Verse 3.49

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

पुमान् पुंसोऽधिके शुक्रे स्त्री भवत्यधिके स्त्रियाः ।
समेऽपुमान् पुं।स्त्रियौ वा क्षीणेऽल्पे च विपर्ययः ॥ ४९ ॥

pumān puṃso'dhike śukre strī bhavatyadhike striyāḥ |
same'pumān puṃ|striyau vā kṣīṇe'lpe ca viparyayaḥ || 49 ||

A male child is born when the man’s seed is in excess, and a female child when the woman’s (is in excess); when the two are equal, there is born either a non-male or a boy and a girl; when it is weak and small in quantity, there is failure.—(49)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Seed’—the man’s semen, and the woman’s ovule. Says the revered Vaśiṣṭha—‘man is the product of semen and ovule’ (15.1).

When the man’s ‘seed’ is in excess of the woman’s, then, even on the uneven days, a male child is conceived; similarly, on the even days also a female child becomes conceived, if the woman’s ‘seed’ happens to be in excess.

This statement is meant to lead the man seeking for a son to have intercourse with his wife on the uneven days also; the sense of the instruction being that—when the man finds that by the use of aphrodisiacs and strengthening food he has become vigorous in his virility, and that his wife has, for some reason or other, become weak, then he should have intercourse with her, when desirous of getting a son.

The ‘excess’ meant here is not that in quantity, but that in virility.

When the two are equal, there in burn either a non-male, or a boy and a girl, together. ‘Non-male’ stands for the hermaphrodite, according to some people.

Some people read ‘sāmye;’ and it means that ‘in case of equality of both, a non-male is born.’

‘Or a boy and a girl’—When the wind in the womb stirs up the mixed semen and ovula and divides it into two equal parts—a small quantity in -one part, and an equal quantity in another part of the womb,—then twins are born; and in those two equal parts also, in that part where the woman’s seed happens to be in excess the girl is born, while in the other part, where the male’s seed is in excess, the boy is born.

When the seed is weak—in virility—then ‘there is failure;’ either non-conception, or the birth of a hermaphrodite.—(49)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 499), which remarks that in the second line the words are ‘same apumān’;—and in Smṛtitattva (p. 617).

Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 160) quotes this verse and adds the following notes:—‘Śukra’ in the man’s case is semen; and in that of the woman, the red ovule;—Vaśiṣṭha has declared that the human body is made up of the semen and the ovule;—if the man’s seed happens to be in excess of the woman’s, then the child is male, even though the sexual intercourse might have taken place on an odd day of the period; but with this difference that the male child born under such circumstances would have an effeminate body;—in the event of the woman’s seed being in excess of the man’s the child is female, even though the intercourse might have taken place on an even day of the period; but in this case the female child would have a masculine body;—and the reason for this mixed character consists in the fact that the effect of the seed, which is the material cause of the child’s body, is more potent than that of the time of conception, which is only a ‘concomitant cause’;—when the two seeds are in equal quantity, the child is either ‘non-male’ i.e., a eunuch, or a boy and girl—i.e., twins,—this latter being caused by the bifurcation of the seed at the time of emission, leading to two portions of it falling on two different parts of the womb.

The verse is also quoted in the Āhnika section (p. 559) of Vīramitrodaya where we find the following notes:—

‘Same’—when the man’s seed and the woman’s are equal—there is born either a non-male, a eunuch, or ‘a boy and girl’;—the seeds being bifurcated into two parts in.equal quantities, twins, consisting of one boy and one girl, are born;—‘Kṣīṇe’—when the seed is weak,—and ‘alpe’—small in quantity, there is ‘viparyaya’—failure of conception.

This is quoted in Saṃskāramayūkha (p. 16), which adds that if the intercourse takes place on an ‘even’ day but the proportion of the woman’s ‘seed’ is larger, then the child will be a female one, but with masculine features; and if it takes place on an odd day and the proportion of the man’s ‘seed’ is larger, then the child will be a male one, but with feminine features;—in Saṃskāraratnamālā (p. 683), which explains ‘apumān’ as ‘sexless’ and there are two children, one male and another female, if the seed become divided;—in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Saṃskāra, p, 25a);—and in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 40) which explains ‘Same’ as ‘when there is equality of the two-seeds,’ and adds the same notes as those in the Mayūkha.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 3.45-50)

See Comparative notes for Verse 3.45.