snufF through her left nostril (thq expressed juice Qf certain herbals), while the same should be administered through her right nostril where njale* issue would be the object. In other words, the anabolic (Mairika) or katabolic (Piti;}ka) forces of a mother's organism can be so adjusted with the help of drug-dynamics, as to determine, the sex of the child in the womb. The b',rth of a male child is usually pre- saged by the appearance of the milk (which according to Sushruta is metamorphised menstraal blood) in the right breast of the enceinte ; and where that has been effected with the help of suitable medicines, it must be presumed that the Katabolic pole of her glife-force has been acted upon, as desired.
The original hermaphroditism, which forms the anterior condition of all subsequent sex distinctions, and the character of the two opposite poles of vital energy, have been very clearly set forth in the Pauranik allegory of Ardha- Narishvara(i). The figure, observes the Pauranik rhapsodist, is half male, half female ; half life, half death (since, death, in fact, is the father of Hfe) (2) ; half anabolism, half katabolism ; with the crescent moon, the premise, the s3'mbol of progressive evolution on its brow, is made to sit on the eternal bull, the representative of the inmiutable law of the universe (lit : — the four-footed order). The Rishis and Rasasiddhas of ancient India were fully aware of the fact that, conception is effected only at an enormous sacrifice on the part of the mother ; that the Matrika Shakti is the real manufacturer of life, and that the Pitrika Shakti (paternal element) evokes, or calls it into play only through its disintegrating or disruptive effect by separating the two opposite life-poles, that lie neutralised through contact. It is love that governs these two complementary
(i) Vishnu PurSnam Ch. 7. Vs. lo-ii. *
(2) (
Indic characters)
Mahdbhaialam.
