Charaka-Samhita — trans. Kaviraj Avinash Chandra Kaviratna

Chakrapani adopts the reading which gives 10 months as the limit of gestation. He admits that Sucruta assigns 12 months as the limit, but he regards the experience of Sucruta to have been very exceptional.

There is a popular addage in India which assigns 10 months and 10 days as the usual period of gestation. This comes up to 44 weeks, taking a month to consist of only 30 days. i charaka samhita.

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In consequence, however, of the demerits of the several incidents and circumstances, beginning with mother, which cause conception* conception does not arise.34*

If those circumstances which have been laid down as the cause of the growth of the foetus in the womb be otherwise, the foetus meets with destruction or a premature birth takes place.33

We shall now expound the causes in consequence of which the child in the womb, instead of being wholly destroyed, becomes subject to deformities.36

Either one or more than one limb, among those that are motherbom, becomes subject to deformity, of that embryo which a woman . gets, at a time when her faults, becoming excited in conse¬ quence of her indulgence in such food and drink and practices

Gangadhara adopts the reading which assigns 12 months as the period of gestation. He is blinded by the authority of Sucruta Having been a very modern physician, he ought to have known better. It is curious to see how Mahomedan legists have settled the question I quote from a hand-book of Mahomedan Law by Mr. Justice Ameer Ali of the Bengal High Court. “ There is great difference as to the maximum (of the period of gestation) The Sunni legists hold two years to be the longest period. The Shiahs consider, ten months as the maximim limit, which in exceptional cases may extend to twelve months.

“ In Algeria, the Sunni doctors have adopted ten months as the longest period of gestation and it may be regarded as furnishing the modern rule. ” ;

. * Some texts read ativrittasaushthavat’ for * vrittasaushthathavat. ■ The; word ' ati 1 is surplusage. It is not necessary. ‘ Samp it ’ (the base of the; ablative ‘ Sampadah, ’), literally, means * wealth ’ or 1 affluence. ’ Gangadhara explains it as ‘ avaigunyat, ’ meaning faultlessiiess or the absence of demerits. What is meant is worth, or excellence, or merits. It is through the worth or excellence' of those entities or incidents which cause conception, viz., mother* lather, and;the rest, that the foetus grows in the womb.

‘ Vrittasaushthavat ’ means, the propriety or excellence of the mother’s conduct after, of course, conception has set in. If she. conducts herself pro¬ perly in everything, that is, observes such practices as are beneficial and abstains from such as are injurious, it is then only that the foetus can grow.

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CHARAKA. SAM HIT A,

as have been declared to b3 capable of exciting them, and coursing through her body, vitiate both her blood and the womb.3'*

Verily, deformity invades those limbs in whose seed, or in any portion, of whose seed, the faults become excited.?7!

: When that particular portion of the seed (in the mother’s ; womb) from which the (child’s) blood and the (child’s') womb grow, become vitiated, the consequence is that the mother begets a barren child (daughter).’8

Kalaparinama ’ is effect or ripeness of time. It will be noted that Hindu physicians always count time as a distinct factor in the development; of everything. Thus, in the development of disease as also in its cure, time is as powerful an agent as any other.

‘ Swabbavasiddhi, ’ which I render 1 development of Nature ’ has refer¬ ence, as Chakrapani explains, to the effect of the unexhausted acts of previ¬ ous lives.

so < Upasucha ’• and ‘ upasweda ’ are technical words. The first means the oily substances secreted by the womb or the internal organism of the mother, By the second is implied the vapours generated from these oily substances by the action of heat.— T.

* This, which is as literal a version of the original as possible, will give the reader some idea of the construction or collocation of the original. In the first place, the passage is variously read, though the differences of reading do not much affect the meaning I reject all the words- which occur iff Gangadhara’s text between ‘ upasarpantah * and 1 panitagarbhacayam •’ (the accusative of ‘ dushyanti. ’) ‘ Tadeyam garbham ’ is incorrect j it should be ‘ tada yam garbham. 1

Then ‘ tada garbhasya ’ should be ‘ tadgarbhasya. ’ In brief, what is said here is this : if a woman indulges in such food and drink and practices as have been declared to be provocative of the faults: («>., wind, bile and phlegm), then her faults become excited. These, coursing through her body, vitiate both her blood and womb. The consequence of this is that if she conceives at such a time, some one or more limbs, among those that are mother-born, of the embryo become subject to deformities.— T.