Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

* From this aphorism it is evident that the Rishis understood the power of suggestion in the matter of children brought forth my mothers. To make a woman think constantly of the best specimens of humanity is the easiest way of making her bring forth excellent children. Fear and other violent emotions make a woman bring forth deformed and monstrous children.

If these emotions are known to have such effect, the . mind, it becomes obvious, is a powerful factor in determining -the form and attributes of children a woman may bring forth. — T.

t In the constitution of the embryo all the five primal dhatus or elements, ytz., earth, water, fire, air, and space, enter. The proportions, of course, are different in different cases. Of these five, Tejas or fire is the cause of com¬ plexion. Under different circumstances, Tejas produces different complexions. When mixed largely with water and space, Tejas produces a fair complexion. When largely mixed. with earth and air, it produces a dark complexion. And, lastly, when mixed in equal proportions with the others, . the complexion produced is a mixture of fair and dark, which is called ‘ 9yama.’ — T.

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mine the differences in respect of mind of the children that are born.21 *

Conception is said to set in properly when it results from the man and the woman uniting in sexual congress after the bodies of both have been purified according to the ordinances set forth above; when undiseased semen combines with undiseased blood ; when the generative organ of the mother is not vitiated by any obstruction ; and lastly, when the womb also is perfectly free from every fault ; even as a colouring matter produces excellent colour by only falling upon a piece pf cloth that is perfectly white and free from filth . of every kind.

Verily, the semen (under the circumstances stated above) acts like milk, which, when mixed with curds, forsakes its own nature and takes the nature of curds in consequence of the fermentation that sets in.SB -f-

* Having explained the causes that determine the difference of complexion in children, the Rishi sets himself to explain the difference of mental tempera¬ ment with which children are bora.

The first cause is the temper of mind of the mother and the father both generally and at the time of procreation.

The second is the subject heard constantly by the mother during the period of gestation. One may hear high and ennobling discourses based upon the Crutis, the Dharma-jastras, the Puranas, biographies of eminent men, &c. ; while another may hear scandalous and imnmral discourses, &c. This is a powerful factor in determining the. mind of the child to be brought forth.

The past acts of the children themselves are another factor whose effect cannot but be marked.

The possession of the kind of mind by the child in his previous life deter¬ mines also his mind in this life. Minds have before been classed as ‘ suddham,’ . ‘ Rajasam,’ and ‘ TamaSam,’ (vide Lesson IV, ante , of this Division). The subdivisions of each of these principal heads are also shown there, such as ‘ Brahma,’ 1 Arsha,’ ‘ Amdra,’ &c. — T.

t ‘ Ranjana ’ is colouring matter. ■

‘ Samuditagunarti ragam ’ implies colour of excellent attributes.

■ ‘ Upanipata ’ means falling 'or touching.

What the Rishi says here is this : any colouring matter, if the piece of cloth to be coloured happens to be perfectly white and free from .filth, succeeds in producing an excellent colour. If, however, the cloth happens to be filthy and not white, the dye used fails to act properly on it. Some colour is, no doubt, produced, but it does not partake

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CHARAKA SAMHITA.

Of the conception which thus sets in, the causes that determine manhood or feminity have been declared before.*6 *

Even as seeds, whose productivity has 'liot been burnt by fire, when sown, reproduce their respective natures, so that paddy produces paddy and barley produces barky, so the heads of causes laid down above produce male and female offspring.** *|-

Instructions will be laid down aboUt 'those Vedic rites by Which the. sex of the child (in the Womb), before its manifestation, may be changed.28];

Verily, of rites duly performed and characterised by propriety of time and place, the capacity to produce desirable fruits is Ordained! of all that are otherwise, the result is otherwise.

the colour of the dye used. So the father’s semen, combining with good menstrual blood, (the generative organ and the womb being both unvitiated by disease of very kind) produces an excellent child.