Nyāya Sūtras 334

So too of food.

[The phrase] 'because it is an instrumental cause of origination' is supplied [from the previous aphorism]. Food eaten and drunk produces a fluid nutrient through digestion, and this accumulates in the mother's body and in the semen and ovum situated in the womb, undergoing a digestion similar to that of the semen and ovum; and there is accumulation in the semen and ovum by degrees until the mass is capable of formation. When accumulated, it is formed into the embryo at its various stages—the fluid mass, vesicle, flesh-lump, sinew, head, hands, and the like—according to the division of the loci of the sense organs; and within this formation, the fluid nutrient brought down through the umbilical cord accumulates until it is capable of being born. And such [a process] does not occur for food and drink situated in a pot or the like. For this reason, it is known that the body has karma as its instrumental cause.