An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. I: Sutrasthanam — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907)

is necessary thai on^shouFd fully compreliend the meaning of such Ayuryedic terms on the subject as Ichchha Shakli (will-force). Shukra-Vahulyam (\) (preponderance of the male reproductive element) and Shonita-Vahulyam (preponderance of the female reproductive element) etc. Sushruta, in common with 'the Brahmanic philosophers of Ind, believed that distinction of sex h'as evolved from a primordial hermaijhroditism. Manu in his Institutes has emphasised the fact (2), though in a highly poetic style. He observes that "the Purusha (Logos), by a stroke of Will, divided its body (animated cosmic matter) into two, one of which was male, and the other female." The Tantra says that, ''the male part was endued with an energy (force) of its own, which is called Pitrika Shaktl ; and the corresponding female part, with the one, which is called Matrika Shakti. Pitrika Shakti is a disruptive force ; •Matrika Shakti is a constructive energy. Though the conception of force in Sanskrit sciences is but partially physical, the nearest approach to the connotations of the Pitrika and Matrika Shakti is made by the terms Anabolism and KatabolisiU of the Western physiologists. Sanskrit physiology recognises the two opposite poles of vital force in a living organism, and has not taken inconsiderate pains to determine their exact locations in mau and woman. Matrika Shakti, it observes, predominates in the left half of a woman's organism, which is negative as regards vital magnetism. {3) Now, Sushruta says that, in cases where female offspring is desired, the enceinte should

(l) Shdiiia-sth^iiani Ch. II.

(2) f^ifi^n«r*^ ^^»TiT 3«i«iT5«^fT '^i^ sfrff r\f^i ^ f^?;T5w^5TrT nij- 11

Manu .Samhili Ch. I. J2. (■2.) ^f^^irtar; *JI fi: ijt^ sfmwnflf^S'T'RT; 1

SfiradS Tilak Tanlrani.

INTRODbCTVJN. XXXIU

snufF through her left nostril (thq expressed juice Qf certain herbals), while the same should be administered through her right nostril where njale* issue would be the object. In other words, the anabolic (Mairika) or katabolic (Piti;}ka) forces of a mother's organism can be so adjusted with the help of drug-dynamics, as to determine, the sex of the child in the womb. The b',rth of a male child is usually presaged by the appearance of the milk (which according to Sushruta is metamorphised menstraal blood) in the right breast of the enceinte ; and where that has been effected with the help of suitable medicines, it must be presumed that the Katabolic pole of her glife-force has been acted upon, as desired.

The original hermaphroditism, which forms the anterior condition of all subsequent sex distinctions, and the character of the two opposite poles of vital energy, have been very clearly set forth in the Pauranik allegory of ArdhaNarishvara(i). The figure, observes the Pauranik rhapsodist, is half male, half female ; half life, half death (since, death, in fact, is the father of Hfe) (2) ; half anabolism, half katabolism ; with the crescent moon, the premise, the s3'mbol of progressive evolution on its brow, is made to sit on the eternal bull, the representative of the inmiutable law of the universe (lit : — the four-footed order). The Rishis and Rasasiddhas of ancient India were fully aware of the fact that, conception is effected only at an enormous sacrifice on the part of the mother ; that the Matrika Shakti is the real manufacturer of life, and that the Pitrika Shakti (paternal element) evokes, or calls it into play only through its disintegrating or disruptive effect by separating the two opposite life-poles, that lie neutralised through contact. It is love that governs these two complementary (i) Vishnu PurSnam Ch. 7. Vs. lo-ii. *

(2) mm: F?^n ^^^^^ ^t^ «TTJrfff ^^v. 1

Mahdbhaialam.

xxxiv INTRODUCTION.

forces of .life and death (i), (though in' fact they represent the two different aspects of the same energy) and controls its evolutionary rhythms through the desire of seeing itself many though one in reality. Does not modern biology endorse the same view when it says that the reproductive cells, as protozoons,.are immortal, and that bodies are the natural appendages which blossom.forth and fall off round these cells for the fructification of their innate purposes of being (2)?