10 A Short History of Ayurvedic Veterinary Literature
Hindu art shows no knowledge of anatomy whatever, though this is not sur
prising in a country where specialization of study is based on religious
injunction.
Throughout the earliest Hindu writings descriptions of sacrificial dis
sections of animals are frequent. Specially trained men performed the opera
tions and specific rules were set out for their guidance in the quartering.
' Cut up this skin with the grey knife, Dissector '
Dividing joint from joint and mangle nothing.
Do him no injury, limb by limb arrange him.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Let him not break the victim's bones. (Atharvaveda).
' Those who (made) the division otherwise (were regarded) as scoundrels
and miscreants ', though the officiating priest was empowered to remove all evil
consequences ' from those who suffocate the animal and those who butcher it,
in all that they might transgress the rule by cutting one piece too soon, the
other too late, or by cutting a too large or a too small piece ' (Aitareya
Brahmana).
Descriptions of these performances are to be found in the Atharvaveda,
the two Yajurvedas, the Aitareya Brahmana, the Taittiriya Brahmana, the
Satapatha Brahmana, the Vājasaneyi Samhitā and in the Maitrāyani Samhitā.
These follow somewhat similar lines. Each part of the animal's body was
given its own distinctive name and separately dedicated to some particular
god. Most of the parts recognized are those visible to the casual observer,
though there are also included the bronchial tubes, the aorta, the pericardium,
the tendons, veins, heart vessels, spleen, lungs, cervical vertebrate, the liver,
the intestines, the kidneys, clavicles and urinary bladder. There are also less
easily identified parts enumerated, such as the ' cardiac bones ', the ' bent
part of the legs ', the ' three fleshy processes of the neck and the three gristles. '
There seems less unanimity when numbers are concerned. For instance, the
White Yajurveda allows the horse 13 ribs, the Black in one place twelve, and in
another 34, while the Aitareya Brahmana gives the number as 26. Six ver
tebrae and three rib cartilages are also mentioned. It must, however, be noted
that in many early Indian treatises on anatomy, cartilages are not distinguished
from bones, but are regarded as soft varieties of the latter.
The following quotation from the Aitareya Brahmana will give some idea
of the processes of dissection and dedication composing the ceremony of making
the sacrifices :—' Take off the skin entire. Before opening the naval tear out
the omentum. . . . . . . The two jawbones with the tongue are to be given to the
Prastotar ; the breast in the form of an eagle to the Udgātar : the throat with
the palate to the Prathiartar ; . . . . the right thigh to the Maitravaruna. . . . the
backbone and the urinary bladder to the Grihapati.... the head is to be given
to the Subrahmnya . . . . ', while the Yajurvedic dedication more simply allocat
ed ' to the Asvins the two shoulders, to Indra and Varuna the two buttocks,
to Savitir the tail, to the Gandhavas the penis, to Puśan the rectum, to the
Vasus the first vertebra, to the Rudras the second vertebra. . . . to Agni the
first rib, to Sarasvati the second rib . . . . '. .
Thus we must infer, as Wilson points out, that ' the existing sentiment
of the Hindus (against dissection) are of modern date, growing out of an altered