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motif is apparently a variation of the ascetic's touching a woman's navel (see above). So much for the hero's conception. We now pass on to his gestation.
The first case of this kind is found already in the 2nd millennium B.C., viz. in the old nucleus, the 'family books', of the RV. Here it is Indra's mother, again not mentioned by name, who, at RV 4,18,4 is said to carry her son for a thousand months70 and many autumns beyond full term apparently, like Agni's mother (RV 5,2,1 sq.), in order to protect him against his jealous father (whose name is not mentioned)." Or, does she carry Indra so long because she does not want him to be born ? 72 She knows that he would kill her, as is said in the first stanza in which Indra refuses to go the usual way of the gods, viz. "down the drain", for they did not become heroes.73 Thus the hymn commences amidst an obscure dialogue with words spoken either by the mother or by the gods: "Dies ist der erprobte alte Weg, auf dem alle Götter geboren wurden. Auf diesem soll auch er ausgereift geboren werden. Nicht soll er seine Mutter derartig zugrunde gehen lassen" (Geldner). Even as early as Oldenberg it was remarked that births in a way other than the natural way is found in the most different peoples' ideas with regard to their most powerful gods and heroes.74
The text does not tell us which side,75 nor the bearing stance. Not before Gotama the Bodhisatta do we hear of these details. Yet the origin of the lateral birth idea, just as that of the lateral conception in Gotama's case, has not yet been explained, as far as I know. Perhaps the idea originated in the custom of carrying children on the hip, but Indra's lateral birth must be connected with his splitting heaven and earth,76 this being a horizontal movement in the middle of the cosmic egg," and also of his mother's waist, which is the middle of her body. Cf. also passages like SB 6,1,1,2 sa yo 'yarn madhye práṇak, esa evendraḥ
70L.e., 100 times the usual period. The full term of the gods takes millennia, c.g. twenty in Kärttikeya's case - with several foetus transfers (see Mani 1975: 747).
71 See Rank 1909: 74 and Neumann 1962: 132 sq.
72 In MS 2,1,12 Aditi as Indra's mother even binds her son in her womb with an iron fetter and in this state he was born. Cf. Neumann 1962: 300.
73 Cf. Neumann 1962: 154; 164, but already indicated by Jung, e.g. 1976, ch. VI, esp. §456 sq. and in other works.
74 Oldenberg 1917: 132 note 3.
75 Geldner, in his introduction to the hymn, even speaks of Seiten, i.e., plural.
76 RV 7,23,3 cd: ví badhista syá ródasi mahitvéndro vṛtrány a-pratí jaghan van "Indra drängte beide Welthälften durch seine Größe auseinander, als er die Dämonen erschlagen hatte, denen keiner gewachsen war" (Geldner, Id.). Vṛträni, however, should here be translated by "obstacles", I think.
77 At RV 3,49,1 and 8,61,2 both worlds, which originally were united (RV 3,38,3 with Geldner's note), are said to have created Indra and at RV 4,17,2 heaven and earth tremble at his birth.