The Compendium of Caraka 4.2

English (machine translation) 4.2

Language: English

4.2.1

Now we shall explain the anatomical [chapter] on persons of different clans.

4.2.3

When a man of a different clan unites in secret at the end of the menstrual period, / what is that four-footed thing, originating from the six, which becomes an embryo in women?

The wise declare that to be his semen, which is emitted for the origination of the embryo; / it has four parts consisting of the qualities of air, fire, earth, and water, and its origin is from the six tastes.

4.2.5

How and by what means is an embryo born with a complete body, in due time, and with ease? / Why does a woman, even having previously had offspring, conceive after a long time, or why is an embryo destroyed?

4.2.6

One who has excellence of semen, blood, self, womb, and season, / and whose care is accompanied by wholesome foods—her embryo is born in due time, healthy, easily, and with a fully complete body.

4.2.7

From defects of the vagina, from affliction of the mind, from defects of semen, blood, diet, and regimen, / from unseasonable intercourse, and from depletion of strength, even a woman who has had offspring conceives after a long time.

4.2.8

When a woman's menstrual blood is obstructed by wind, the unwise sometimes judge it to be an embryo; / for that blood, discharging nothing and growing, creates the appearance of an embryo in her.

4.2.9

Seeing that blood flow forth due to fire, sun, fatigue, grief, disease, or hot food and drink, / and not seeing anything that can be called an embryo, some men say it was taken by evil spirits.

4.2.10

The body is not desired as food for night-roaming demons who feed on ojas; / if they were to take the embryo, having found an opportunity, why would they not take the mother's ojas?

4.2.11

Why does she give birth to a daughter, or a son, or both together, or separately / two sons, or two daughters, or many sons, or an embryo after a very long time, and why does one among twins grow [more]?

4.2.12

By excess of blood she gives birth to a daughter, by excess of semen to a son; / when that seed is divided in two, she gives birth to a daughter and a son, through the excess of one or the other of their respective seeds.

4.2.13

She whose seed, with an excess of semen, undergoes division gives birth to two sons together; / or if it divides with an excess of blood, she gives birth to two daughters together.

4.2.14

Into as many parts as the excessively increased wind, entering, divides the semen and menstrual blood, / that many offspring, determined by karma, she brings forth beyond her own control according to the division.

4.2.15

When the embryo does not receive nourishment, or undergoes drying or leaking, / a woman gives birth to that embryo after a very long time, when it becomes nourished even after a number of years.

4.2.16

Due to being determined by karma and due to the unequal division of parts of the semen and blood, one grows more in the belly, / the other less; thus even among twins a notable difference arises.

4.2.17

Why is an individual born with both seeds, or with wind-dominated sense, or semen-transporting, or as a male eunuch, or a female eunuch, / or deformed, or taking pleasure through jealousy, or as a wind-type eunuch?

4.2.18

From seed with equal portions and afflicted, an individual having both male and female characteristics and both seeds is born; / wind, by destroying the seminal receptacle of the embryo, produces the condition of wind-dominated sense.

4.2.19

And wind, by obstructing the entrance of the seminal receptacle, produces the semen-transporting condition; / seeds that are sluggish and small, weak, and devoid of arousal are the cause of the two types of impotent persons.

4.2.20

From obstruction of the mother’s intercourse and from weakness of the father's seed, one becomes deformed; / when both are overcome by jealousy and have sluggish arousal, they state this as the cause of taking pleasure through jealousy.

4.2.21

He whose testicles are destroyed by a defect of wind and fire is a wind-type eunuch: / thus these eight varieties of abnormality in those determined by karma should be recognized.

4.2.22

What is the immediate sign of an embryo entered into the womb, whether male, female, or hermaphrodite, abiding in the belly? / And what is considered the cause by which an offspring resembles [the parents]?

4.2.23

Excessive spitting, heaviness, weakness of the limbs, drowsiness, horripilation, pain in the heart,
satisfaction, and retention of the seed in the vagina are the immediate signs of an embryo that has entered.

4.2.24

A woman whose movements are on the left side, who desires a man, who dreams of women, and whose drinks, food, habits, and movements are female,
who carries the embryo on the left side, whose belly is not round, and who has milk first in the left [breast], gives birth only to a female.

4.2.25

A son [is born] by the opposite signs, and the third nature by mixed signs;
at the conception of the embryo, whatever living being the woman's mind attends to, she gives birth to one resembling that.

4.2.26

The fourfold elements of the embryo originating from mother and father,
those born from nutrition, and those made by the self—all of them are present in the body of every [being].

4.2.27

Whichever among them become particularly powerful, originating from the karma of the mother and father,
one should determine those as the cause of resemblance; one should also determine the mind according to its past disposition.

4.2.28

Why does a woman give birth to a deformed offspring, having deficient or excess limbs, or with defective sense organs?
And how does the self pass from one body to another body, and by what is it always accompanied?

4.2.29

Through defects of the seed, the karma of the self, the womb, and the season, as well as through defects of the mother's diet and regimen,
the vitiated doshas produce diverse deformities of shape, complexion, and sense organs.

4.2.30

Just as in the rains the force of wood, stones, and dense water produces deformity in a tree standing in a river's current,
even so do the doshas [produce deformity] in an embryo that is developing in the womb.

4.2.31

Accompanied by the four extremely subtle elements, swift as thought, it goes from body to body;
and because its nature is karma, its form is not visible without divine vision.

4.2.32

It is all-pervading and the supporter of all bodies; it is the maker of everything and has all forms;
it is the element of consciousness, beyond the senses, eternally conjoined, and accompanied by residual karma.

4.2.33

One should know that there are sixteen elements in the body, originating from chyle, the self, the mother, and the father;
four among them reside in the self, and the self is likewise situated in those four.

4.2.34

The elements originating from the mother and father are stated to be the menstrual blood and semen in the embryo;
those elements by which semen and blood are nourished are the elements originating from chyle.

4.2.35

The four elements born of karma, however, which are merged in the self, enter the embryo;
having the nature of a seed, it goes again and again to another body within itself.

4.2.36

For it is well known that form arises from form, and mind from mind, in beings whose nature is karma;
but as for the differences of shape and intellect that arise, rajas, tamas, and karma are the cause therein.

4.2.37

The self is never separated from those imperceptible, extremely subtle forms,
nor from karma, nor from the mind and intellect, nor from the defects that are modifications of egoism.

4.2.38

For the mind is bound by rajas and tamas; without knowledge, all defects reside therein;
and the mind possessed of defects, together with powerful karma, is declared to be the cause of rebirth and movement.

4.2.39

Whence do diseases arise? What is their alleviation? What is the cause of joy and sorrow?
How may the disorders arising from the body and the mind, once pacified, not recur?

4.2.40

Fault of judgment, improper objects of the senses, and time of transformation is the third cause;
and the three kinds of pacification of all diseases are knowledge, objects, and time endowed with balanced contact.

4.2.41

Righteous actions are said to be the cause of joy; contrary to that, they lead under the power of sorrow;
and diseases arising from the body and the mind do not occur again through the non-recurrence of the two.

4.2.42

The continuous succession of physical form and mind has no stated beginning, for no such beginning exists;
the cessation of both is effected by supreme resolve, memory, and by supreme intellect.

4.2.43

Even when the twofold locus as previously stated exists, through constant counter-action against diseases,
illnesses do not afflict one who has conquered his senses, provided that destiny conjoined with that time does not intervene.

4.2.44

Destiny is called that karma which was done previously; human effort, on the other hand, is that which is seen here;
that which is improper is observed as the cause of initiation, while that which is balanced is indeed the cause of cessation.

4.2.45

Purging in spring the accumulation of doshas from the winter, in the rainy season that from the summer,
and at the departure of clouds that from the autumn, swiftly and properly, one never incurs seasonal diseases.

4.2.46

A person who resorts to wholesome food and regimen, who acts with circumspection, who is unattached to sensory pleasures,
who is generous, impartial, devoted to truth, forgiving, and who serves authoritative persons, becomes free from disease.

4.2.47

One whose thought, speech, and action have a pleasant consequence, whose mind is disciplined, whose intellect is clear,
and who possesses knowledge, austerity, and devotion to yoga—diseases do not afflict him.

4.2.48

Here is a verse:

4.2.48_1

Here, in the [chapter on] persons of a different clan, the venerable great seer has properly determined the thirty-six questions
of Agniveśa, which possess great significance, for the increase of knowledge.

4.2.48_2

Thus, in the anatomical section of the treatise composed by Agniveśa and redacted by Caraka, the second chapter entitled "Anatomy Concerning Persons of a Different Clan" is complete. //2

Linked texts (1)

Carakasaṃhitā — Agniveśa (Āyurveda) & Caraka, Sanskrit