A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c23.238

Language: English

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The subjects dealt with are: the enumeration of the characteristics of the kinds of semen (retas) unsuitable for generating offspring (2.3); the description of these conditions:⁹ semen corrupted by vāta, pitta or kapha possesses the colour of these doṣas and leads to painful sensations (vedanā) characteristic of them; when corrupted by blood, the semen smells like a decomposing corpse (kuṇapagandhin) and is profuse in quantity; semen corrupted by kapha and vāta shows clots (granthibhūta); corrupted by pitta and kapha, it resembles foul-smelling pus (pūtipūyanibha); corrupted by pitta and vāta, it is small in quantity (kṣīṇa) and shows the features described;¹⁰ semen corrupted by concerted action of the doṣas smells like urine or faeces; curable with difficulty are the disorders in which the semen smells like a decomposing corpse, is clotted, smells like pus, and is small in quantity; the patients whose semen smells like urine or faeces cannot be cured at all (2.4); the disorders of the ārtava¹¹ are of the same eight types as those of the semen and possess the same characteristics; incurable are the types in which the ārtava (menstrual discharge) smells like a decomposing corpse, is clotted, resembles pus, is small in quantity, and smells like urine or faeces;

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the remaining types are curable (2.5);¹² the treatment of the disorders of the semen (śukradoṣa) (2.6–11ab);¹³ the characteristics of normal semen (2.11cd–12ab);¹⁴ the treatment of the disorders of the ārtava (2.12cd–16); the characteristics of normal ārtava (2.17);¹⁵ the disorder called asṛgdara, characterized by an excessive discharge of menstrual blood (menorrhagia) or bleeding from the uterine tract at irregular times (metrorrhagia) (2.18); the symptoms of asṛgdara (2.19–20ab);¹⁶ asṛgdara should be treated on the same lines as raktapitta (2.20cd–21ab);¹⁷ amenorrhoea and its treatment (2.21cd–22); the already described oligomenorrhoea¹⁸ should be treated like amenorrhoea (2.23); things to be avoided by a menstruating woman; the specific bad effects that infringements on these rules may have on a child conceived during the fertile period; rules regarding sleeping habits and diet during the first three days of the menstrual cycle; coitus should be avoided during these three days, but is permitted on the fourth day (2.25);¹⁹ a woman should see her husband after the bath at the end of her impure period, because the child that might be conceived resembles the person first seen (2.26); rites and various prescriptions regarding behaviour and diet leading to the conception of a male (2.27–20) or female child (2.30);²⁰ intercourse on the first day of menstruation reduces a man's span of life; a child conceived on that day would die during delivery;

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a child conceived on the second day would die during the mother's stay in the lying-in room; conceived on the third day, it would have incompletely developed body parts and a short life; conceived on the fourth day, its body will be completely developed and have a long life; semen which enters the womb when the blood is still flowing out will not be fruitful; for that reason no intercourse should take place during the first three nights (2.31); the ritual to ensure that a child conceived will be male (2.32);²¹ the four requirements for conception, comparable to season, soil, water and seed with regard to the production of crops (2.33–34); the preponderance of one or more of the mahābhūtas determines the complexion of the child; fire (tejodhātu) is the source of colours; when at the time of conception this (fiery principle) is mainly mixed with water the child will be fair (gaura), when mainly mixed with earth it will be dark (kṛṣṇa), when mainly mixed with earth and ākāśa it will be kṛṣṇaśyāma, when mainly mixed with water and ākāśa it will be gauraśyāma;22 others are of the opinion that the colour of the child’s skin depends on the colour of the food taken by the mother; particulars with regard to the fiery principle (tejodhātu) determine the colour of the eyes, the presence of blindness, and abnormalities of the eyes23 (2.35);

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the procreational substance (ārtava) of a woman is dislodged during intercourse, like a lump of ghee, melting in contact with the heat of fire (2.36); when the vāta lodged within a bīja24 divides it into two halves, twins will be born,25 who are beings deriving from adharma26 (2.37); abnormalities of sexual behaviour:27 due to scantiness of the parental bīja an āsekya may be born, who gets an erection (dhvajocchrāya) after swallowing (another man’s) sperm; when the female genitals are foul-smelling (pūtiyoni), a saugandhika may be born, who is sexually stimulated by the smell of vagina and penis; a man who first accepts to be the passive partner in anal intercourse and then proceeds to anal penetration of a woman is known as kumbhīka; a man who is potent only after looking at the intercourse of another couple is called īrṣyaka; when a man, in a female fashion, has intercourse with his wife (during the menstrual period), a ṣaṇḍhaka may be born, who looks and behaves like a woman; when a woman, still menstruating, assumes the male position during intercourse, and a daughter is conceived, she will show male behavioural traits (2.38–43);28 the āsekya, saugandhin, kumbhīka and īrṣyaka do have semen, but the ṣaṇḍha is devoid of it (2.44); the semen-transporting vessels (sirā) in these types of persons get engorged by unnatural practices only, thus leading to an erection (2.45);

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the qualities of a child are determined by the diet, behaviour and acts of the parents at the time of intercourse (2.46); the intercourse of two women, who both discharge their śukra,29 leads to the conception of a child without bones (2.47); when a woman, after the bath at the end of her impure period, experiences intercourse in a dream, vāta will dislodge the ārtava and an embryo will be formed; the signs of pregnancy will develop from month to month, but the paternal elements will be entirely absent in this child, which is called kalala (2.48–49);30 the birth of deformed children, looking like a serpent, scorpion or gourd, should be regarded as the result of bad acts (2.50); when a woman’s longings during pregnancy are not respected and vāta becomes excited, the child that will be born may be humpbacked (kubja), have a deformed arm (kuṇi), be lame (paṅgu) or dumb (mūka), or have a nasal voice (minmiṇa) (2.51); due to the small amount of impure matter and the negligible activity of vāta in its pakvāśaya, the foetus in the womb does not discharge flatus, urine and faeces (2.53); the foetus does not cry because, its mouth being covered by the foetal membranes (jarāyu)31 and its throat being full of kapha, the pathway of vāta is blocked (2.54); the inhalations (niḥśvāsa), exhalations (ucchvāsa), movements (saṃkṣobha) and sleep of the foetus are intimately connected with the same functions of the mother (2.55);

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the structure (saṃniveśa) of bodily beings, the eruption and falling out of the teeth, and the absence of hairs on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are due to svabhāva (inherent nature) (2.56); those who were constantly engaged in study of the śāstras in their previous lives, become men with a predominance of sattva, who can remember their former existences (jātismara)³² (2.57); the kind of actions performed in a previous life reappears on rebirth; this also applies to virtues practised in an earlier existence (2.58).