The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c9.s4.2

c9.s4.2

Transmission of specific characters—what parental characters are transmitted to offspring.—The question is raised in Charaka (and earlier still in the *Brâhmanas*) how specific characters are transmitted—why the offspring is of the same species as the parental organism, say, the human or bovine species, the equine species (Charaka), or the Asvattha species, Ficus religiosa (Śankara, Brihadâraṇyaka-bhâṣya). Species (योनयः) may be compared to so many moulds, as it were, into which the ovum is cast, even as molten metals are cast in moulds. This is of course only an illustrative analogy; the cause has to be investigated.