin is said to have seven layers (tvak).

The commentary counts seven hundred veins (sirā).

The anal region has three folds (vali), lying one angula apart from the anal opening inwards, so that the three together span three angula; the piles described arise in these folds.

The verse counts, in order, three hundred bones and three hundred joints, followed by nine hundred sinews, seven hundred veins and five hundred muscles.

The large intestines, forming the āmāśaya and pakvāśaya, are said to lie in sixteen rows.

The womb is said to lie between the stomach (āmāśaya), the digestive bowel (pakvāśaya) and the rectum (malāśaya); the child in it is wrapped in the moist membrane (jarāyu) and kept in deep…

The commentary explains āmāśaya as the place where eaten raw food descends, also called medā, and pakvāśaya as the place where food is cooked (digested).

The body is said to have one liver (yakṛt).

The commentary gives nine hundred sinews (snāyu, glossed as नसें) and five hundred muscles (peśī).

The body is said to have thirty-two teeth and no more.

The body is said to have one spleen (plīhā).

Brain matter (mastuluṅga), like fat and semen, is said to measure one añjali.