Studies in the Bhagavati Sutra

Author(s): J C Sikdar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 371

346
STUDIES IN THE BHAGAWATI SUTRA
[Ch. VÌ
Birth of Child The BKS throws some light on fertilization and human embryology.
It explains that in one life one being becomes the father of of one or two or three issues in the minimum and of nine lakhs in the maximum. When there takes place the sexual union called 'mehunavattie' in the heated sex-orguns of the famale and the male, semen and blood combine and by this process one or two or three issues in the minimum upto nine lakhs in the maximum may be begotten.
Process of Conception It is explained that a Jiva, being born and existing in the body (mother's womb) is called Kayabhavastha, the duration of which is one antur muhūrta in the minimuni and twenty-four years in the maximum."
The sperm in case of the human beings and the fivesensed lower animals exists for one antarmuhürta in the minimum and twelve muhūrtas in the maximum, after entering the uterus.'
Fertilization of Embryo Next, the text throws light upon the fertilization and gradual development of the embryo by explaining the transformation of physical and psychical matters of the child. It states that the being which is conceived in the womb may be born with the sense-organs (sairdie) and not sense-organs (animdie).
"The being which is conceived in the womb is endowed with the body (saririye) and is non-bodied also (asarīriye), because from the point of view of gross physical transformation and translocation of bodies, a bodiless or incorporal being is born, while from the standpoint of fiery (luminous) and kārmic bodies, a bodied being is born'':
Being conceived in the mother's womb it takes first the matter of mutually mixed kalusam and leilvisar from both mother's blood and father's semen."
1 BhS, 2, 5, 105. 8 Ib, 2, 5, 103,
? 16, 2, 5, 102. 4.5 16, 1, 7, 61.