A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c11.17

v1.c11.17

A type of pseudo-pregnancy is described, caused by vāyu which obstructs (the flow of) the menstrual blood.39 When this blood is at last discharged, some people say that because only blood is seen and no trace of a foetus, the latter has been destroyed by an evil spirit (bhūta);40 this view is rejected for the reason that these evil spirits, who roam about during the night, are fond of ojas and would have caused fatal damage to the mother’s body too, if they actually had succeeded in gaining access to her body (2.8–10).41