Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c11.2

c11.2

The conception depends upon the coincidence of sperm and menstrual blood. Mention is also made of the sperm of women, yet it is expressly stated that it has no influence in the formation of the foetus (AS 2.1). Sperm is the juice (chyle-rasa) consisting of the food properly digested and transferred into the marrow. As butter is contained in the milk or sugar in the juice of sugarcane, so the sperm is contained in the sperm-keeping substratum (kalā) which pervades the whole body and particularly in the marrow, the testicles and the nipples. The menstrual blood also results every month from the chyle. The vāta drives out from the hymen the blackish and smell-less blood collected during a month through both the vessels of uterus (Su 1.14.1 f.; 3.4.13 ff.; 2.2.1 f.; AS 2.1.195; 198; AHr 2.1.7). In order to create a normal foetus, the sperm and menstrual blood must be clean i. e. must be of normal condition. The sperm is not capable of generating, if it is deranged by the doṣas or by impure blood, whereby it becomes thin, frothy, brown, scanty, painful, flowing slow, yellow, too plentiful, does not sink in water etc. As far as its smell is concerned, incurable impotency is to be diagnosed if the sperm smells like urine or faeces. The law-books also prescribe a test of potency before marriage by which it is ascertained among other things that the sperm sinks in water (Nārada 12.10). The menstrual blood can have defects similar to male sperm. Nutritive and sweating remedies, specific diet and douches are particularly recommended for cure, while in the case of women it is laid down to use pastes and cloth or cotton (picu) which are inserted in the vagina, as well as cleansing with water. The sperm capable of generating is fluid, frothy, sticky, heavy, plentiful, sweet, whitish, resembling honey in smell and colour or of the colour of butter or oil. The menstrual blood is pure if it resembles the blood of hare or lac-colour and leaves no stains in washed clothes (Su 3.2.3-17; AS 2.1.196 f.; AHr 2.1.10-19). Excessive flow of blood during or after the menses is called asṛgdara, pradara (§ 49).