According to Sushruta, human life is either long, medium, or short. A long life may last for a hundred and twenty years, a medium life for
seventy, and a short one for twenty-five years. One whose hands, feet, sides, back, nipples, teeth, shoulders, mouth, and forehead are large ; whose arms, fingers, breath, and eyesight are long, brows and chest are broad ; legs, genital organ, and neck short, voice and navel are deep ; whose vigour is great, whose head protrudes backward, whose joints, veins, and arteries are buried in flesh, whose limbs are strongly built ; who is cool and collected, free from disease, and has hair growing on the ears ; whose body, intellect, and experience grow gradually, — such a man is expected to enjoy long life.
One expected to reach the medium age is said to have two or three wrinkles below his eyes ; his legs and ears are fleshy and his nose is turned up.
Short fingers, a long sexual organ, a narrow back, conspicuous gums, and bewildered look, betoken a short life.
Sushruta also devotes a chapter to the description of what should go to make a symmetrical body.
