Dear Johanna,

While still residing in the womb (garbhastha) the embryo is said to be pressed by the chorion like one squeezed down by mountains; soaked by the amniotic fluid like one fallen into the sea; “cooked” by digestive fire like one thrown into a hot brass pot; and experiencing eight times as much suffering as one pierced by red-hot needles. The suffering inflicted by the dreadful contraption of the vagina (yoniyantra) at deliverance is, however, 10 million times as much as that experienced in the womb. The dehin who has finally “thickened” (sammūrchita!) and is ready to be born is thoroughly crushed like a cane by a grinder, his head pounded by a nasty hammer while he is helplessly blown out by the powerful winds of childbirth. Crushed by the yoniyantra, the newborn body is as sapless as a sugar cane driven through a grinder. Then the text goes on to expatiate on the impurity of the bodily frame by detailing its filthy components.

As a consequence of the agony of childbirth the newborn baby is seized by a violent fever which erases the memory of past lives and the embryo’s former resolve to attain liberation through śivajñāna. It is indeed as a remedy for such forgetfulness that the present śāstra (i.e. the Śivadharmottara) has been proclaimed by Śiva, in order to denounce the evils of saṁsāra and make for heaven or liberation.

All this surely stands in stark contrast to Western psychoanalytic views of a prenatal “paradise lost”! What about East Asian views?

Paolo Magnone
Sanskrit Language and Literature
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Milan)

Jambudvipa  - Indology and Sanskrit Studies (www.jambudvipa.net)
On 19/02/2012 22:37, Jo wrote:

 

Please, Prof, Magnone,

 

Would you also describe what these tortures entail:

“(a pledge, alas! soon to be forgotten because of the hellish tortures inflicted by the yoniyantra…)”. So what are these?  I want to compare them to East Asian views on childbirth and the female.

 

Thanks,

Joanna Kirkpatrick

 

 

 

From: Indology [mailto:INDOLOGY@liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Paolo Magnone
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2012 11:52 AM
To: INDOLOGY@liverpool.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] A Query re the development of garbha

 

Dear Arthur and List,

Śivadharmottara Purāṇa 8, 26-52 describes the different stages of the conception, formation and development of the embryo, up to the point when the jīva acquires consciousness and remembrance of his past sorrowful incarnations, pledging to put an end to such course in his life soon to begin through the study of śivajñāna! (a pledge, alas! soon to be forgotten because of the hellish tortures inflicted by the yoniyantra and of the agony of childbirth).

The relevant passage (28-29) apparently contemplates three main phases, marked by three different terms (which do not include kaṭhina): kalala, arbuda (budbuda in another MS) and peśī.
 
tac chukraṃ raktasaṁyuktam ekāhāt kalalaṃ bhavet
    pañcarātreṇa kalalam arbudākāratāṃ vrajet
arbudaṃ saptarātreṇa māṁsapeśī bhavet tataḥ
    dvisaptāhād bhavet peśī raktamāṁsacitā dṛḍhā

Greetings from likewise snowy Milan,

Paolo Magnone
Sanskrit Language and Literature
Catholic University of Milan

Jambudvipa  - Indology and Sanskrit Studies (www.jambudvipa.net)



On 17/02/2012 14:49, Artur Karp wrote: 

Dear List,
 
According to the Garbhopaniṣat  human embryos "solidify" one month
after conception, they become kaṭhina. Turner (CDIAL 2650) informs the
word is used in the Suśrutasaṃhitā and suggests it could be a
Dravidian borrowing.
 
[an embryo becomes] māsābhyantare kaṭhinaṃ: "in a month, it hardens".
A quick check of the Suśrutasaṃhitā text doesn't show any phrase
combining the two: garbha and kaṭhina.
 
Are there any other words used to describe this stage of the embryo's
'hardening' or 'solidification'? Does also the Hiranyagarbha undergo
this stage?
 
 
Thanks in advance, and greetings from snowy Warsaw,
 
 
Artur Karp
 
Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit and Pali (ret.)
South Asian Studies Dept.
University of Warsaw
Poland