women's breasts

Tracy Coleman tcoleman at COLORADOCOLLEGE.EDU
Wed Nov 5 18:44:29 UTC 2008


Indologists--

I am trying to make sense of two sorts of passages I have encountered in
epic and puranic literature:

1) A woman well beyond her child-bearing years sees her sons after a long
separation, and her breasts spontaneously flow with milk, which the sons
happily drink.

2) Adolescent girls who are not pregnant have breasts (uras) described as
"payodhara."

Is there an understanding, in traditional medical literature or other
works describing the female body, that women's breasts are always filled
with milk, irrespective of pregnancy?

Thank you,
Tracy Coleman
Colorado College





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