determines the male sex of the child, while such a thing, on the part of the mother at the time, is followed by the relative preponderance of the Mátrika Shakti (anabolism) which accounts for the femininity of the issue. Equal in-tensity of sexual desires in both the parents, creating an absence of the relative preponderance of the Pitrika and Matrika Shaktis in the impregnated ovum, leaves the sex of the child practically undetermined. The relative prepon- derance of the Pitriká or Mátrika Shakti, as evidenced by the greater or less intensity of the sexual desire of either of the parents, which results in the speedier emission of the paternal or maternal element (sperm or ovum) during an act of successful fecundation, is contemplated by the term "Shukra-Váhulyam," or "Shonita-Váhulyam," by the framer of the Samhitá, as may be fully substantiated by a couplet by the venerable Daruvahi (1)[1].
So far Sushruta is at one with the modern Western theory of preponderant katabolism or anabolism in the ovum as the determining factor of the sexual diamorphism to the extent that seeds or reproductive cells are the bearers and not the manufacturers of life, only containing those categories which foster life, and help its evolution into an organic being. To deny this would be to admit the chemical, or physiological basis of life, which, as a theory, was never acceptable to the biologists of ancient India. The number of reproductive cells may be increased by suitable dietary, and to say that the immortal reproductive cells, as the creators of life, come out of the mortal, organic food stuff; is to say that darkness is the father of light. The question of the immortality of the seed (germ plasm) has
- ↑ (1) (
Indic characters)
Dárubáhi (Quoted by Arunadatla in his commentaries on Vágbhat).
