Page:Sushruta Samhita Vol 1.djvu/45

 as the cephalic portion of the feJal body is tirst ,».1eveloped. The factors, which are essential to the developme'nt of the fetal hody, from the time of fecundation to the 'ippearance of the characteristic sense-organs, have '^een described in a verse of the Rig Veda (i). In thfe Vedic mythology each organic function is 'consecrated to the tutelage of a presiding^' deity, and a Vedic Aryan loves to call a thing oftener by the name of its divine custodian than by that of its own. Rightly translated, the verse would read as follows : — "May Vishnu (the presiding deity of ether and nerve force) expand thy uterus, may Tvashta (the presiding deity 'of heat and metabolism) bring about the full differentiation of the limbs and the sex of the foetus, may Prajapati (the presiding deity of the ovum) sprinkle thy uterus, and mayst thou conceive through the blessing of the lortl of human destiny. May Snrasvati (goddess of intellect) and the Ashvins, the surgeons f>1' the gods (the |iresiding deity of fission, etc.) help thee in taking the seed." Now, the development of the fetal body takes place after the pattern of its father's species, and this conformity to the pattern of its species represents an act of intellection. Hence, the aid of the goddess of intellect has been invoked with that of the celestial surgeons, who preside over the process of cell-division, so essential to the formation of the fetal limbs. Divested of its allegory, the verse would mean

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