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Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13: XII. Woman as Child-Bearer: The Origin of Man

Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13

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XII. Woman as Child-Bearer: The Origin of Man

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A LL the virtues of the wife are still uncrowned if she bestows no children, especially no son, on the husband, as has already been said. The wife as a child-bearer, therefore, stands first and foremost. What now does the Epic teach us as to procreation, pregnancy, and birth?

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The juices¹ nourish the body of man through the networks of veins, wind, gall, mucus, blood, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, and marrow. It must be known that there are ten small tubes in it bringing their powers² to the five senses, and from them spread other small tubes in thousands. In this wise these veins—the rivers that here carry juices as water—feed the body's sea, each in its time, as the rivers feed the sea. And in the middle of the heart there is a vein Manovahā (the bearer of the manas, the appetitive and concept-building faculty of man), which sets free from all the limbs the seed of men, born of the yearning concept. For the veins that branch off into all the limbs have their outlet in it. Carrying the fiery matter,³ they run from and to the eyes. Just as the butter that is in the milk is twirled out by the churn-staff, so is the seed twirled out by the churn-staff of the appetitive ideas in the body (dehasamkalpajaḥ khajaḥ). And as in this wise even in sleep the passion born of the appetitive ideas of the manas streams hither, the manovahā discharges the seed from man’s body that is produced through the appetitive idea.¹ The great Rishi Atri, the holy and august one, knows of this origin of the seed, which origin has three sources, and Indra for its god; therefore, too, we say indriya ” (xii, 214.16 ff.).²

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¹ More precisely : food-juices (rasa, chyle). Cp. xii, 185.9.

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² More literally : their constituent of strength, of energy; or their element (guṇam). Nil. = svasvavishayagrahaṇapāṭavam.

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³ Or : the fiery part; or : the light-element (taijasam guṇam). Tejas is here probably to be taken in a twofold sense : first, as light, for the eyes are the instrument of seeing, which is dependent on light; second, as fire, glow, passion, for from the eyes also, and from them first of all, love and erotic excitement is born, as may be likewise read in Indian literature. It would be possible to take taijasam guṇam = rājasam guṇam = "carrying the material ingredient, passion (rajas)." "The senses are tejas-natured, that is, rajas-natured" (Saurapurāṇa, xxi, 9).

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¹ Or : And as in this wise even in sleep the passion born of the idea comes by way of the manas (the organ of perception, ideation, and desire), the manovahā sends (sṛijati) the seed born of the idea out of the body. This reading, however, seems to me not so good a one. The manovahā in its function of setting free the seed from all parts of the body is helped by the erotic feelings and ideas. There seems to be no thought here of the pouring forth of the seed. This Indian theory of the manovahā comes up again perhaps in the “ Tavola ritonda ”, which has many Eastern elements in it : La infermità dello amore si èe in una vena la quale vae per mezzo lo cuore, cioè che si muove dalla cima del cuore e gira tutte l’ altre circustanze del corpo ; sicchè, essendo il cuore dello amadore tristo, dolenti e malinconichi stanno tutti gli altri membri ; e perchè la infermità dello amore è più forte e più è pericolosa di tutte l’ altre, tanto è più acculta e nascosa (ed. F. L. Polidori, p. 250). See also Bṛhadāraṇyaka-Up., ii, 1.19; iv, 2.3 ; 3.20; Chānd.-Up., viii, 6.1–2.

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² “ Indra-strength,” manly strength, seed. The three sources are : the food juice, the vein manovahā, and the idea (samkalpa). So the comm. rightly says. Cp. Aitareya-Up., ii, 1 ; Yājñav., iii, 71.

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Yudhishṭhira spoke : “ This hast thou shown, august one, how merit by works follows. But I would fain know this other, how the seed is produced.” Bṛhaspati spoke : “ What the godheads that are in the body eat for nourishment, O lord of men : the earth, the wind, the ether, water, light, and the manas—when these five elements, with the manas as sixth, have become sated therewith, O prince of kings, then the seed is brought into being, the momentous seed,³ O man of the pure soul. From it then arises the fruit of the womb upon the union of woman and man, O prince. Thereby I have set forth all to thee. What wouldst thou still hear ?” Yudhishṭhira spoke : “ Thou, holy man, hast told me how

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³ This is hardly : in plenty (mahat).

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the fruit of the womb comes into being. But how it is with the unborn Purusha ¹—let that be told.” Bṛhaspati spoke : “ The Purusha is but in the neighbourhood, and so is taken hold of by these elements (bhūta), and when separated from these elements, it goes again to another existence. Bound up with all the elements, it partakes (of a new embodiment) as an individual soul ; then the godheads dwelling in the five primary elements see its work (karman), be it good or bad. What wouldst thou hear further ? ” Yudhishṭhira spoke : “ When the individual soul has left skin, bones, and flesh, and is freed from these primary elements (bhūta), where does it then know pleasure and pain ? ” Bṛhaspati spoke : “ Bound up with the karman, it goes swiftly into seed-state (retastva, state, or being, as seed), and then, after it has met the menstrual blood (pushpa) of women, is born at its time, O son of the Bharatas. Torment at the hands of Yama’s servants, hurt at the hands of Yama’s servants, and the painful wheel of the Saṃsāras—torment the human being goes through. And in this world here the living being from birth onwards, O lord of the earth, enjoys what good it has done by works, as a result of the fruit of merit through works ” (xiii, 111.27 ff.). “ Out of the idea arises sexual excitement ² ; it arises also from the tone ; it arises also from the taste; it arises also from the form (it arises also from the feeling with touch ; it arises also from the smell). Out of the seed mingled with the blood (of the woman) comes forth first the Prāṇa. When the seed has been altered by the Prāṇa, then the Apāna comes forth. It is formed out of the seed, and it is formed out of the menstrual fluid ; the pleasure aroused during union, that is the figure of the Udāna. Out of the yearning of love is the seed born ; out of the seed is sexual passion born. But seed and blood had been brought into being in the same fashion, through the Samāna (which digests the food), and the Vyāna (which assimilates the food fluid)” (xiv, 24.5 ff.).¹ “How man, penetrated by his karman, filled with love and hate, comes into the mother’s womb—hearken to this fully. The seed mingled with the blood (of the woman) which has come into the womb as holder, obtains thereby a field (abode, body), a good one or a bad, as his karman may bring. As a result of its tenuity and undeveloped state, and if it, as a Brahman (in the word’s true meaning) has attained to its wish (the redeeming knowledge), thereby it cleaves nowhere—the eternal Brahman (neuter). This is the source (bīja) of all beings; through this it is that creatures live. When this soul has penetrated all the limbs of the fruit of the womb, part by part, it at once gives it the gift of consciousness, taking up its place in the abodes of the breaths of life. Thereupon the fruit of the womb, endowed with consciousness, moves the limbs. . . As fire makes its way into the lump of iron, and brings it to glow all through, so do thou look on the soul’s going into the fruit of the womb” (xiv, 18.4 ff.). Yayāti spoke (to Aṣṭaka) : “He (he that takes on a body, that is, the soul) accompanies the tear-drop, the seed poured forth by the man, bound up with the fruit of the flower (with the karman); he meets her (the woman’s) menstrual blood; having become the embryo,

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¹ Probably we must read yathā, which K also has. B has literally : “ Thou hast set forth to me that the fruit of the womb thus comes into being.” Purusha is the eternal Ātman, the soul. Both texts have yathā jātas tu ; I join together to make yathājātas.

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² Cp. xii, 163.8 : “ Love springs from the idea (saṃkalpa).”

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¹ Prāṇa, Apāna, etc., are the five “breaths of life”, in medicine forms of the wind, which is one of the three basic substances of the body, physiologically active life-forces. The last sentence is Deussen’s translation (*Vier philosophische Texte des Mahābhārata*, p. 918). After wrestling long with the here very illogical text I have resolved simply to give this again instead of bringing up other possibilities. The Sanskrit text of the preceding sentence is: kāmāt samjāyate çukram, çukrāt samjāyate rajaḥ. I have taken rajas = rāga, as it is used, for instance, in xii, 213.9-10; 214.11-14. Materially the rendering is quite the right one. But here it does not fit properly. According to the context rajas should mean menstrual blood. But çukrāt stands in the way of this. Deussen changes to kāmāt; this is too violent in the face of all three texts. Seed is also indeed ascribed to the woman just as among the old Greeks and Romans; therefore: “out of the (female seed) arises the menstrual blood?” Or: “as a consequence of the male seed (that is, because it exists, and the woman yearns for it) the menstrual blood arises?” This in meaning would = kāmāt.

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he there goes in.¹ Into the trees, into the plants they (the souls) go, into the water, into the wind, into the earth, and into the air, into the four-footed and two-footed—into all things they go²; in such an existence (evambhūta) they become embryos.” Aṣṭaka spoke : “ Does it (the soul) make for itself here another body (vapus), or does it make its way in its own body (kāya) into the womb, when it comes into human existence ? Let me know of this; I ask in doubt. In what way does it come unto the various bodies, and all else that grows,³ the eyes and ears, the consciousness ? Make known, thou that art put to the question, this whole matter; we all hold thee for one that knows the field.” Yayāti spoke : “ The wind at the time of the ṛitu carries the seed up to the womb, mingled with the menstrual fluid; there it makes the embryo gradually to grow, wielding sway over the atoms. When the human being has now taken the material to himself, and is born, then he takes his place in his consciousness,⁴ and so hears sound with his ear, sees shapes with his eye, smells with his nose, and tastes with his tongue, feels touch with his skin, and perceives his condition with the manas ” (i, 90.10 ff.).⁵ “ Thirty parts⁶ there are according to the tradition. Where these all are found, there there is a body, so it has been handed down to us. The one takes for his own, as something that cannot be perceived, the (basic) matter (prakṛiti) of these parts, and in like wise, as something that can be perceived, the other, who has a coarse understanding. To be perceived or not to be perceived, twofold or fourfold—they that have pondered on the world-soul see matter in all beings. The matter which (in itself) cannot be perceived has through its (incarnated) parts taken on perceptibility : I and thou, O king, and all other corporeal beings there are. With the pouring in of the drop (of the male seed) those conditions begin that arise out of the male seed and out of the (woman’s) blood, and through their appearance the kalala¹ comes into being ; from the kalala develops the small bubble (budbuda) ; and from the small bubble the lump of flesh (peçī)—so tradition teaches us. But from the lump of flesh the limbs come forth, and nails and hair from the limbs. After the ninth month is fulfilled, O king of Mithilā, name and form (the individuality) comes into being of the child begotten, a little woman or man according to the marks of sex.² Although a man sees his (of one new-born) shape equipped with red nails and fingers directly after birth, yet he does not observe that in his own shape, when it has received the shape of childhood’s years. And from childhood’s years into the years of youth, and into advanced years from the years of youth—in these successive stages a man never perceives again what has gone before. A change in the constituents and the various things belonging to them³ is happening each instant in all beings; but because of their fineness it is not perceived. Nor is their passing away noticed, and their coming into being in one state after another, no more than in a light is noticed what happens with the flame.⁴ Since this whole world, which has this for its character, is ever hastening on like a good

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¹ Or : The seed bound up with the fruit of the flower (with the karman), united with the Purusha (or : sent forth by the man) makes its way to the menstrual blood; it (the purusha, or : he that incarnates himself) meets her blood, etc. In view of cl. 14 it seems, however, as if we must translate : “ He (he that takes on a body) goes into the tear-drop (the seed), which mingles itself with the product of menstruation (pushpaphala),” etc. See also K., i, 84.14, where pushpaphala is found instead of the pushparasa in B., 90.14. With asra cp. bindu “ seed ”.

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² Atisarvam. Perhaps api sarvam : and into all ? Or atisarvam together with dvipadam, and this then = human being, that is : “ excelling all ? ”

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³ Builds itself up, develops (i, 90.13). Cp. Rām., vii, 81.10 : sarvam samucchrayam, all that grows, all living beings.

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⁴ Makes use of his consciousness (samjñām adhishṭhāya).

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⁵ It is said also of the wind in the 18th strophe that it escorts as a guide the soul that has fled from one body to a new one.

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⁶ They are set forth earlier. Deussen : “ qualities.”

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¹ More or less = dot, jutting point; probably from kal, to drive. Cp. Windisch, *Buddhas Geburt u. d. Lehre von der Seelenwanderung*, p. 86 at bottom ff.

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² This is the obvious rendering. But compare note 4 on p. 366.

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³ As form, etc. Nil.

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⁴ It is really different at every moment from what it was at the moment before.

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steed, whence then springs a man, and whence does he not spring? To whom belongs anything definite, and to whom does it not belong? Whence does it come, and whence not? What connection have beings here on earth even with their own limbs? As fire out of the sun, the precious stone, plants, so do beings arise out of the union of the (thirty named) components. Why, just as thou seest thine own self in thyself through thy self, dost thou not see thine own self in others through thy self?” (xii, 320.111 ff.).¹ Through a blinding of perception do men fall into desire (kāma). From desire men come into anger,² then into greed and blindness, into self-confidence and pride, and into self-seeking, from self-seeking then into works, through works into bonds of love,³ through love at once into suffering,⁴ and thus giving occasion for birth and death⁵ by undertaking works leading to pleasure and pain, they come to that dwelling in the womb which begins with the begetting, and is brought about by seed and blood, is moist with excrement and water, and fouled with the products of the blood. Overwhelmed by the thirst for life (tṛṣṇā), bound by these things, ever and again led off astray to them,⁶ let man know that women are the continuers of the web of the Saṃsāra. They are the ploughed field of nature (of matter, prakṛtyāḥ kshetrabhūtās), men manifest themselves as the soul; therefore let the man before all things leave them behind him, one and all. They are witches of a dreadful kind, they bewilder those without understanding, they are the ever-abiding, passion-bewoven embodiment of sensuality (indriyāṇām).⁷ Therefore are the children born from passion, animated in them, as the source. Just as the vermin (such as lice, etc.) which has come into being from our own bodies, and yet is not deemed our own property¹ is put away from our bodies, so let the vermin also which is looked on as our own property, and yet is not property of ours,¹ and is called “children”, be put away from us. Through seed and (menstrual) fluid children are born from the body, of themselves (svabhāvāt), or through the working of the karman—let the wise man look beyond them. . . . Whatever instrument of the mind is put forth in the fruit of the womb by the karman, which forms the germ, this arises out of the impulse of the self² through the spiritual element accompanied by the urge of passion. From the urge of passion after sound the ear comes into being of him whose self is developing, from the urge of passion after shape the eye, the nose from the wish to perceive smell, the skin for touch (for the feeling brought about through touch, and its objects). In like wise the wind is in the Prāṇa and Apāna, it is Vyāna, Udāna, and Samāna, the fivefold function of the body.³ Wrapped round with the limbs born with him, born out of the karman, as his body, man is born, with the limbs of body and soul, which have their beginning and end in pain, and in pain their middle course” (xii, 213.3 ff.).⁴

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¹ The line of verse left out by me in the translation I have always held to be a baseless insertion, and I now see that it is not found in K.—The “self” is in all beings the same, the eternal Ātman.

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² Translated in accordance with K. (K., 215).

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³ Read snehasambandhān. Also -sambandhāḥ or -sambandham would be possible. K has -sambandhāḥ.

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⁴ Or: into the suffering that is immediately bound up with it.

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⁵ To come to their help; that is, they being subject to birth and death through the undertaking of the works.

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⁶ Literally: swimming about (= drifting) to them.

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⁷ That is, they live and weave in passion, and as they are glorified by sensuality, their hidden (antarhita) true nature is not recognized.

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¹ Probably less likely: our own self. Sva = ātman (cp. J. J. Meyer, Dāmodaraguptas Kuṭṭanīmatam, p. 108, n.) is not seldom found in the Epic (e.g. i, 111.2, 12; ii, 49.51; iii, 150.48; 207.54; v, 43.60; Rām., vi, 34.6 even: sā praviṣṭā tatas tatra dadarça Janakātmajām pratīkṣamāṇām svām eva bhraṣṭapadmām iva Çriyam).

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² Ahaṃkāra.

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³ Literally: in fivefold wise keeping the body in action (dehayāpana).

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⁴ Or, as Indians, so far as I know, do not speak of spiritual limbs, better after all would be: With the limbs born with him is man born, wrapped in the body, with conditions of body and mind which have their beginning, end, and middle course in pain.—As to birth we are

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Indeed, antarhita probably = antarita, as this is used in ii, 68.46: dharmāntarita, hidden in virtue, gone into virtue, become the essence of virtue. Cp. Rām., v, 9.23. Instead of “witches” perhaps rather: “magic forces,” embodied curses, etc. (kṛtyā).

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told : " After the fifth month the fœtus has all its limbs; through the strength of the wind it is driven to the mother-gate (yonidvāra) and born, with the legs up, the head down " (xi, 4.2 ff.). xii, 320.17, therefore, should probably, instead of " After the ninth month is fulfilled, name and form comes into being, etc.," which indeed sounds strange, be translated : " When the child after the ninth month is fulfilled has been born, then its individuality becomes known, whether it is a boy or a girl, according to the marks of sex." Jāyate therefore = comes to light (or perhaps is to be altogether changed to jñāyate); hardly: " it is born into individuality (or even : the phenomenal world)," although jāyate with such an accusative would not be un-Epic.

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There are many correspondences with the teachings of the Epic just set forth to be found in the discourses on reincarnation, procreation, growth of the fœtus, and birth in the Garbha-Upanishad (transl. by Deussen, *Sechzig Upanischads des Veda*); Yājñavalkya's law book, iii, 67 ff.; and the Purāṇas. These also repeat the doctrine of the Upanishads : The child in the womb remembers its former existences, but through touching the wind of the outer world is at once deprived of its knowledge, after having been driven forth by the Prajāpati or birth wind, a doctrine which in its essentials corresponds to a Jewish one (see Wolfg. Schultze, *Dokumente d. Gnosis*, Jena, 1910, p. 4 ff.). See e.g. Wilson's Vishṇupur., vol. v, p. 203 f.; Agnipur., 369.19 ff.; Garuḍapur., Pretakalpa, xxxii; Mārk.-Pur., x, 1-6; xi (according to cl. 18 the new-born child at once loses its supernatural knowledge through Vishṇu's bewildering māyā or magic powers); Bhāgavatapur., iii, 31 (according to cl. 1 man [jantu] comes into the mother's womb, borne by the male seed, retaḥkaṇācraya = Garuḍapurāṇasārodh., vi, 5); Garuḍapurāṇasārodh., vi, 5 ff.; Abegg, Pretakalpa, vi, 5 ff. (in p. 92, note 5, Abegg gives a number of references); xv, 15-18; Carakasamh., iv, 4; Windisch, *Buddhas Geburt*, etc., p. 12 ff. How wonderful and mysterious the origin of man was in the eyes of the Old Indians the Epic has already shown us. In the Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa, pregnancy is called something holy and meritorious (x, 10); and procreation is in the Vedic view an act of sacrifice, a worship of God (see e.g. Chānd.-Up., v, 8; Bṛih.-Up., vi, 4.3). How piously and solemnly, and how ceremoniously it must be entered upon, we are taught at the end of the Bṛihadāraṇyaka-Upanishad (vi, 4.13 ff.) with a pure and elevating, a noble and simple earnestness. And so it goes on, although not with such simplicity, down to the Mahānirvāṇatantra (ix, 94-116).

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Very important, however, is now the question : How are boys begotten and how are girls? The matter has already been touched on at the beginning of this book. Nil. in discussing i, 90.14 repeats the Indian theory: If there is an over-measure of male seed, then it will be a boy, if an over-measure of menstrual blood, a girl; if the two are equal, an hermaphrodite; if the seed splits, twins. There would then be no deliberate determination of sex, about which popular belief elsewhere believes it knows so much. For the Mahābhārata itself takes its place with the many examples which are to be found in this matter in Indian literature since the days of the Brāhmaṇas, and assures us in xiii, 87.10, 11 that if the forefathers are worshipped with Ҫraddhas on the second day in the half of the month with waning moon, then there will be girls; if they are worshipped on the fifth day, then many sons will be begotten (cp. Āpast., ii, 7, 16.8, 12; Viṣṇu, lxxviii, 37, 40). xiii, 104.151 sounds more reasonable, and not unlike a view often found among ourselves: “Let the wise man go in the night to his wife, when she has bathed on the fourth day (after the start of her period); on the fifth day it will be a girl, on the sixth a boy.” However we may here have only the well-known Indian belief: On even nights it will be a son, odd nights a girl (Carakas., iv, 8.6; Garuḍapur., Pretakalpa, xxxii, 12; Abegg, Pretakalpa, xv, 10; Agnipur., 153.2; Manu, iii, 48; Bṛhatsaṃh., 78.23; etc.). Another view which is often held in later times would seem to show itself already in Yājñavalkya, i, 80: The man must on an even night, etc., approach once his emaciated wife (kṣāmā), then he will be a son. But perhaps the reference is only to the wasting effect, anyhow presumed, of the woman’s period. There is probably an inkling of the truth in Bṛhatsaṃh., 68.14-16 (almost wholly = Garuḍapur., 65.19b-22a): the matter depends on the nature of the man’s seed. In the marks, too, that show the sex of the child in the mother’s womb India finds itself on the same ground as the West. The beautiful, blooming complexion, that is to say, of the mother, is spoiled by a female fruit in the womb, probably from envy; while the complexion keeps its freshness and beauty when a boy is on the way. This is too the teaching of the Old Indian physicians. The Hindus are in agreement also with the Greeks, Romans, Jews, older Germans, Slavs, etc., in naturally allotting the preferred side, the right, to the male sex. So we find in Divyāvadāna, pp. 2, 98 and in other places in this collection of Buddhist legends: “Five particular characteristics has a wise woman: (1) she knows whether a man loves her, she knows whether he does not love her; (2) she knows the time, she knows the period; (3) she knows if she has conceived a child; (4) she knows by whom she has become with child; (5) she knows whether it is a boy, she knows whether it is a girl—if it is a boy, then it stays curled up on the right side of the belly, if it is a girl, then on the left side. So too in the Avadānaśataka; see Feer, Ann. Musée Guimet, vol. xvii, p. 5, and in Schiefner’s Indische

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What each one of the two parents contributes to the building of the body we are told in xii, 305.5 f. “Bones, sinews, and marrow we know as the parts that come from the father ; skin, flesh, and blood—these come from the mother, so we are told.¹ Thus, O best of the twice-born, is it laid down in the Veda, and in the didactic books.” But we have already been told that the flesh arises out of the seed, and so we read also in xiii, 116.13. But of course there the formation of the fruit of the womb is not under discussion.² Also the sons take after the father, the daughters after the mother, this being according to a popular proverb (pravādo laukikaḥ in Rām., ii, 35.28). Opposed to this there is another world saying (lokapravāda), given in Rām., iii, 16.34 and there endorsed on the whole, that human beings in their character do not

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¹ According to Agnipur., 369.31-32; 370.19b-20a, from the mother comes heart, skin, flesh, colour, navel, mucus, fat, belly, pancreas, and the black of the eye; but from the father: veins, arteries, nerves, seed, etc., as also the white of the eye. Carakas., iv, 3, 5.1, is partly different. See espec. Jolly, Medizin, p. 55 middle, and cp. here, as for the whole chapter, R. Schmidt, Liebe u. Ehe in Indien, 489 ff.

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² On the other hand Cirakāri, xii, 266.25, 26 says tersely: “Man has from the mother the conglomerate in mortality, made up of the five elements,” that is, at least in first place, the body; from the father, therefore, presumably the “soul”. This was the belief also of the Naudowessies (Westermarck, 105-106; Mantegazza, Geschlechtsverhältnisse, 231). But Cirakāri shortly before this (çl. 18) declares that to the father is due “the body and the rest” (çarīrādīni). Possibly, however, body here is to be taken = life.

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Erzählungen, No. xlvi; Bull. de l’Acad. Imp. des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg, vol. xxiv, col. 483 ff. In the last-named is told the well-known test of skill for the young physician Jivaka, taken from the journey of the sons of King Serendip. However, the matter seems exactly the opposite in Chavannes, Actes du XIV. Congr. intern. des oriental., Cinqu. sect., p. 136 ff. (here the foot-marks on the left are deeper, and therefore a male offspring is inferred). But cp. Chavannes, Cinq cents contes, i, 379-381. See also Agnipur., 369.21b-22a, and especially Windisch, Buddhas Geburt, p. 19. All kinds of cabbalistic means for finding out a child’s sex in the mother’s womb are given e.g. in Agnipur., cxli, 3-5.

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take at all after the father, but only after the mother. However, neither the one nor the other of these popular beliefs agrees with the teaching of the Mahābhārata; for since the soul and the karman are bound up with the seed, and thus are contributed by the man, therefore as a necessary consequence the father, and none other, must be responsible for the character of the children, which view as is well known, is Schopenhauer’s.¹ The view, of course, is often found also that for a man’s nature the father and mother must both be taken into account. See e.g. xii, 296.³ f.; Agnipur., 151.18b; Meyer, *Altind. Rechtsschr.*, pp. 263-65.

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¹ The stress lies on karman. For what we call soul, that is, perception, conception, thought, will, etc., belongs on the Indian theory, especially that of Sāṅkhya—and the Epic is dominated by this—to the domain of matter, that is of the woman. The Jīva or Puruṣa (“soul” in the Indian meaning), which corresponds to the man’s nature, has really no connection whatever with anything of this.

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Procreation outside wedlock has, according to Bhīṣma’s reproachful words about Karṇa (vi, 122.11 f.), an unfavourable effect on the character.² Fivefold is the way whereby the gods beget: through the simple wish, through the word, the look, the wholly outward touch (sparça), and “rubbing” (saṃgharsha, coitus, xv, 30.22).³

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² On the other hand this opinion uttered in a personal reprimand has little value. Karṇa, indeed, and other “love children” in the MBh. itself refute it.

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³ Cp. Jacobi’s Tattvārthādhigama, iv, 9 (ZDMG, Bd. 60); Glasenapp, *Der Jainismus*, p. 241; Henne am Rhyn, *Die Frau. i. d. Kulturgesch.*, p. 50. In the beginning beings propagated themselves wholly by look, touch, tapas, simple will, etc. Coition did not appear till later. Wilson’s Viṣṇupurāṇa, ed. Hall, vol. ii, p. 10; Mārk.-Pur., xlix, 8 ff.; Saurapurāṇa, xxv, 20-28 (Jahn, p. 69). Cp. Hartland, *Primit. Patern.*, i, 18 ff. [For such a stage earlier than coition cp. perhaps from Melanesia, G. C. Wheeler, *Mono-Alu Folklore*, pp. 42-3, 242 ff. (Translator.)]

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The sojourn in the mother’s womb is looked on too as something nauseating and gruesome in the Epic, as has already been mentioned, and as such it is even made use of figuratively (ix, 56.32, as often in Indian literature elsewhere). The womb thus is even called in MBh., K, xii, 215.7 narakagarta

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(hell's pit). In the Epic, too, it lasts generally ten months (iii, 134.17 ; 205.10, etc.). But we repeatedly meet with far longer pregnancies in the Mahābhārata.¹ It is for three years that Çakuntalā bears Bharata in the womb, and that which took a long time, even here turns out well (i, 74.1-2). Gāndhārī has been now with child for two years, her womb is hard, and she learns with sorrow that Kuntī has given birth ; then with great torment she sets to thumping (ghātayāmāsa) her belly, and brings forth a lump of flesh as hard as a ball of iron. At Vyāsa's order she pours cold water over it, whereupon it falls into one hundred and one pieces, which she puts in a vessel with melted butter ; a hundred sons and one daughter thus come into being (i, 115.1 ff.). The same thing happens, too, to the wife of King Kalmāshapāda : she frees herself after twelve years from the fruit of her womb, which the Brahman Vasisṭha has begotten in her, by opening her own body with a stone ; hence her son is called Açmaka ("Stone-ling", i, 177.44 ff.). Vasisṭha's daughter-in-law Adṛiçyantī in the same way for twelve years shelters under her heart Parāçara, who was later to be the holy man. He spends his time, during this very thorough preparation for coming into life, in studying the Vedas aloud (i, 177.11 ff.; 43 ff.). Lopamudrā, Agastya's wife, carries for seven years, and then bears her son, but a wonder-child likewise (iii, 99.24 ff.). A hundred years even does a Bhṛigu woman carry Aurva, and that in her thigh. Then the child is to be slain by the hostile Kshattriyas, and comes out of the thigh with such sunlike brightness that the evil-doers all lose their sight (i, 178.11 ff.). This cunctator, too, knows the whole Veda before his birth. On the other hand, the Rākshasa women bring forth at once after conception, as Satyavatī does Vyāsa, and as, according to Jean Paul, the Talmud teaches as to Jewish women in heaven (i, 155.36). This is a special grace which Umā or Kālī has bestowed on the Rākshasī (Rām., vii, 4.30, 31).

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¹ See Hopkins, JAOS, 24, p. 19; 392; Wilson's Vishnupur., iii, p. 290 (7 years); iv, 87; Mārk.-Pur., cxxxiii, 2 f. (9 years); Vishnupur., vol. iv, p. 87 (15 years); Chavannes, *Cinq cents contes*, i, 200; iii, 136; etc.

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Pregnancy at a very tender age is one of the signs of the oncoming end of the world (iii, 188.60; 190.49). Just as dreadful is the killing of the fruit of the womb. This crime, which is so often most strongly condemned by the Indians, and which is heavily punished in the law books, can according to the Mahābhārata only thus be atoned for : " The fœtus-slayer is cleansed of his sin if in the midst of battle the weapon lights on him (and kills him), or by his sacrificing himself in a kindled fire ; thereby is he cleansed of his sin " (xii, 165. 46, 47).¹

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¹ The slaying or making away with the fruit of the womb is one of the sins that cannot be atoned for on earth (Dubois-Beauchamp ³, 197); it is equal to the murder of a Brahman and to be atoned for in the same way (Āpast., i, 9, 24.4 ; Vasisṭha, xx, 23 f. ; Gautama, xxii, 12-13 (here when it is the embryo of a Brahman); Vishṇu, xxxvi, 1; l, 1-99; nay, it is twice as wicked and allows of no atonement, but the woman must be cast out (Parāçara, iv, 18), or driven out of the city (Narāda, xii, 91 f.). Along with the murder of a husband and connexion with a man of low birth it is one of the three greatest crimes in a woman (Yājñav., iii, 298) ; stands in the same line with the most dreadful sins, and leads to loss of caste (Āpast., i, 7, 21.8 ; Vasisṭha, xxviii, 7; Gautama, xxi, 9); is the type of most dreadful sin (Mahānirvāṇat., iii, 153); and so on. Naturally awful punishments are, especially in the Purāṇas, threatened after death. This very zeal shows, however, that this sin was not an uncommon one in Old India, either. But whether it is so very common among the Hindus and particularly on the part of the widow, as some observers declare, is a matter of very great doubt.

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That the man should need a very long time to bring a child into the world, when he becomes pregnant, seems easy to understand.² There once lived a king, mighty in sacrifices, of the line of Ikshvāku, Yuvanāçva his name. " As this very glorious and pious one had no offspring, he handed over the kingdom to his ministers, and gave himself up to life in the forest, plunging his soul, he that had his soul under his control, in reflection in the way laid down by the books of instruction. One day, the prince, tormented with fasting,

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² For the reason, too, that he is generally used to do things more thoroughly and better; for the long pregnancies that are found in other cases lead to human beings beyond the ordinary.

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parched within by thirst, came into the hermitage of Bhr̥igu. On this very night the high-souled, great Rishi was carrying out a sacrifice for Yuvanāçva, that he might get a son. A great jar, filled with water purified with holy words, stood there; it had been made ready before, that the wife of Yuvanāçva might drink it, and bear an Indra-like son. The jar had been set down on the sacrificial altar by the great Rishis, and now they were sleeping. Yuvanāçva went by these men wearied by the night watch; with dry throat, tortured by thirst, filled with a great yearning for water, he that was filled with peace of soul made his way into the hermitage, and asked for water. As the wearied one with parched throat now moaned tearfully, no one heard him, just as though it were the cry of a bird. So soon as the prince saw the jar filled with water, he ran impetuously up to it, drank it dry, and set it down again. When the thirst-tormented ruler of the earth had drunk the cold water, the wise one felt the bliss of the quenched glow (nirvāṇam agamat), and was very happy. Then those Munis and the penitents awoke, and they all saw that the jar of water was emptied. ‘Whose deed is that?’ those asked who came up. Yuvanāçva acknowledged the truth, and said: ‘Mine.’ ‘That is not well,’ then said the holy son of Bhr̥igu to him; ‘that thou mayest get a son, I have set the water there, and made it fitting through my asceticism. I have put into it the holy power,¹ having given myself up to dreadful penance, that thou mayest obtain a son, O kingly Rishi of great might and bravery. (It was to be) a son of great strength, of great heroic valour, and ascetic power, who with his heroic courage would bring even Indra into Yama’s abode. Through this holy action I have brought this about. In that thou hast now drunk the water thou hast not done well, O king. But now we cannot make this otherwise than it is. It is undoubtedly a disposition of Providence that thou hast thus acted. Through this water that thou didst drink in thy thirst, which I had marked off by ceremony and prayer, and made ready through the power of my penance, thou thyself wilt bear such a son. I will then carry out for thee a most wonderful sacrifice, that thou with hero’s strength, thou mayest bring forth an Indra-like son, and also need suffer none of the ills arising from the carrying of the womb’s fruit.’ Then at the end of a hundred years the son there, who was like a sun, split the left thigh of the high-souled king, and came forth, he the most powerful; and King Yuvanāçva was not taken by death; that was very wonderful.”—Wonderful, too, was the child, Māndhātar, of whom not only the Brahmans but the Buddhists also have told many tales (iii, 126).¹ According to vii, 62, indeed, the two Açvins have to do service here as midwives; they pull Māndhātar out of his father’s womb (garbha). Here the king while hunting came thirsty to a sacrificial offering, and drank the sacrificial butter. In xii, 29.81 ff., too, Māndhātar comes into being in his father’s belly, and in this passage, indeed, also through sacrificial butter being consumed. Here the wind gods took the child from his father’s side.² Also the pious king Cibi Auçīnara bears a son from out of his side (iii, 197.26 ff.).

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¹ That is, the Brahmanic power. Hardly: the holy Veda word (brahman). Cp. xiii, 4.38, 60 f.

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¹ In what follows there his greatness is shortly described, and more fully in other parts of the MBh. A poetic rendering of the Jātaka tale about him is to be found in my *Kāvyasamgraha, metrisch. Übersetzungen aus indischen u. anderen Sprachen*, p. 35 ff. Cp. Schiefner, *Bullet. d. Petersburger Akad.*, vol. 24, col. 458 ff.

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² In Vishnupur. (Wilson), iii, p. 267, Māndhātar splits his father’s right side, so in Bhāgavatapur., ix, 6, 30, the right side of the belly, and so comes out. With his birth out of the thigh, cp. *Zschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 4, p. 48 ff.; 157 ff.

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A *generatio aequivoca* is likewise related in the old Purūravas saga. The Mahābhārata gives the following account: All the sons of Manu perished through strife. “Then was Purūravas born of Ilā; she was both his mother and his father; so we have been told” (i, 75.18, 19). On the other hand, according to Rām., vii, 87 ff., he is the son of Ilā and Budha in the ordinary way. Ila, the very mighty king of the Bāhlika was roving on the hunt through the forest in the heart-delighting spring-time. At this same time Çiva together with his wife was taking his delight on the mountain where Kārttikeya had been born, and for her he changed himself into a woman; all the other male beings, too, which were

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already there, even the trees, and all that came thither had to take on woman's sex. As soon as Ilā reached there, this divine spell worked itself on him also and his following. He was deeply troubled at this, and made his appeal to Çiva, who laughed him to scorn. The god's wife, however, showed herself more compassionate : through her grace Ilā was allowed always to be a woman for a month, and for a month a man, and in neither state did he remember the other. Ilā, so the new woman was called, now roved through that forest, free and merry, with her following, which was likewise feminine, and she came once to a glorious lake. In it Budha, the moon's son, was giving himself up to asceticism, but through the sight of the bewitchingly lovely wanderer of the wild he was so fired by love that he could no longer restrain himself ; he turned her attendants into Kimpurushī, and told them that as these they would find husbands ; while to Ilā, who thus saw herself robbed in the lonely forest of her following, he offered himself as a loving husband, and with this she was glad. With her he spent the whole of the spring moon in such delights that it flew by him like a moment. But when the month was at an end, Ilā awoke in the morning as a man again, and called to the son of Soma : “ I came into these mountain wilds with a great following. Where are my attendants, then ?” “ A rain of stones has killed them.” “ Then I who have lost my wives and people will no longer be king, either, but hand over the rule to my son.” But Budha prevailed on him to stay there for a year ; then he promised to do his best. To this the herdsmen of the earth agreed. “ For a month he was now a woman, and gave himself up to his pleasure without a break ; for a month he gave himself up as a man to pious ways and thoughts.” In the ninth month as Ilā he then bore Purūravas. By a horse-sacrifice Çiva was then put in a gracious frame of mind by Ila's kindred, and gave him back his manhood.¹

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¹ Cp. Hertel, “ Die Geburt des Purūravas,” Wiener Zeitschr. f. d. Kunde d. Morgenl., xxv (1911), p. 135 ff. According to Vetālapañcav., No. 15 (quoted Daçakumāracar., p. 85) it was Gaurī's curse that changed King Ila into a woman ; according to Mārkaṇḍeyapur., cxi, 12, Maheçvara's anger ; the Bhāgavatapur. (ix, 1.23 ff.) makes the

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A like change of sex is related in Mahābhārata, xiii, 12 (K., 34). “Yudhiṣṭhira spoke: ‘Which of the two has the more glorious feeling from the touch, when a woman and man unite? As to this doubt, do thou, O king, give me right instruction.’ Bhīṣma spoke: ‘Of this too, this old tale is told, how, once before, Indra bore an enmity against Bhaṅgāsvana. Once upon a time there was an exceedingly pious Ṛiṣi king called Bhaṅgāsvana; as he had no sons, O tiger among men, that he might get a son he made the Agniṣṭut sacrifice so hateful to Indra, he, the most mighty Ṛiṣi king. This is prescribed for atonements, and if a man wants a son for himself. But when Indra, the most excellent ruler of the gods, learned of this sacrifice, he sought an opportunity to lay hold of this royal Ṛiṣi, who ever kept himself in check. And he could see no weak spot in this high-minded one, O king. Some time after, the herdsman of men went out hunting. ‘This is a chance,’ thought Indra, and he perplexed the king: then the royal Ṛiṣi did nothing but wander about with his one horse, and, tormented by hunger and thirst, the prince could not find his way in the quarters of the heavens. And as he was galloping this way and that,¹ he saw a gloriously shining lake full of splendid water. He rode to the lake,² my friend, and watered his steed. When his horse had drunk,

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¹ So according to K., where we find itaç cetaç ca dhāvan vai. In the Bomb. text we can join itaç cetaç ca either with bhrānta, which would be very stiff, or take it as a lively sentence without a verbal form.

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² Or: “he rode into the lake” (lit. dipped). I would read avagatya instead of avagāhya, and have translated accordingly in the text.

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change come about as in the MBh., but tells of another cause why Çiva laid this spell: Once he was visited by pious Ṛiṣis, who found his wife naked in his arms. She was very much ashamed, and therefore the god thus spoke for her sake: “Whoso comes into the forest shall become a woman.” In the two sections of the Purāṇa Manu through a mistake of the sacrificing priest gets a daughter, Ilā, instead of a son; through special favour she becomes a man, named Sudyumna, and he then becomes a woman through the power of the god, etc. Cp. Harivamça, x, 615 ff.; Crooke, Pop. Rel., ii, 7.

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[For Melanesian ideas on changing of sex cp. G. C. Wheeler, Mono-Alu Folkl., pp. 19, 20, 21, 62, 276.]

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the most excellent herdsman of men tied it to a tree, and plunged in. But as soon as he had bathed there, he became a woman. When he now saw himself turned into a woman, the best of princes was ashamed; his whole soul was filled with mournful sorrow, and his mind and heart were troubled. ‘But how can I mount my horse? how go into the city? And through the Agniṣṭut sacrifice which I made a hundred stout sons of my body have been born to me. But what shall I say to them? And what shall I say among my wives, and the townsmen and the country-folk? Tenderness and weakness and a faint heart withal are the marks of women, as the Rishis have declared, who know virtue, truth, and profit. Manly strength put forth, sternness, and bravery are the marks of a man.¹ My manhood is gone, through some way or other I have become a woman. And since I am a woman, how can I mount my horse again?’ With great trouble, however, the first herdsman of men now mounted his steed,² and went back into the city, turned into a woman, he the best of princes. But his sons, wives, servants, townsmen, and countrymen fell to the greatest wondering, when they learned of it, and spoke: ‘What is this, indeed?’ Then said the royal Rishi, best of all speakers, that had become a woman: ‘I rode out to hunt, surrounded by stout soldiers. Losing my way, I found myself, driven on by fate, in a dreadful forest. And in this most dreadful forest, racked by thirst, and bereft of my senses, I saw a most fair shining pond, covered with fowl. When I plunged into it, I was by the hand of Providence turned a little while ago into a woman.’ And giving the names and families of his wives and ministers,¹ then did this best of princes speak to his sons: ‘Do ye enjoy in gladness and friendship the kingly rule; I am going away into the forest, my little sons.’ When he had thus spoken to his hundred sons, he did indeed go off into the forest. And after this woman had gone into a hermitary, she found a penitent. From the penitent she had a hundred sons in the hermitary. Then she took them all with her, and spoke to her earlier sons: ‘Ye are my sons from the time when I was a man, and these are my hundred sons which I have got as a woman. Enjoy ye, at one in brotherly hearts, the kingly rule, my dear sons.’ Then did these brothers enjoy together the kingly rule. When the king of the gods saw them now ruling over the most excellent kingdom with brotherly hearts, he thought to himself, overborne by anger: ‘I have done the king a good deed, not an evil.’ Then went the ruler of the gods, Çatakratu, in the shape of a Brahman, to the city, and stirred up these sons of the herdsman of men: ‘Among brothers there is no good brotherly understanding, even when they are sons of one father. For the sake of the kingly rule the offspring of Kaçyapa, the gods and the demons, fell to strife. Ye are the offspring of Bhaṅgāsvana, the others are the sons of a penitent. But the gods and the demons are alike Kaçyapa’s sons. Your father’s kingdom is being ruled by the penitent’s sons.’ Stirred up by Indra, they slew one another in the fight. When the penitent’s wife heard of it, she broke into tears, stabbed through by sorrow. Indra, disguised as a Brahman, now came to her, and asked her: ‘What is the sorrow tormenting thee, that thou weepest, O lovely one?’ Then

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¹ So according to K. The Bomb. Text has: In bodily exercises (or: in battle) staunchness (sternness, hardness) and a hero’s courage—these are the marks of the man.

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² Reputable women according to this passage do not ride in Old India; for whatever goes with the army, riding on horse or ass (Çiçu-pālav., xii, 20; v, 7) is, anyhow in most cases, light goods. But probably the widow who is going to let herself be burnt with her dead husband often rides there on horseback. See Zachariae, *Zeitschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 14, p. 208, note 2; 209; 302; 305. She has come away from the ordinary laws. Or was the horse so often chosen by her as being a beast that frightens away the spirits, brings luck, and is prophetic? Cp. Negelein, “Das Pferd in Seelenglauben u. Seelenkult,” *Zschr. d. Ver. f. Volksk.*, Bd. 11, p. 406 ff.; Bd. 12, p. 14 ff.; 377 ff.; especially Bd. 11, p. 406 f.; 409 ff.; Bd. 12, p. 384; MBh., iv, 39.6; 46.25; K., 46.8; etc.; Tod, *Rajasthan*, i, 592 (the Rājputs to-day still see an omen in the horse’s neighing); Schroeder, *Mysterium u. Mimus im Rigveda*, 429 ff.; George Wilke, *Kulturbeziehungen*, etc. (Würzburg., 1913), p. 122; Fr. S. Krauss, *Slav. Volkforsch.*, 130. As widow-burning probably originated with the Kshattriyas, it may be indeed that therefore this warrior-animal kept true to the Sati.

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¹ This was, of course, to show he was King Bhaṅgāsvana.

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the woman looked at the Brahman, and said with mournful voice: ‘Two hundred sons of mine have been stricken to earth by destiny. I was a king, O Brahman; a hundred sons were born to me before, shaped like me,¹ O best of Brahmans. One day I went hunting, and lost my way in a deep forest. And when I dipped in a lake, I became a woman, O most excellent Brahman. Then I set my hundred sons in the kingly rule, and went into the forest. As a woman, I bore a great-souled penitent in the hermitary a hundred sons, O Brahman, and these I took into the city. An enmity has by the dispensation of the gods arisen among them, O twice-born one. It is for this I mourn, O Brahman, overwhelmed by the waves of destiny.’ When Indra saw her sorrowing, he spoke these harsh words to her: ‘In days gone by, my friend, thou didst do me evil truly hard to bear, offering the sacrifice hateful to Indra, without inviting me, who hold the first place. I am Indra, thou fool, I have cast my hatred on thee.’ But when the royal Rishi saw it was Indra, he bowed his head to Indra’s feet: ‘Be gracious, best of the thirty-three. I made that sacrifice in my yearning after sons, O tiger among the gods; do thou forgive me this.’ Rejoiced by his humble expression of reverence Indra granted him a favour: ‘Which of thy sons, O king, are to live—tell me this—those thou didst bear as a woman, or those that came to thee as a man?’ Then spoke the penitent’s wife to Indra, folding her hands before her forehead: ‘The sons I bore as a woman are to live, O Vāsava.’ But Indra heard this with astonishment, and once more asked the woman: ‘How comes it, then, that the sons begotten by thee as a man are hateful to thee? Wherefore harbourest thou the greater love for those thou didst bear as a woman? I would fain hear the reason. Tell it to me here.’ The woman spoke: ‘The woman cherishes a more tender love, not so, indeed, the man. Therefore, O Çakra, let those live that were born to me when I was changed into a woman.’” Bhīshma spoke: “Thus addressed, Indra then joyfully uttered the words: ‘They shall all live, all of them, thou speaker of truth. And choose thyself a favour, O prince above kings, which thou, O pious one, dost wish : thou mayest be either a man or a woman, whichever thou wouldst have of me.’ The woman spoke : ‘I choose to be a woman, O Çakra : I have no wish to be a man, O Vāsava.’ But, thus addressed, the ruler of the gods made answer to the woman : ‘Wherefore dost thou scorn to be a man, and insist on being a woman, O ruler ?’ To these words made answer the best among kings, that had become a woman : ‘The woman has in the union with the man always the greater joy. That is why, O Çakra, I choose to be a woman. I feel greater pleasure in love as a woman, that is the truth, best among the gods.¹ I am content with existence as a woman. Do thou leave me, first herdsman of the heavenly ones.’ ‘So be it !’ he spoke, took leave of her, and went back into heaven. So it is said that the woman feels the greater love and pleasure.”²

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