Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s7: II Children

Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s7

Language: English

II Children

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The children were happy adjuncts of the household. The mothers who gave birth to children, fondled and dandled them on the knee, were considered happy The childless mothers (*nindu*) were taken as unlucky, so they yearned for children and propitiated various deities to obtain them We hear of Devai, the wife of Vasudeva, who considered herself unhappy and unrighteous because she could not have a child for a long time.¹² Bhaddā was another woman who prayed to deities, worshipped them and promised to offer wealth to repair their old shrines provided a son or a daughter was born to her.¹³ Mention is made of another woman, Siribhaddā, who used to give birth to still-born children She was told by an astrologer to cook rice-pudding (*pāyasa*) with the blood of a stillborn child and to offer it to a right type of monk (*sutavassī*) so that her children might survive.¹⁴

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⁸ *Vutā* 9, p 34 f

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¹² *Anta* 3, p. 13

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¹³ *Nāyā* 2, p 49, cf. *Atadāna Sataka* I, 3, p. 14.

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¹⁴ *Ava. cū* p. 288,

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The child possessing the entire and complete five sense organs, with the lucky signs, marks and good qualities, well-formed and having full weight and length was considered good.¹⁵

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¹⁵ *Kalpa sū* 1. 8

Dreams

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Dreams played an important part in the birth of a child in the life of ancient Indians.¹⁶ There was a regular science of dreams (*suminasattha*) and books were written on the subject. It is considered as one of the eight divisions of *Mahānimitta*.¹⁷ The *Bhagavatī* devotes a section on dreams where five kinds of dreams are mentioned. It is stated that if at the end of the dream one beholds a row of horses, elephants or oxen or rides on them, one achieves salvation. Similarly, the dream of ocean, a big rope, yarn of various colours, a heap of iron, copper, lead, silver, gold, a pile of wood, leaves, skin, straw, husk, ashes and dust, various kinds of grass such as *śarastambha* etc, the jar of milk, curds, ghee, honey, wine, oil and fat, a big lotus pond, jewelled palace and jewelled aerial car leads to salvation.¹⁸

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¹⁶ In the *Mahāsupina Jātaka* (I, 77), p 344 king Pasenadi makes an offering in order to prevent the effect of evil dreams. The king had sixteen dreams in one night. In the morning when he enquired, the Brāhmaṇas said that great dangers were threatened either to his kingdom, his treasures or his life.

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¹⁷ *Uttarā. sū* 15. 7

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¹⁸ 16. 6.

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Then by seeing decorated articles, horse, elephant and a white bull in dream one gets fame, and one who having passed urine or red stool in dream wakes up, loses wealth.¹⁹

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¹⁹ *Uttarā* 8. 13 com. by Śāntisūri. The commentator Nemicandra quotes some Prākṛt verses on the interpretation of dreams, which shows the existence of literature on dreams in Prākṛt. Some of these verses find parallelism in Jagaddeva's *Svapnacintāmaṇi* edited by Dr. Negelein (Charpentier, *Uttarā*, notes, p 310 f).

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Lord Mahāvīra is said to have beheld the following ten dreams before attaining omniscience: defeating of a fierce demon, a white male cuckoo, a variegated male cuckoo, a pair of garland, a herd of cow, lotus pond, crossing of a big ocean by swimming, the shining sun, encircling the Mānuṣottara mountain from all sides, and climbing up the Meru.²⁰ The *thera* Bambhagutta is said to have seen in dream that his bowl filled with milk was emptied by a stranger which indicated the arrival of someone to study the sacred lore from him.²¹

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²⁰ *Bhag.* 16.6. *Ava cū* p 274.

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²¹ *ibid.* p. 394.

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In Jain texts usually a mother before conception beholds certain dreams. We learn that at the time of the conception of Mahāvīra his mother had fourteen great dreams in which she saw an elephant, a bull, a lion, the besprinkling of goddess *Śrī*, a garland, the moon, the sun, a banner, a jar, a lotus-pool, the sea, the celestial palace, a heap of jewels and fire ²² The Nāyādhammakahā gives a similar description of Dharinī's dreams; she saw a big elephant passing into her mouth during the night of her conception.²³

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²² *Kalpa* 4 66-87 ²³ *Nāyā* 1, p 8 ff Queen Māyā, the mother of Gotama Buddha, dreams a white elephant entering her body, which is sculpturally represented on the Barhut Stūpa and elsewhere (*Nidānakathā*, 1, p 50 ff) ²⁴ *Nāyā* 1, p 19, cf *Avadāna Śataka* I, 3, p 15 ²⁵ *Nāyā* 1 p 10 ff, also *Uttarā Tī* 9 p 132 a ²⁶ *Vya Bhā* 1 335, p 16a. ²⁷ 3, p 57 ²⁸ *Vivā* 2, p 14. ²⁹ According to another tradition the piece of flesh was cut from a hare (*Āta. cū.* II, p 166). ³⁰ *Niryā*. 1, pp. 9-11.

Period of Pregnancy

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Then we come to the period of pregnancy which is very delicate for women During this period the women are asked to be very careful while standing, sitting, sleeping and taking meals which should be neither too cold nor too hot, nor too acrid, pungent, sour or sweet but good and nutritious for the safety of the unborn babe They should avoid sickness, sorrow and terror and being moderate in the use of clothing, perfumes and garlands, should comfortably carry the unborn babe ²⁴

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During the period of pregnancy, *dohada* or pregnancy longing played an important part in ancient India When two or three months of pregnancy had passed, the women had peculiar cravings. We are told that in the third month of her pregnancy, Dhārinī had a pregnancy longing to roam about in the outskirts of Vebhāra in the monsoon riding on an elephant When the longing of the queen was not fulfilled she became sick, emaciated, unhappy and lost all her beauty This was brought to the notice of the king who saw Dhārinī immediately and asked her the reason of her sadness. Later on, Abhayakumāra satisfied the pregnancy longing of his step-mother ²⁵ Queen Satyavatī was another woman who had a pregnancy desire to play in an ivory palace ²⁶ The *Uttarādhyayana* commentary refers to another craving of “drinking the moon” (*candapiyana*) ²⁷

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The desire to eat meat to fulfil the pregnancy longing seems to be very common. We are told of a woman who had a pregnancy longing to relish various kinds of wine and flesh of various cattle ²⁸ We know of Cellanā, who had a chronic longing to eat the flesh of her husband's belly together with wine When prince Abhaya came to know this, he sent a confidential man to get fresh meat, blood and the entrails from a slaughter house (*ghāyatthāna*) ²⁹ This flesh was placed on the belly of the king who pretended to be unconscious ³⁰ The king simulated that the meat came from his body and thus satisfied the longing of the queen. Then we are told of queen Sudamsanā, who went to visit the painting-hall where having seen the painted deer she had a craving to eat their flesh ³¹ Khandasiri was another woman who had a desire to taste plenty of food, drink, spices, sweetmeats and wine.³²

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³¹ Piṇḍ Nir 80

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³² Vivā 3, p. 23 For pregnancy longings see also Suśruta Saṃhitā, Śarīrasthāna, ch, III, pp. 90-92, also cf Mahāvagga X, 2 5, p. 343. Also Kathāsaritsāgara, Appendix III, pp 221-8

Miscarriage

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Cases of miscarriage were not uncommon The Vivāgasūya tells us of the queen Miyādevī who, since the onset of her conception, felt intense pain in her body and became disagreeable to her husband Miyādevī imagined that her fall from her husband's favours was due to her pregnancy, so she made up her mind for abortion. She took various kinds of alkalis (khāra), bitters (kaḍuya) and astringents which cause abortion, but failed to carry out her purpose and carried the pregnancy in sorrow In course of time, Miyādevī gave birth to a totally blind boy. She called her nurse (ammadhāī) and asked her to leave the child on the dunghill (ukkuṇudiyā). When the king came to know of this he immediately visited the queen and stopped her from doing so, since it was her first child.³⁸

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³⁸ 1, p. 9; also Āva. cū. II, p. 166.

Birth

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The birth of a child was an occasion for great rejoicing in ancient India. We are told that after a period of nine months and seven days and a half queen Dhārinī gave birth to Meghakumāra. King Seniya was pleased to hear the news, he gave away all his ornaments except the diadem to the chamber-women (aṅgapaḍiyāryāo), anointed their head and, manumitting them, gave them manifold presents. In honour of the auspicious event, king Seniya ordered his chamberlain to declare a general amnesty to the prisoners (cāragasohana) and to clear the city and to decorate it with flowers, garlands, etc. The prices of the goods were lowered and the king having sent for the eighteen corporations asked them to celebrate the birthday for ten days During this period of rejoicing tolls or taxes (ussuṅkam · ukkaram) were suspended, agricultural operation (ukkittha), selling, weighing unwelcome visit of the police officers(abhadap-pavesam) and the payment of debt were held in abeyance for the time being Excellent women of pleasure and actors, clappers and drummers participated in the festivals.

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On the first day the parents observed the jāyakamma ceremony when the navel vein (nāla) of the child was cut and buried under the earth The second day jāgarikā or the whole night vigil was celebrated The third day the ceremony of showing the moon and the sun (candasūradamsaniya) to the baby was performed. Then for seven days there was a great rejoicing in the city. The eleventh day was the day of purification (suikamma) when the impurity caused by the birth of the child ended On the twelfth day the lustatory and birth rites were over and food, drinks, sweetmeats and dainties were distributed among friends, kinsmen, relatives and other subordinates There were dance parties in which the king participated and then in the presence of the relations the child was given a name (nāmakaraṇa) which had descended from generation after generation 34

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Then various ceremonies were performed when at appropriate occasions the child started babbling (parangāmana), and walking (cankamana), when he had the first taste of solid food (jemāmana), when the first intelligible words came out from his mouth (pajappāvana), and when his ears were bored (kannavedha) Then there was birth ceremony (samvaccharapaḍilakkhana), tonsure ceremony (colopana), sacred thread ceremony (upanayana) and ceremony of learning the alphabets (kalāgahana) 35

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In his babyhood a child was attended by five nurses as noted above 36 Besides there were a large number of attendants brought from foreign countries who were skilful, accomplished and well-trained, to be entrusted with the children.³⁷ The Nisītha cūrṇi describes in detail the various nurses, particularly the wet-nurse and the effect of her milk on the child.³⁸

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³⁴ Sometimes the name given had some reference to an earlier event. A son of king Seṇiya was named Mehakumāra because his mother had had the craving of seeing rain-clouds out of season (Nāyā 1, p 20 f); a boy was named Umbaradatta because his mother had had the craving of worshipping the Umbara Jakkha (Vivā 7, p 44)

Linked texts (10)

Viyāhapannatti — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Jātaka — Pāli
Suśrutasaṃhitā — Suśruta & Nāgārjuna (siddha/alchemist), Sanskrit
Divyāvadāna — Sanskrit
Uttarajjhayaṇa — Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Nāyādhammakahāo — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Kalpasūtra — Bhadrabāhu, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Aṃtagaḍadasāo — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Vivāgasuya — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit
Svapnacintāmaṇi — Jagaddēva, Sanskrit