सङ्गीतरत्नाकर: प्रथम भाग (शार्ङ्गदेव - स्वरगताध्याय सविस्तार व्याख्या व अनुवाद सहित)

46 Treatment of Svara
residing in the heart³² and considered to be the sustaining
force of life, being unstable, fluctuates rapidly in-between the
mother and the foetus; that is why the eighth month issue,
being deprived of the life-force, does not survive³³; and if it
does for a while, it is due to the force of momentum, like a
dismembered limb. (36c-38)
Thus, the author seems to have relied on these sources put together
as far as the physiological details of embryology are concerned. But
he has supplemented this account with the essentials of corresponding
purāṇic tradition (cf., Srimad-bhāgavatam III. 31) as far as the psycholo-
gical and the philosophical aspects of the origin and development of the
life-principle are concerned.
The author has already spoken of complexion in the sixth month
and of past recollections in the seventh month; thus, under the circum-
stance, ‘K’ raises the question as to why he once again speaks of the skin
and memory; and then he offers to explain that, in the eighth month the
skin becomes compact and thick and memory brings in the element of
choice, i.e., the operation of will. However, ‘S’reads śruti instead of
smṛti. He therefore interprets that the embryo is able to listen to
outside sounds, and he rather warns us not to identify śruti with the
sense of hearing.
In the āyurvedic system, ojas is considered to be the principle of
vital warmth and action throughout the body. It is difficult to identify
this life-principle in terms of modern anatomy. However, the statement
of the author is well-supported by Caraka and Suśruta (cf., Śā. Sthā.
4 24 & 3.38 respectively). ‘K’ elucidates ojas as ‘bright pithy,
substance’ which is said to be pure in so far as it is not vitiated by
the impurities of the atmosphere outside the body. It is slightly of
yellowish tinge on a red base, and is produced by and resides in the
heart; its function is to regulate and to support the movement of the
vital breath in the body. The purport of the text is that in the eighth
month the life principle, i.e., the vital force that regulates the flow of
the vital breath, becomes unsteady and alternately moves from the
embryo. Consequently, as explained by ‘K’, if the child is born in the
eighth month while the vital force is residing with the mother, the
32. Produced by the heart in the sense that it resides in the
heart, according to ‘K’.
33. That the eighth month issue does not live, does not necessarily
imply the completion of the 8th month for the child to live,
but implies rather the death of either the child or the mother
as explained above.
Section 2 : The Genesis of the Human Embodiment
The parturition³⁴ takes place after the ninth³⁵ month
commences. (39 ab)
• The placenta³⁶ of the foetus is joined to the lymphatic
vessels³⁷ of the mother by the umbilical cord, through
child dies as soon as it is born; but if the vital force is with the child
at the time of delivery, it is the mother who dies; and in case the
vital force is in transit, both the mother and the child may not survive.
‘K.R.’ finds in this statement a probable explanation of still birth. To
a possible objection that sometimes the eighth month issues are also
observed to be alive for some time after their birth, the author offers
an explanation: just as when a limb is cut off from the body, it keeps
on throbbing for sometime due to the momentum of the breath left in
it, so also the child born in the eighth month, even though devoid of
the vital force in its entirety, yet lives for sometime, its organism having
been vitalised by it shortly before the delivery; in other words, it lives
till the momentum of the vital force lasts.
What is the normal time for the delivery of the child, is the ques-
tion considered here. Delivery, according to our author, may normally
take place any time after the ninth month commences. The expression
navamādi in the text implies, as noted by ‘K’, that it may even take place
in the tenth or in the eleventh month as well. This contention seems to
be supported by Suśruta (cf., Śā. Sthā. 3.39) who even visualises the
possibility of parturition taking place in the twelfth month in exception-
al cases, beyond which he declares it to be indicative of something
wrong. Caraka too seems to be of the same opinion (cf., Sa. Sthā.
4.25). He says that the ninth month would commence even after one
day upon the completion of the eighth month, and that the delivery can
take place normally from the ninth to the twelfth month, beyond which
something wrong must be inferred. Obviously all agree as to the mini-
mum period of gestation, which is eight completed months.
34. The delivery of the child.
35. Navamādi of the text implies literally beginning with the ninth
month (from conception).
36. Placenta is defined in the dictionary as, flattened circular
spongy vascular organ in higher mammals, expelled in partu-
rition after nourishing foetus which is attached to it by umbi-
lical cord. Parā-nāḍī is identified with placenta.
37. Rasavahā nāḍī etymologically means the vein or artery carrying
assimilated food.