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

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48 Treatment of Svara
which the essence of lymph-chyle³⁸ produced from the assi-
milated food of the mother enters into its organism.
(39c-40b)
With hands folded⁴⁰ over the forehead and the limbs
flexed⁴¹, the embryo stays by the mother's back. As it is
believed, if it is in the right side of the womb, it is a male⁴²,
if in the left side, a female and if in the centre, a herma-
phrodite. (40c-41)
Here, the process by which the foetus is nourished is described,
though not in sufficient detail. The translation of this passage presents
the essential fact. Literally rendered the text would read:—
"The mother's rasavaha nāḍī is joined to the parā-nāḍī that origi-
nates from the navel and carries mother's assimilated food to the foetus."
Suśruta (Śā. Sthā. 3.40) reads in substance as under—"The umbilical
cord (nāḍī) of the foetus is found to be attached to the cavity of the
vein or artery of its maternal part through which the essence of lymph-
chyle (rasa) produced from the assimilated food of the mother, enters
into its organism and fastens its growth and development (a fact which
may be understood from the analogy of percolation or transudation of
blood). Immediately after the completion of the process of fecundation,
the vessels (dhamanī) of its maternal body which carry the lymph-chyle
(rasa) and run laterally and longitudinally in all directions tend to foster
the foetus with their own transudation all through its continuance in
the womb."³⁹
The author is describing here, the position of the embryo in the
parturient's womb and the process of parturition. As regards the position
of the embryo in the womb and its relationship to the sex of the child,
it appears that the author is referring to a generally accepted idea as it
is implied by his expression 'matam'.
38. Rasa, in this context, means the solution of the assimilated food.
39. Reproduced from Eng. trans. by Kaviraja Kunjalal Bhishag-
ratna, M.R.A.S. Vol. II, pub. Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series
Office, Varanasi, India.
40. Folded in the posture of salutation.
41. The limbs are not stretched but are contracted and drawn in
together, flexed.
42. The sense is implied in the text.

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Section 2 : The Genesis of the Human Embodiment 49
(ii) बालकस्य जन्म
क्रियते ऽधःशिराः सूतिमारुतः प्रबलेस्ततः ।
निःसार्यते रुजद्गात्रो यन्त्रच्छिद्रेण बालकः ॥४२॥
(iii) जीवस्य नित्यता (अनुमिता)
जातमात्रस्य तस्याथ प्रवृत्तिः स्तन्यगोचरा ।
प्राग्जन्मबोधसंस्कारादिति जीवस्य नित्यता ॥४३॥
(ii) The birth of the child: 42
As it is turned upside down by the strong force of the
parturition¹-winds it² is ejected through the vagina, its limbs
being afflicted (through the passage). (42)
(iii) The eternity of Jīva (inferred): 43
Immediately (after the birth), the newborn baby has
the tendency of sucking at the breast due to the psychologi-
cal impressions of past life, and this incidentally proves the
immortality of the soul. (43)
The author draws our attention to the inborn tendency of the
newborn baby to suck at the mother's breast. The question is, who
trains or educates and informs the baby to perform this act. It is almost
instinctive and mechanical. The author therefore infers, by deduction,
the habit built up in the past lives, and thereby he concludes that the
death of the physical organism does not mean the total annihilation of
the individual. Obviously, the thought-body is there, already spoken
of by the author, to carry over mental impressions to the next life. It
does not, therefore, necessarily follow for this reason, that the soul is
timeless. It seems that, the author finds a spiritual substratum for
psychological memory in what he calls the soul; and therefore, it is this
substratum as the witness of all mental phenomenon that, he says, is
timeless. (43)

1. The process of parturition sets in motion the prāṇa that pushes
   the embryo out.
2. Child as per the text.