Gestation

[Gautama Vajracharya]

Those who are interested in the Indian concept of gestation may like to read
my recent article on the frog hymn (RV. 7. 103) which has been accepted for
the upcoming issue of the Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies.  I will quote
a paragraph from the article:

"In general the word saMvatsara means a year, but originally it denoted only
ten lunar months of gestation.  The original meaning, however, remained
intact throughout the history of Vedic literature when the word is used in
the context of pregnancy, in particular atmospheric pregnancy, which begins
in autumn and ends with the birth of a rain child... Some Vedic statements
mention ten lunar months as the normal duration of pregnancy, and others
merely use the term saMvatsara to denote the same period of time."

Any comments or criticism will be highly appreciated.

Gautama Vajracharya