Puranic Encyclopaedia: A Comprehensive Dictionary with Special Reference to the Epic and Puranic Literature c7.135

c7.135

GARBHA (M). The Purāṇas have described the views of sages about the origin of ātman in woman's womb. Asitamahāmuni stated the following about the birth of a child to King Janaka. (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa. Chapter 48). Of the seven elements in the human body, viz., Rasa, Rakta (blood), Māṃsa (flesh), Medas (fost), Asthi (bone), Majjā (marrow) and Śukla (seminal fluid) the last one, Śukla, is the most valuable. Brahma-bīja (the seed for production) is contained in Śukla. From the food we consume, blood and the seminal fluid take their nutrition. The Śukla emitted during coitus enters the womb of the woman propelled as it were by Kroṣṭavāyu. It takes only one night for the Śukla to get inextricably mixed with blood in the womb. In that mixing if the proportion of blood is higher, the child born will be girl, and if the proportion of Śukla is higher, the offspring will be boy. If blood and Śukla are mixed exactly in equal proportions the child will be 'neutral', neither girl nor boy. During the first month of pregnancy the child will be in liquid form. In the second, it solidifies due to the mixing and interplay of heat, cold, air, etc. During the third, holes for eye, ear, etc. become ready and the vein system is formed. In the fourth, head, hands and legs of the child are formed, and it is during this period that the prospective mother develops certain desires. If those desires are not satisfied the child may be born with physical deformities. During the fifth month the hips and bones develop. The various organs get firmer and stronger gradually and fingers appear during the sixth month. It is during the sixth month that hairs on the head and body appear and feelings and emotions originate in the mind. During the seventh month the ten vāyus (winds) on the basis of the nervous system, are released, and the child experiences glimpses of its previous existence, and ability to feel pain also is there. During the ninth month due to the force of the wind which effects actual delivery the child gets head down in the womb, and during the tenth month it emerges out of the womb. The child loses its memory about the past because of its contact with the female organ and external wind.