Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.2

v2.c13.2

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