Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.42

v2.c13.42

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