5. Application of Svastika

Appliances of the svastika class should be made to measure eighteen fingers in length; and their mouths should be made to resemble those of lions, tigers, wolves, hyenas, bears, cats, jackals, deer, crows, cormorants, kururas a species of bird; hasas (a species of sparrow, vultures, falcons, owls, kites, herons, bhrngarajas (a species of bird, anjalikarnas, avabhanjanas, xandimukhas. and such like beasts and birds. The two blades or halves of a svastika should be welded together by means of a bolt resembling a masura pulse lentil in size, and the handles should be turned inward in the shape of a mace, or an ankusa. Appliances of this type should be 230

used in extracting any thorn or foreign matter which may have entered into the bones. The word svastika is a technical term signifying one of the twenty four signs of the Jinas; and it can be represented by two lines. crossing each other, the arms of the cross being bent at their extremities towards the same direction. So these instruments may be described as cruciform. They have, as a rule a length of eighteen. anguli. Their ends should be shaped like the faces of the following ferocious beasts (1 to 8), deer (9) and birds (10 to 24), and the instruments are to be called after their names. They are divided into two classes; the instruments of class I resemble the mouths of lion (simha) and tiger (vyaghra), while class II comprises the instruments which have the likeness of the faces of birds of prey. The fulcrums of these instruments which are at the middle, are of the size of a masura (Ervum lens). The handles are either rounded off, or bent at an angle at their ends, like an elephant driver's goad the object being to afford a good grasp of the instrument by the surgeon's hands. The svastika instruments are used for the extraction of foreign bodies impacted in the bones. 231