The Compendium of Kāśyapa 3.5

Now we shall explain the Section on the Body dealing with embryonic descent.

Thus spoke the blessed Kaśyapa.

The individual soul, sir, endowed with the qualities of the Lord because of its omnipresence, simultaneously departs from the previous body and enters into the subsequent body; it was never at any time previously separated from the seed, blood, wind, ether, and the rest, nor from the mind and intellect; and, on account of its omnipresence, there is no womb in which it is not produced in order to experience the fruit of its own actions.

"Which bodily organs of the embryo, O blessed one, are produced from ether? Which from wind? Which

from fire? Which from water? Which from earth? And which arise from its maternal origin? Which

from its paternal origin? What comes from the self? And what from wholesome adaptation? And what from chyle? And what from the psyche?

Wherein are all these factors dependent, and what purpose do they await?" When thus questioned,

the blessed Kaśyapa said: "Of the embryo, sir, sound, hearing, lightness, subtlety, distinction, the mouth,

the throat, and the trunk are of the nature of ether. Touch, the organ of touch, dryness,

propulsion, the arrangement of the bodily tissues, prāṇa, apāna, and bodily movement are of the nature of wind.

Form, sight, radiance, pitta, digestion and transformation, heat, and bodily growth

are of the nature of fire. Taste, the organ of taste, coldness, softness, liquidity, unctuousness,

moisture, kapha, fat, blood, muscle, and semen are of the nature of water. Smell,

the organ of smell, heaviness, stability, and solid form are of the nature of earth. Therefore the person

is said to correspond to the universe. Red blood, muscle, the navel, the heart, the kloman,

the liver, the spleen, the kidneys, the urinary bladder, the receptacle for faeces, the stomach, the upper rectum, the small intestine, and the large intestine are born of the mother; the head hair, body hair, facial hair,

nails, teeth, bones, veins, ligaments, arteries, and semen

are born of the father; lifespan, self-knowledge, the mind, the senses, prāṇa and apāna, retention,

propulsion, bodily form, specific differences of voice and complexion, pleasure and pain, desire and aversion,

memory, ego-sense, exertion, transition into other states, mental disposition, and taking birth in various wombs are born of the self; health, vigour, contentment, clarity of the senses, excellence of voice, complexion, and seed, intellect, and abundance of cheerfulness are born of wholesome adaptation; the initial formation of the body, bodily growth, vital breaths, cohesion, maintenance, nourishment, and enthusiasm

are born of chyle. The psyche, characterised by goodness, passion, and delusion, was explained above as threefold; there, the rebirth-producing psyche and the mind are constantly clinging; this is called the contact of auspicious, inauspicious, and mixed dispositions. All these factors are dependent on one's own past actions and await time; for wind, accompanied by time, divides and joins the body."

On this there are verses:
From its blood the heart is born; from the heart, the liver;
from the liver the spleen is born; from the spleen the lungs are said [to arise].

All of these are mutually bound, O Bhārgava;
beneath them is a wide microchannel situated in a coiled form.

Enveloped by the chorion, it is called the uterus;
in it are the stomach and the colon, the seats of food and drink, and the rectum.

From that the urinary bladder arises, and is filled by percolation;
at the location of the arterial openings, two microchannels are also traditionally known to be below.

The receptacles for faeces, urine, parasites, digested food, undigested food, kapha, and pitta
exist distinctly in the trunk of living beings; for a woman, the uterus is the eighth.

Semen, marrow, and bone from the father; muscle and blood from the mother;
some speak of the six-sheathed body [...]