Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c12.s7.t2.2

c12.s7.t2.2

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