Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v2.c13.46

v2.c13.46

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.