An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. II — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911)

A child should be so handled or lifted as not to cause any discomfort. A baby should not be scolded, nor suddenly roused up (from sleep), lest it might get awfully frightened. It should not be suddenly drawn up nor suddenly laid down, lest this should result in the derangement of its bodily V^yu. An attempt to seat it (before it has learnt to sit steadily), may lead to haunch-back (Kyphosis). Lovingly should a child be fondled and amused with toys and play-things. A child unruffled by any of the above ways becomes healthy, cheerful and intelligent as it grows older. An infant should be guarded against any exposure to the rains, the sun, or the glare of lightning. He should not be placed uuder a tree or a creeper, in low lands, and in lonely houses or in their shades (cavesl ; and it should be protected from the malignant influences of evil stars and occult powers. 38.

Metrical Texts : —A child should not be left (alone) in an unclean and unholy place, nor under the sky

(uncovered place), nor over an undulating ground, nor should it be exposed to heat, storm, rain, dust, smoke and water. Milk is congenial to the organism of a child, i e., it is its proper food Hence in the absence of sufficient breast-milk, the child should be given the milk of a cow or of a she-goat in adequate quantities, 39.

In the sixth month of its birth the child should be fed on light and wholesome boiled rice. A child should always be kept in an inner apartment of the house, and religious rites should be performed on its behalf for the propitiation of evil deities, and it should be carefully guarded against the influences of evil stars. 40.

Symptoms when a malignant star, 2etc., strikes :— The child looks frightened and agitated, cries, becomes unconscious at times, wounds himself or its nurse with its teeth and finger-nails, gnashes its teeth, crooks, yawns, or moves its eye-brows with upturned eyes, vomits frothy matter, bites its lips, becomes cross, passes loose stool mixed with shreds of mucus, cries in an agonised voice, becomes dull in complexion, becomes weak, does not sleep in the night, does not suck the breast as before, or emits a fishy, bug-like or mxole-Hke smell from its body — these are the general symptoms exhibited by a child under the influence of a malignant star or planet which will be specifically described later on in the Uttara-Tantra. 41.

Education and lYIarriage : -The education of a child should be commenced at a suitable age and with subjects proper to the particular social Varna or order it belongs to. On attaining the twenty-fifth year he should marry a girl of twelve. A conformity to these rules, is sure to crown him with health, satisfaction, progeny and a capacity for fully discharging the religious rites and paying off his parental debts. 42.

lYIetrical Texts :— An offspring of a girl below the age of sixteen by a man below twenty-five is usually found to die in the womb. Such a child, in the event of its being born alive, dies a premature death or else becomes weak in organs (Indriyas). Hence agirl of extremely tender age should not be fecundated at all. An extremely old woman, or one suffering from a chronic affection (of the generative organ), or afflicted with any other disease, should not be likewise impregnated. A man with similar disabilities should be held likewise unfit. 40-44.