encyclopedia of hinduism. vol.12 (selected).(ed.n.singh)

E N C Y C L O P A E D I A O F

H I N D U I S M

V o l . 1 2

Edited by

N a g e n d r a K r . S ingh

C E N T R E F O R I N T E R N A T I O N A L R E L I G I O U S S T U D I E S

&

A N M O L P U B L I C A T I O N S P V T L T D

N E W DELHI-110 002 ( INDIA)

A N M O L P U B L I C A T I O N S P V T . L T D .4374/4B, A n s a r i Road, Daryagan jNewDelh i -110 002

Encyclopaedia of Hinduism

Copyright © Reserved wi th Pub l i she r

F i r s t Edi t ion 1997 (Vol. 1-15)

ISBN 81-7488-168-9 (Set)

[All Rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval systemor transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording orotherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.]

PRINTED IN INDIA

Published by J. L. Kumar for Anmol Publications Pvt Ltd, New Delhi, Typeset at WelcomeComputers, New Delhi and Printed at Mehra Offset Press, Delhi.

C o n t e n t s

Preface vii

The Samavidhana Brahmanas 3309

Samdhya: Myth and Ritual 3317

Samhitopanisad B r a h m a n a 3334

Sanim Sasan ivamsam and the Vedic Data 3346

The Sapta Rasmis of the Rgveda 3350

On Sapta — In the Rgveda 3365

Sarva- in Vedic Texts: I ts Reflections 3381

The &atapatha B r a h m a n a 3399

Saupa rna Hymns 3418

Sayana 's Authorship of the Vedabhasyas 3422

Schools of Mythical Study ... 3426

The Science of the B r a h m a n a s 3445

Science of Space 3457

Sex in Stone and the Vedic Mi thuna 3480

Sexual Fluids 3499

Siddheshwar Varma on Vedic Usage 3538

The Significance of the Word Son in Rgveda and in Chinese 3546

The Significance of Soma 3550

Sin, Penances and Cure 3554

Si^na-Deva and the Vedic Cult of the Nude 3567

Socio-Political In terpreta t ion of the Vedic Verses 3571

A Solemn Vedic Ritual — The Mahavra ta 3597

Spiri tual Growth and Psychological Implication 3600

S e x i n S t o n e a n d t h e V e d i c M i t h u n a

The topic of erotic sculptures in India has a t t rac ted a number of scholars;1 and, as

early as 1925 there have been efforts to interpret the coitusposes and other mithuna-

motifs.2 Though, in sculpture, the distinct mithuna (couple)-posture appears from the 2nd

century B.C. onwards, there is clear indication of a mithuna as early as the 3rd century

B.C. on a Rupar seal, wherein we see a nude goddess with a male figure.3 The male figure

is shown away from the nude goddess t rying to offer her something; but, in the left corner

we see a m a n and a woman holding some object on a plate between them. Terracotta

couples have been found in the second century B.C. from Mathu ra and Rajgir, and also

from Tamluk a n d other places. In one instance, the terracotta-couple (which is from

Chandrake tugarh 4 and may be placed about the 2nd century B.C.) acutely resembles the

couple from the Lingaraj temple,5 Bhuvanesvar , 11th century A.D., wherein the full-sized

m a n in the s tanding position takes of his middle a woman with thighs astr ide and in the

slightly uttdnapdda position, both being in the nude and "fixture" position. The position

in the la t te r mithuna has been compared with the avalambita rata6; and, probably,

rightly, so; bu t it h a s to be noted t ha t the terracot ta mithuna is of an earlier period t h a n

the Kdmasutra of Vatsy&yana7, which is the first to codify the erotic science. The same

has to be noted in the case of a terracot ta orgiastic group from the same place and of the

same early period. In this figure, the female-partner of the central couple is in the same

thigh-stretch-fixture pose; there are two females figures by the side of the mithuna.8

In the la ter period, t ha t is about the 12th century A.D., we have the revival of this

motif, with the goddess or without her in certain cases. The point to be noted is, t ha t the

viparlta-rata and the orgiastic group was known prior to the Kdmasutra. In one terracotta

mithuna from Tamluk 9 about the same period (2nd ct. B.C.) we have a typical mithuna,

in a chair. The nude m a n is reclining face upwards , with legs stretched down in ease; and

a woman, also nude , is s i t t ing in his middle in a coital fixture, with th ighs astr ide. The

position is of the purusdyita type, and is represented in the la ter period also, as, for

example, in the Bellagavi sculpture1 0 in Shimoga district of the present Ka rna t aka s ta te

(Tr ipurantaka temple, about the 12th ct. A.D.).

Sex in Stone and the Vedic Mithuna 3481

In an erotic terracotta couple from Kausambi11 we see something like a spacious chair;and the woman (nude) appears to be sitting on the lap of the man, a well known latermotif. The period of the couple is about the same as other terracotta couples mentionedabove. In the very first example we have noted above, we have something like a hutcovered with leaves; and very likely, it represented a divine abode or a shrine. The floralmotif is also seen in the last example noted; and it may be compared with the one in theSalabhanjia, East gate Sanchi, wherein the tree-spirit appears as a nude damsel (1st ct.B.C.).12 Mithunas with the floral motif, or associated with some sort of a depiction ofleaves, are found from the 2nd century B.C. onwards (for example, the Sudarsana Yaksifrom Bharhut13 shows the lotus overhead, 2nd ct. B.C.; the sculpture of an amorous coupleand an attendant from Mathura, lst-2nd ct. A.D. shows leaves overhead).

From Mathura we have an interesting scultpture from this point of view, from the 2ndct. A.D. In a presentation of a gate panel having two sides, joined by a horizontal slabinlaid with a lotus, on the top of one side is seen a couple. The man is seen slightly leaningover the woman, embracing her amorously; his left hand is shown touching an invertedtumbler that stands covering a jar which is held by a rude woman that adorns the fullheight of the panel. The other part of the panel shows a nude woman, her right hand onher waist and the left hand holding something like a stick. On the top is seen the (same)couple, in a semi-embrace as if rousing in the morning.14 The jar appears to symbolizewine, while there is a bunch of mangoes in the right hand of the woman (the Yaksi); thesetogether, symbolize the advent of the Spring; and the motif gets to be on par with thefloral-leafy one.

There is no doubt, hence that all these mark the advent of the spring season and thecreative faculty of the earth. The motif in the terracotta mithunas and the mithuna-

sculptures, hence, is the same; and the psychology behind them should also be the same,which is the gain of prosperity. The difference is, that the terracottas seem to be forcommon use, while the sculptures were established by royal assistance. The formerappear to be for votive offerings15 for prosperity in general; and there is a probability oftheir being planted in the field for harvest, or offered to the goddess of bounty. Besides themithunas, we get the terracotta figurines of the nude goddess identified as !§rl, or of theheadless one said to be the "shameless woman".16

The cult of this goddess was fairly well distributed, as seen from the occurrence offigures at Bhita, Jhusi and Kaudambl in the Uttar Pradesh, Ter and Nevasa in theMaharashtra and Nagarjuna konda in the Andhra Pradesh, in the early centuries of theChristian era. Though the figure is headless, often a lotus is seen in the place of the head.Another headless woman found in Inamgaon, about fifty miles from Poona and to the

3482 Encyclopaedia of Hinduism

east, is associated with the bull as her vehicle;17 she may be compared with the nude

goddess with a bull found at Vadgaon in Maha ra sh t r a and a t Bhinmal in southern

Raj as than.1 8 I t is probable t ha t the bull comes as the zoomorphic male pa r tne r of the

headless goddess, and not only as a vehicle. This type is assigned the 13th century B.C.,

while the signle headless woman is assigned the period about 800 B.C.

Though it is not easy to establish an evolutionary relat ionship between these two

types, the point of remember is the prominent sexual tone of these figures. In the case of

the single headless figure, the fertility aspect is clear, and her images are worshipped

even today in some places. Barr ing this figure, the other female figures are shown along

with their male pa r tne rs , as is seen above, the male being a worshipper-priest in certain

cases (cf. the Rupar figure), or a zoomorph or the h u m a n cohabiting with the female. It is

possible to make a difference between the h u m a n mithuna on the one hand , and the

goddess-human or the goddess-zoo mithuna, on the other. The la t ter appears to be the

divine couple, the priest a t ta in ing divinity in r i tuals , while the former appears to be the

votive mithuna, offered to the divinity, in the form of the nude goddess or any other

goddess of fertility.

• - - T h e M a h a n a g n i

Now, it is in teres t ing to see if the Vedic people knew of any such goddess as the nude

,one noted above. I t is difficult to give an exact copy of the goddess in the Vedic pantheon;

bu t even grant ing the fact of the absence of idol-worship of terracot ta offerings in the

early Vedic period, the Vedic religion had developed the concept of the "Great naked

woman", the Mahanagni , as early as the period of the Atharvaveda (AV) some hymns

from which are known to form pa r t of the Khila hymns of the Rgveda.19 At one place in the

AV, Mahanagni (another reading is Mahanaghni , bu t only a t this place) is alluded to in

the mantras in the context of marr iage; and the gods Asvins are invoked to protect the

bride by their power by which they got sprinkled the genitals of Mahanagni (AVXTV.l, 36

yena mahdnaghnyd jaghanam . . . abhy' asicyanta).

In the same context we have some ritual-detail; for, along with the genitals of

Mahanaghni , wine and the dice are also referred to have been sprinkled (Ibid, yena va

surd yena aksd abhy' asicyanta). This will indicate t ha t the sprinkling of the genitals of

the Mahanagni , together with the wine and the dice probably formed some sort of a rituaL

and, very probably, it was done for prosperity; it is the ritual-belief of the propitiation of

this naked goddess t ha t further entered the r i tual of marr iage, as a charm for the happy

marr ied life for the bride.20 However, the propitiation of Mahanagni is not exclusively

associated with marr iage . I t was a much wider practice, and was extended to the ritual

of marr iage. The indication is to be found in another context, where we have some more


details and a probable ritual. The mantras that refer to Mahanagni are traditionallyincorporated in those that are called dhanasydh; and this term has a peculiar connotation.They symbolized coitus, and their recitation was incidative of the completion of coitus,when actual coitus was substituted by a purely symbolic one.21

There is a slight difference between the mantras of the A V and those from the RV-

Khila, but the theme is the same; and we may note the most prominent features thereof:Mahanangi is told that 'he' is roaring, being unsatisfied; she should be easy, and lift herthighs (RV-Khila V.22.6; AVXX. 136.5 with variant reading). Mahanagni strides over themortar and says, "As do they pound you, so do they mine" CRVIb. 7 = AVIb. 6). Mahanagnirinses the "cock* with the wooden peg CRVIb. 8ab = AVIb. 10ab mahanagni krakravdkum

samyayd pari-dhdvati); and now, the singer says that he does not know, "the beast carriesthe woman by the head!" (AV Ib. 10cd ayarh na vidma, yo mrgah slrsnd harati dhdnikdm;

RV 8** has it as, "This bamboo-stic (tejanam) we do not know; the woman (dhdnakd)

becomes "endowed with the head" (? slrsnd bhavati dhdnakd). Mahanagni says, "Well isthe membrum virile entered"; of the 'tree having such fruit' may we gain basket afterbasket" (AV Ib. 9 = RV Ib. 5, with the difference that in RV at ab we have "the organ ofthe horse has entered").22

Then we have reference to the male partner of Mahanagni, who is called Mahanagna.This is what is said: "Mahanagni runs after Mahanagna, who runs (or, "rinses' Mahanagnawho 'rinces' her," dhdvantam anu dhdvati 'where the sense seems to be twofold, includingthe sexual); (and says), These his cows, protected them; 'enjoy' me; 'eat the moist one' (AVIb. 11 = RV Ib. 9)", where the sense is clear, and the eating of the "moist one," is to beunderstood with "enjoy me" (yabha mam, addhy, 'odanam), the whole concept being of thesex-act as a charm for the protection of the cows. There are also other references toMahanagni in the AV, which do not occur in the AV-Khila: "The sudeva presses you,Mahanagni!" (Ib. 12a); and "the a-deva presses you, Mahanagni!" (14a); and at both theplaces we have, "The dig of the Great is great" (Ibid.b).23

From what w e have noted above^ the following aspects of Mahanagni become clear:

(i) As a single goddess she is the norm for all feminine charm, and is associated, in

the mantras, to bless the bride;

(ii) It is probable that dice and wine are associated with her as ritual-objects; but

the point is not quite certain;

(iii) In the sphere of general fertility, as is indicated by the basket (actually "winnowingbasket", surpam surpam bhajemahi, cf. the places noted above), she is associatedwith the sex-act; and there too, the symbol is that of the mortar (vanaspati) andthe pestle that pounds in it. But there is no clear indication of the mortar being


the symbol of a feminine deity in the Vedic ritual, though, among other things,the mortar-pestle form a mithuna;24

(iv) Mahanagni has her male counterpart in this aspect, Mahanagna; he is describedby the tree-symbol (cf. "of the 'tree having such fruit' ", idrkhalasya vrksasya),and is likened to the Bilva and the Udumbara trees;25 his copulation withMahanagni is conducive to the protection of the cows, and also of the held, hiscopulative 'dig* (khodanam) indicating the dig of plough.26

(v) Mahanagni is said to be associated with some beast, who is said to carry her byhis heard; but there is a variant reading in the RV, according to which it appearsthat there is an indication of some sort of a head-dress (sirsnd bhavati at RV; cf.variant at AV sirsnam harati dhdnikdm; the meaning is dark);

(vi) Along with the beast (AV Ib. 10c yo mrgah sirsnd harati), and the partnerMahanagna, she is said to have copulative relationship with Isudeva and a-deva; the words being indicative of erotic sense (cf. RV. X.95.14, and Geldner,Der Rigveda, III. p. 280).

There is room to believe that here we have a multi-aspect personality of Mahanagni.In the-divine aspect she has the divine partner, Mahanagna; in ritual, Mahanagnabecomes, or is represented by, the sudeva-adeva on the one hand, and, on the other, thebeast. In the former aspet there must be a human; in the latter a ritual-beast. In theformer aspect there must be a human; in the latter a ritual-beast, and it is here that thehorse comes in the Horse-sacrifice; for some of the mantras that precede were actuallysung at the Horse-sacrifice; for some of the mantras that percede were actually sung atthe Horse-sacrifice; and, under this later influence can be explanied the reading in RV-Khila "the organ of the horse has entered" (asvasvdvesitarh pasah), which we do not haveat the AV. The relationship between the "nude goddess' who has her partner and theVedic Mahanagni cannot be exactly established. But the concept behind them is similar.Mahanagni is undoubtedly the goddess of the procreative faculty; and she is the divinewoman par excellence who would give progeny and full womanhood on the one hand, and,on the other, would give full crops; the latter is her aspect of the earth.27 The former maybe compared with the custom of applying sindura to the vagina of the "nude woman" andher worship by women for progeny.

The concept of Mahanagni developed in the later Vedic period, for, as said above,there is no reference to her in RV proper. In her zoomorph she comes in the context ofthe purchase of the Soma-shoots, as the cow in the exchange of whom Soma-shoots arepurchased (Ai. Br. 1.27 tayd mahanagnyd bhutayd samarh rajdnam akrinam). Here Somais said to be the bull, and Mahanagni is the cow; they form a mithuna (compare the "nudegoddess and the Bull" from Bhinmal) and she is also said to be speech.


Altar -anthropomorph i sm

Another important aspect of Mahanagnl , though it is not clearly stated, is the sacrificial

al tar (vedi). The Vedic a l tar was prepared roughly in the form of a woman, and her male

was the fire.28 The a l ta r and the ear th are mutual ly identified,29 and, as the ea r th and

Mahanagnl are on par , as noted above, it is very clear t ha t the a l tar is Mahanagnl . The

vedi is described as a young woman, well-adorned, having four kapardas (dangling

intertwined hair , a form of veni, the la t ter being flowing hair) and butterfaced, supervising

the r i tual (RVX.114.3 catuskapardd yuvatih supesd ghrtapratikd ...); and she is pictured

to be a t tended by the sacrificer and his wife, the main ritua\-mithuna, described in a

typically sexual t e rm (vrsand = vrsanau, "the potent sprinklers").

In this connection it is interest ing to pay at tent ion to a terracotta-image found in a

al tar a t Kau^ambi. I t has been identified with the goddess Sinivali,30 the Vedic goddess

connected wi th vegetation and fertility and described as having beautiful kaparda and

head-ornaments (Vdj. Sam XI.56 sinivali sukapardd sukurira su-opasd); but , it has to be

remembered t h a t Sinivali is the deity of the first half of the new-moon-day, which is why

she is associated with the moon. Hence, it is more proper to take the altar-figurine in

various pa r t s of India, and whose terracot ta figurines are found from Rupar, Ahicchatra,

Mathura , Tamluk, Kaugambi, Chandrake tugarh and other places, i.e." from Panjab to

Bengal, by about the 2nd century B.C.31

However, Paiicacuda h a s to be differentiated from the altar-deity from the fact tha t

the la t te r is said to be all nude but for the sacrificial grass tha t is s t rewn to make her

part ial ly covered (at least!) before the gods and the priests t ha t sit round her a t the t ime

of the sacrifice.32 On the other hand, Paiicacuda is fully covered, though her sexual

s t rength is seen from her full breas ts and hips. She has , in her head-dress, five dyudhas;

and it is difficult to identify them with the sacrificial ins t ruments , such as the sphya

(wooden sword), t h a t are placed in the vedi for r i tual-use. Moreover, Paiicacuda does not

have her male par tner , while the vedi has h im in the Fire-god. Thus , Paiicacuda is out of

the scope of mithuna. Now, the question is, can we connect the terracot ta "nude" and the

terracot ta mithunas we have seen, with the Vedic ri tual-tradit ion?

D e v a k u l a

A close s tudy of the period of the terracot tas shows t h a t they become prominent by

about the 3rd century B.C., except for the "nude woman" and her prototype which is

assigned 1200 B-.C. NOW, there is hardly any plausible proof to establish the making of

idols in the Vedic period proper from RV through A V to the period of the Brahmanas . But,

even so, the Vedic seers* imaginat ion had developed a sense of graphic description, as is

seen from t h a t of the vedi; and there are many examples of it.33 Along with this , the


concept of the mithuna was a fully developed one, one such example being tha t of

Mahanagna-Mahanagnl , which is fully exploited later in the r i tual of the Horse-sacrifice.

The presence of the devakula is first noticed r i tual of the Horse-sacrifice. The presence of

the devakula is first noticed by the end of the B r a h m a n a period, and by the beginning of

the Sutra-period (600-200 B.C.).34

The Vedic sacrifice, with its prominence to the fire, had no other devakula* bu t had a

variety of mithunas: bi-sexual, hetero-sexual and homo-sexual; even the gods formed

mithunas in themselves; the ins t ruments and the utensils formed mithunas; the ingredients

in the offerings formed mithunas; the sacrificer's wife formed a mithuna wi th almost all

masculine objects including the gharma vessel and the sacrificial beast (the most prominent

being the Horse and i ts earlier type the virile monkey, the Vrsakapi on the one hand and

the "wife" (or a sudrd) on the other. Prajapat i himself was believed to be full o f m i t h u n a s ^

and, Prajapat i being only the personification of the sacrifice, the body of the sacrifice was

believed to comprise multi-mithunas. I t is to be taken as a na tu ra l consequence, t ha t

when the devakula came to be accepted in the Vedic tradit ion these mithunas should be

transferred to i ts various par t s .

The actual practice of copulation t ha t was known in the Vedic tradit ion, now will take

place before the devatd of the devakula; and should form a pa r t of the "family" of the "god"

(deva-kula).26 In a changed circumstance, now, the actual coitus in the r i tua l will show

variation, which is in the votive offering of mithunas in terracotta . It may be noted tha t

by the period of the devakula, the Vedic Aryans had already reached upto Bengal.37

V a r i e d P o s t u r e s a n d V e d i c S e x

We have noted above t h a t the terracota mithunas, in various postures, were found

quite early, and t h a t in certain cases they tally with those in the scultptures of quite a late

period. As we shall see presently, the mithunas in various involved postures are presented

on prominent places in the caves and temples, such as Karla, Kondana, Badami (ancient

Vatapi), Pa t t adaka l ("The stone of coronation" literally, as the Calukyas used this place

for this purpose), Aihole and other places. Various types of mithunas have been noted by

scholars, such as m a n mat ing with one woman, two women with one man; viparita rata,

also called purusdyita; the oral congress: by m a n in the case of the woman (cunnilingus),

by woman in the case of the m a n (fellatio), and by both mutually; the orgiastic type and

so on.38 In certain types the copulating couple is being helped by others. Many of these

postures are recorded by Vatsyayana; and it is not unlikely t h a t Vatsyayana 's Kdmasutra

induced many poses; bu t the real purpose of depicting them cannot be said to be lession

in erotics.


A lot of confusion exists about the main purpose of the /ra£/m/ia-sculpture, some of thepoints being:

(i) To protect the temples from thunder and lightning. But this does not explain themithunas in well protected caves;

(ii) To attract the common man to the house of God;

(iii) To test the sudden prior to his entry into the realm of the divine etc.39 But noneof these have been accepted by all; and, moreover, the existence of the terracottasbelie all these opinions. The votive offering of the terracottas (the probability ofwhich we have npted) in a particular pose might itself have suggested a particularsex-posture in the Kamasutras, as is the case with the purusdyita position inone of the terracottas we have noted above. Or, conversely, the votive offerermight have thought of a pose that was typical and already known.

At any rate, the poses are prior to the period of Vatsyayana; and, though others likeBabhravya and Dattaka, whom Vatsyayana mentions,40 might be taken as the teachers inthis field, it is hardly probable that the votive offer would have thought of showing his up-to-date and scientific knowledge in his offering. The point is that the treatise-writersmight have themselves been indebted to the offerers, though their elaboration on thissubject helped the sculptures in the later period (10th ct. A.D.) achieve intricate designs.Fellatio, for example, was present in the 2nd ct. B.C.,41 though in the 9th and the 11thcentury A.D. it developed varieties. It is not necessary to go into the details of this apects,as we restrict ourselves to the Vedic period.

The main purpose of the enactment of the sex-act was the gain of fertility in the Vedicperiod, as is the case with many other tribes. The Brahmana texts, as has been noted,used this motif extensively; and the main strain was to form a procreative mithuna

(mithunam prajanam, at various places). Two important types in this respect are: theactual coitus between an animal (horse and the monkey) and the woman, and betweenman and a woman. The first was seen in the Brahmanic Horse-sacrifice (the monkey-typebeing lost in the early Vedic period itself),42 and the other was practised in the Mahavrata.

In the connection it is interesting to note a few sculptures from Bellagavi from theShimoga district of Karnataka.42 In one of these we see, in a panel, a monkey ready tocopulate with a woman; he is half bent in position; the legs of the woman, lying on herback, are flanked to his thighs; the woman is lying on the stretched legs of another womanwho is sitting and is holding her; this is in the left side of the panel. In the middle are seena couple of women, one facing to her right to the mithuna in the left corner, the other (theface is semi-broken) has her one hand on her vagina; to her left, and on the right corner


of the panel, are two monkeys in a semi-copulative posture, the front one (who is by theside of the woman) trying to hold and woman. This type is not seen at other sites, andseems to be peculiar to Bellagavi. The monkey motif, as such, is faintly seen elsewhere,44

but this is unique to this place. Now, it is to be remembered that in the 1st ct. B.C. theSatavahans ruled the southern region of India including Karnataka, Maharashtra andAndhra; they claimed to be Brahmanas; Gautamlputra Satakarnl called himself "theunique Brahmana"; Sri Satakarnl performed two Horse-sacrifices, defeated the Sungasand ruled over Malva and other portions of North India.45

In the wake of the practice of mi£/iwna-sculptures then gaining ground, it is onlyexpected that the Satavahanas would give impetus to Vedic themes. The Bellagavisculptures are said to be of the late medieval period; but the point, probably, requiresreconsideration; or, at least, the older influence could not be denied. If this is accepted, theguess is whether they indicate the scene of the Vrsakapi-Indrani hymn (mating of theMonkey and the woman personifying Indrani)? The hymn has also the female monkeyVrsakapayi. Interestingly, in another sculpture from the same place we see a horse-likefigure mating with a woman, who is lying on her back with legs folded. In a sculpture fromKhajurahoTlOth ct. A.D.) we see an aristocratic person (King?) cohabiting with a mare (inaji obvious reversal of the old theme).46 In yet another sculpture from Bellagavi47 we havea purusdyita motif in the middle on a cot; on the left is a standing intertwined humanmithuna; and on the right is a standing mithuna, the face of the man is blurred white thatof the woman is of a mare. In these sculptures there is no indication of the season, but inanother one we have the indication of vegetation.

In this sculpture we have the cot on which there is a regular copulation of the humans;on the left a man is having a standing semi-copulative pose with a woman who is standingwith her back to him; and in the middle we see a couple (mithuna) of rams, standing onfour and facing each other; and between them there is a jackal, standing on his hind legs.At the two sides of this central ram jackal depiction there are trees with flowers andplantain-trees.48 At a sculpture from the Limboji Mata Temple (Delmel, Dist. Mehsana)49

we have a horse-faced man standing in coitus with a woman in the left corner, which onthe right is seen as ascetic in standing copulation with a woman. These scenes cannot besupported from Vatsyayana's Kamasutra, which only mention "mating like the animals",50

and the animals do not mate both on two legs standing like men.

Inherent in such sculptures is the idea of symbolic (and not actual) copulation, as isthe case with the Vedic, the belief that certain animals represent the divine virility (andgenerally, the sun). The monkey and the horse clearly figured in the Vedic rite. The horse-sacrifice was popular in practice and in legends. Writers and sculptors on Erotics were.


obviously, influenced by this ri tual-sex and added more animals for vaicitrya (variety) in

the citra-rata, as they termed it. The theme of the Horse-mare divinity is the oldest in the

Indian zoomorphism, paralleled only by t ha t of Bull-cow. The Saranyti-Vivasvan myth is

an example in th is case, of which the later aspect is the Hayagrlva-Visnu (horse-headed

Visnu) form. In an interes t ing legend in the Skanda P. (VI. 81.11; 84.15-19), a Brahmana

girl who (unknowingly) sleeps on the bed of Visnu is cursed by Laksml, in jealousy, to be

born mare-faced; but Visnu pacifies Laksml and it is agreed tha t the mare-face will be

only for one bir th, and t h a t in t h a t next bir th when she is born with mare-face she will be

the sister of the Rrsna-avatdra of Visnu. As she is born thus , Krsna and Ba la rama take

her to Brahma, who restores her original form, and re-names her as Subhadra.5 1

It will be per t inent to note, and appreciate, t ha t Subhadra comes as a symbolic name

in the Horse-sacrifice as the female-mate of the Horse, whom the queen or the r i tual-

woman is portrayed as subst i tu t ing or impersonating.5 2

It will be per t inent to note, and appreciate, t ha t Subhadra comes as a symbolic name

in the Horse-sacrifice as the female-male of the Horse, whom the queen or the ri tual-

woman is portrayed as subst i tu t ing or impersonating.5 2 The "Subhadra" at the SK. P.

noted above is the fertility goddess.53 Thus , the equation is: Subhadra = Ferti l i ty = mare,

This compares also with the mare-king copulation. We may also note t h a t the worship of

Subhadra is enjoined in the month of Magha, and on the 12th day, which comes at about

the end of the year and is adjacent to the spring. I t was also in the month of Phalguna

(bright half) t h a t the Horse-sacrifice was performed. Cases of animal-coitus, or mixed

human-an imal coitus in the sculpture need not be referred to the citra-rata of the

Kamasas t ra , where the h u m a n s act as animals, but to spring and fertility-rituals such as

Mahavra ta , where we have "copulation of c rea tures" (Ait. Ar. V.1.5 bhutdndm ca

maithunam) where the word bhutdndm does not restrict it to one par t icular type of

creatures , bu t to mixed copulation or purely h u m a n or purely animal , the whole idea

being of general fructification and fullness of coitus (cf. prajananam; and mithunasya

sarvatvdya).

S u p p o r t e d Coi tus

One of the most conspicuous motifs in the erotic sculptures is the "supported coitus"

(as in the woman-monkey sculpture a t Bellagavi noted above), where the part ies are

shown as being helped by others. From this point, it is necessary to view the mantras and

the acts a t the Horse-sacrifice again. Apar t from the fact t ha t there are one hundred

maidens of each of the four queens in the event of the sexual r i tual of the horse and the

queen, as is evinced from the r i tual as it appears in the Satapatha Brahmana RV-Khila,

AV and the Vaj. Sam,: "When the priests in the 'playful mood' pressed the male organ and


embraced from all sides the woman, she was visible (only) at the thighs (as a woman). . ."(Vdj. Sam. XXII.29 yad deudso laldmagum pravistiminam dvisuh; and Uvata ,pravistiminam, pravesya vistabhya ca; dvisuh, dlinganacumbanddibhih nigrhniyuh

ndrlm). This explains the second type of gauyuthika mentioned by Vatsyayana as beingcurrent among the Bahllkas (II.6.43) and some of the orgy-types in the sculptures.

We have noted earlier that in the mantras (called dhanasyah in the tradition), themention of the horse is not uniform (see note 22); and this is supported from the passagenoted just above; for, it is rather impossible for the priests (!or, actually the menparticipating in the original folk-ritual) to clutch the ritual-woman when the horse(though ritually killed earlier) is also in the picture. In the Brahmana ritual, the horseand the queen are made to lie on a golden disc, and the priests are away, chanting thedhanasyah, which obviously shows a later version of the ritual. In the older version,originally a human couple acted together with other men (cf. devdsah, plural, "rituallydivine men"), the women being, most probably, a prostitute ( a common woman); and thehorse came later. The other mantras also indicate the action on the part of the copulatingman, rather than an insentient animal. With this detail and the bhutdndrh maithunam

here should be no doubt that the seed of the orgiastic motif lies in the Vedic period andin the ritual (which had already drawn upon the then folk-tradition) of the Spring festivalto which the horse was added at the Horse-sacrifice.

^ In most of the orgiastic sculptures a cot with the copulating couple figures in aprominent place,54 in the centre or in a corner. With the mantra noted above we have aclear mention of the cot in the mantras at the Horse-sacrifice (Ibid. 24, 25 mdtd ca te pita

ca te agrarh vrksasya adhi-rohatah, where vrksa stands for the cot "made of wood",according to the tradition). The cot could never suit the horse. The dialogues (with thesexy mantras) are between the priests and the queens and the other girls (who speak forthe queens, and also with a girl who speaks for herself). This would mean that the maincouple must have been human and different (though it was never shown later, and wasindicated only through the mantras) from those who recite the mantras "your Father andyour Mother rise on to the cot" etc. Now let us come to an important detail. Another actualcoitus position is as follows (in addition to the one indicated in the mahdmithuna, wemight say, on the cot):

"Cause her to be poised aloft, as one carrying a heavy weight on the mountain; may

her central part widen, as if winnowing (grain) in the cold wind" (Ibid. 26).

The retort of the women to the priest is similar, but with the masculine usage. It has

to be noted that this is the position in respect of only one of the four queens. The position

has coitus in view; and yet the madhya is to be raised as if one were lifting a heavy weight.


The would mean t h a t the m a n is s tanding, bending a little; and, in this position, has the

coitus-position. How could the woman be? Not lying on her back! She has to be raised in

such a v/ay t ha t her madhya has to come up to the organ of the man; and she has to look

like a winnowing basket throwing grain out. This could not be, unless she s tands with

back up with her buttocks to the man who holds the par t , and supports her body with her

hands and feet, all on the grounds. This is the dhainuka55 of the Kdmasutra, which is

different from the one noted above. Tha t one was for the Par ivrk ta queen; this one for the

Vavata; hence the difference also, in the poses.

This would indicate the zeal to show varieties, with the religious belief in profusion

through variety leading to greater and varied procreation and prosperity. The dhainuka?*

with the motif of a t tendance, and the sarighdtaka, is common in sculptures, where the

element of r i tua l is indicated by the male part ies having umbrellas.5 7 These sculptures

cannot be t aken as indicating simply aristocratic sex-usage; they have to be taken as the

revival of ancient motifs of holy ritual-sex; and the fact of their being depicted at temples

and caves should leave no doubt about it. The Vedic examples noted above testify to the

plural i ty in coitus. Tha t this continued later is indicated by a practice in the Mahavra ta ,

where we read, "Those who perform the yearly coitus (samvatsaram upayanti) get devoid

of maithuna; so the two (the Magadha and the prosti tute) sexually uni te; thus , they all do

not get devoid of maithuna (Apastamba $.S XXI. 19.6). This is the continuation of the

earlier r i te where the two copulated (Jai. Br. 11.405 mdgadham ca pumscalim ca daksine

vedy' ante mithunikdrayanti, which subtly indicates the old Vedic general practice of

multiple posing of coitus in r i tua l in the spring, and forbids it, allowing only the Magadha

and the courtesan.578 Earlier , the Kdthak Sam. (XXXTV.5) has the plural , "they perform

the oitus" (mithunam caranti), which indicates the old Vedic t radi t ion of plural and

multiple coitus.

There is an interes t ing indication; and, though nothing certainly can be said about the

mode, we may note it. The Brahmacar in a t the Mahavra ta abuses the harlot: "Fie upon

thee O Pumgcali, thou 'washer of the male-organ'!" (Drdhdyana & S . XI.3.9. pums'cali,

purusasya sisna-pranejani). May it be a bold step to suggest t h a t here we have an

indication of the fellatio, so common in sculptures? We have noted t h a t this motif was

known also in the 2nd ct. B.C. (on the terracot tas of Chandrake tugarh) , and later got

popular in the 9th cent. A.D. and later. The point is, how could a woman "wash77 the male-

organ. Not in coitus proper. There is no indication of, and propriety of, water; and yet she

"washses". The surmise of "mouth-wash" cannot be avoided. The Kamasutra censured

this practice, which indicates t h a t it was prevalent in its t ime. As we have noted, the

period Of the Sutras is from 600 to 200 B.C., which corresponds to the terracot ta noted


above. It is not improbable t ha t the Su t ra period employed this practice in the Mahavrata ;

but the erotic t reat ise , which copied others from the r i tual , censured it.

The erotic sculptures innovated many things; but, the main source seems to be Vedic

ri tuals , which were themselves influenced by folk-customs of sexy songs and r i tuals .

The Indian erotic sculptures show the innovation of many details t ha t answer also the

development of art . But the motif of sanctified sex goes to the Vedic period, with the

simple mithunas formed from the various sacrificial ingredients accompanied by the

ritual-coitus variet ies. In the later period the mithunas adorned temple-gates and various

other places, in a variety of poses, minia ture and huge, the Sakta-cult also adding to the

themes. Tantr ic influence may not be denied; but, it should be borne in mind tha t Tantric

practices never allowed open depiction of coitus for fear of complete ruin.58 Moreover, it

has to be remembered tha t in hardly any sculpture do we have presentat ions of any other

ma-kdra out of the five, t h a n maithuna; nor are there any Tantr ic designs, though they

were certainly known by the 10th century A.D. About the Sakta motif of close embrace,

and the Ardhanar i svara , which is seen from about the third century A.D. or even slightly

earlier,59 it may be pointed out t ha t the motif imitates the Indra-Indranl motif (or,

actually the 'Man-in-the-eye motif, one of the men being the woman) tha t had already

developed k* the B r a h m a n a period.60

It may be .taken to be the germ of the Yogic concept of dual ism in one unit,61 which,

probably, lies a t the back of the fellatio-counilingus motif in one unit , when tranferred to

the sphere of sex. The depiction of the mithuna in design, as different from the act in

ri tual , is a lready known from the AV and the other Vedic texts; and this was for the

growth of the cattle. Mithunas of this type were carved out on the ears of the cows by

means of a heated blade.62 These were not poses involving maithuna, for there is no

evidence to t h a t effect; bu t they may be compared with the simple mithunas t ha t adorn

shrines and even the orthodox Hlnayana Buddhistic caves, which only shows the popular

belief in the efficacy of the mithuna-figures. We have, ra ther , in interest ing reference to

one god flanked by two goddesses in the RV, where it is said tha t Indra holds Heaven and

Ea r th as the god Bhaga holds two auspicious girls.63 Whether this indicates a pictorial

design is not clearly at tested, bu t it gives an idea of a var iant mithuna, and has subtle

parallel (sanghdtaka) in stone.

- S.A. Dange


R e f e r e n c e s

1. Kanwar Lai, The Cult of Desire, Asia Press, Delhi, 2nd ed., 1966; Vidya Prakash,Khajumho, Taraporewala, Bombay, 1967; P. Thomas, Kamakalpa, 13th ed., 1963; sameauthor, Incredible India, Taraporewala, Bombay, 1966; Rustam J. Mehta, Konark SunTemple of Love, Bombay, 1969; Philip Rowson, Erotic Art of the East, New York, 1968;among others who make casual remarks, Mulkraj Anand, "Plastic Situation", Marg,Bombay, Vol. XVIII-ii, March 1965, pp. 41ff; earlier the same author, "The Lesser Vehicle,The Greater Vehicle and the worshipper of many Gods" Marg. XVI-iii, June 1963; AmitaRay, "Sculptures of Nagarjunakonda", Marg, XVIII-ii, March 1965; also Stella Kramrisch,Unknown in India, Ritual Art in Tribe, and Village, Philadelphia, 1968; DevanganaDesai, Erotic Sculputre of India. Tata MacGraw-Hill, New Delhi, 1975; also Eliky Zannasand Jeanine Auboyer, Khajuraho, Mouton & Co., The Hague, 1960, and Richard Lennoy,The Eye of Love, Rider and Company, London, 1977.

2. O.G. Gangoli, "The Mithuna in Indian Art," Rupom, 1925; also "Some notes on Mithunain Indian Art", Rupam, 1926.

3. Devangana Desai, op. cit., Plate 1.

4. Ibid., PI. 10. A normal copulative position like this is rather impossible: and it is difficultto reach orgasm in this position; there should be no doubt, hence, of the pose being aritual-pose, especially when it is seen first on the terracotta which appears to have votivevalue. Kanwar Lai thinks it to indicate a male of the 'horse' type and arwoman of the 'deer'type, which is not necessary.

5. Kanwar Lai, PI. 61; for Khajuraho, where the pose is seen, in the Jagadamba temple, seeVidya Prakash, op. cit., PI. 92; at the Modhera sun-temple the man is in a seatingposition.

6. Vidya Prakash, p. 179; cf. Kamasutra II.6.36; we may, however, compare the posedescribed at the shanasyd verses at the Horse-sacrifice, "hold her up, as if carrying a loadon the mountain", referred to further and with a slightly varient position indicate.

7. 2nd ct. B.C., Dasgupta S.N., History of Sanskrit Literary, Calcutta, 1947, pp. 605, 678.

8. Devangana Desai, PI. 7; for orgaiastic, PI. 73; very common.

9. Devangana Desai, PI. 11; cf. the pose form the Modhera sun-temple, which along with theavalambita, appears to be on par with, and a phase of, the purusdyita; for the initiativein both types is with the woman, who has to move.

10. Kanwar Lai, PI. 41.

11. Devanagana Desai, PI. 12.

12. Ibid., PL 187 Kanwar Lai, PI. 2.

13. Dosai, PI. 17; Kanwar Lal? PI. 1.

14. Kanwar Lai, PI. 3.


15. D. H. Gordon, in Antiquity, 1937* XI, p. 74; Gordon speaks, howgvgr, about the terracottamithunas from Taxila; Desai, PI. 14.

16. H.D. Sankalia, "The Nude Goddess or 'the Shameless Woman' in Western Asia, India andSouth-Eastern Asia", Aribus Asiae, XXIII, 1960; for a brief criticism of his view on theRoman origin (p. l l l f . ) see Dange, Vedic Concept of'Field' and the Divine Fruclification,Bombay, 1971, p. 4.

17. H.D. Sankalia, Illustrated London News, August 1971, p. 42.

18. D. Desai, p. 12.

19. See Dange, op. cit.9 pp. 68-82, where other renderings of the word mahanagal arecriticized.

20. Ibid., for dice-playing in Vedic ritual see Vedic Index, under aksa.

21. Dange, op. cit., loc. cit, Ai. Br. VI. 10 dhanasydda vai retah siicyate.

22. The RV has asuasya duesitam pasah; but the AV does not have the word asvasya at all.It has svasdvas'itam, and had the variant svastydvesiam along with others. The wordsvastya 'dvesitam would mean "entered; hail!" indicating auspiciousness. Probably, this isthe original reading: this would also show that the horse was introduced at a later stage,or indicated a variant of this ritual.

23. We may compare the sanghdtaka type of Vatsyayana, II.6.40, misrlkretasadbhdpabhydmdvdbhydm saha sarighdtakam ralam; cf. also v. 41, bahvibhis ca saha gauyuthikam, also41, 43, where one man and more women, or the reverse is indicated; this obviously, waswith a commonwoman; for sculptures see Kanwar Lai, PI. 89, man flanked by two women;this is from Konark; for a woman and two men see D. Desai, PI. 149, where the women isbending (in the dhainuka, like a cow) position, and a man stands on either side; D. Desai,mis-spells as goyuthia at all places; the fact that these man have umbrellas shows that itis not a natural pose, and indicates ritual holiness; see also PL 146, the ascetic figures donot indicate so much the Tantric rites, as variation in the old motif of the ascetic and thecourtesan, for which see Gonda J., "Ascetics and Courtesans", Adyar Lib. Bn. Jubilee Vol.,XXV, 1-4,1961; Tantric practices could never be in the open, cf. Parasurdma Kalpasutra,1.12 tair arcamam guptyd prakatydn nirayah; $aktisarigamaidra, XXXVI.24 senguptamkaulikdcdram anugrhnati devatdh. . . ndsayanti prakdsanaih. For the prostitute motif inlit. cf. NilamataP. (6th-7th ct. A.D.) Spring-revelry w . 675f. pumscalisahitair neyakrlddmdrgesu sd nisd\ also Kddambarl of Bana, ed. M.r' Kale, Delhi, 1968, p. 340,vasantakrldind janena . . . Vrddha-ddsihaprdpividambanena.

24. In ritual all things were defined; in that context even the mortar and the pestle becomedivine; Dange, "The Vedic Mithuna", J. Or. /., Baroda, Silver Jubilee Vol. XXV. 3,4;March-June 1976.

25. These tree were auspicious; and the sacrificial pole (yupa) was prepared from the bilva(bailvoyupah, Taitt. Sam. II. 1.8.1,2); for sanctity and other ritual-use see Vedic Index;


Bilva came to be regarded as the tree of Laksml, RV-Kaila. II.6.6 tana vrkso 'atha bilvah;its fruits were believed to drive away distress and A-laksml (Ibid.); the Vdmana P. hasbilvo laksmydhMare 'bhavat; the udumbara also has fruits; and it was very auspicious inrituals; a pole from it was used as a support for the sacrificial pendal; Sat Br. IV.6.7.8 etc.

26. Dange, Vedic Concept, pp. 90ff.

27. Cf. Nilamata P. (6th or 7th ct. AD.), ed. R. Kanjilal and J. Zadoo, the goddess Kasmira (=Kashmir country) is said to have menstruated on the 5th of the bright half of Phalguna,and is ready to take foetus; hence should start agricultural acts w . 660-61 tatah prabhrtikasmira rtusndtd dvijottama, garbham grhnydty'atah kdrydh Krsydrambhds tatah param.

28. Dange, "The Vedic Mithuna"; see also Vedic Concept, p. 64f.

29. gat Br. 1.2.5.9; Taitt. Br. 1.6.1.5 etc. earlier RV, I. 164.34, 35.

30. G.R. Sharma, Excavations at Kausdmbi (1957-59), Instt. of Archaeology, Allahabad, 1960,pp. 99, 106; D. Desai, op. cit, p. 13.

31. D. Desai, op. cit.f loc. cit; also PL 3.

32. gat. Br. 1.3.3.8; also Dange, "Vedic Mithuna", J. Or. L Baroda, Silver Jubilee No., vol.XXV-3 & 4, p. 199.

33. Descriptions of Usas and other gods.

34. Kane, History of Dharmasdstra, vol. Il-i, p. xi.

35. Sat. Br. IX.4.1.3, where it is said that the mithuna types were absorbed by Prajapati inhimself; see Dange, "The Vedic Mithuna", J.Or. I., p. 211.

36. The terracottas mentioned above have not been associated with any deva-kula (temple) assuch; but, it is also difficult to find and confirm the devakula sites of the ancient period.The early devakulas appear to be part of the dwelling; for example, various deva-sthdnasare mentioned in the dsrama of Agastya, Ram. Aranya, 12.17-21; these cannot be 'temples'with brick and of a lasting nature.

37. Baudhdyana Dh. S. 1.1.14; Vedic Index, under Vanga'.

38. Vidya Prakash, op. cit p. 15 Iff.; D. Desai, op. cit, pp. 8, 72 ff.

39. For a brief notice of the motives, Vidya Prakash, op. cit, p. 153ff; D. Desai, op. cit., p. 84ff; for the point of test, Vidya Prakash, op. cit, loc. cit. The Vedic ritual of Vrsakapi wasan evil destroyer and a fertility charm in one; see Dange, Vedic Concept. . ., Chapter III.

40. 1.1.10 bdbhravyah pincdlah sam ciksepa; 11 dattakah prthak cakdra; the tradition isNandi (when Siva and Parvati were in the mahamaithuna and he was placed at the gate)- Svetaketu, the son of Uddalaka (Ibid. 8, 9) = addalaki. The same name occurs in theUpamsads {KausitakL LI; Brhadar, VI.1.1) and in the Sat Br. XL2.7.12;-5.4. 18; alsoKausitaki-Br. 26.4; he seems to be rather unorthodox as he allows the initiates to eathoney forbidden for them, Sat Br. XL5.4.18; ace to one account he is said to haveestablished the institution of the marriage {Mahd Bh. 1.122); Babhrahvya is mentioned in


tho Ait. Br. (VILI), and in the JaU Up. Br. (III.41.1.IV.17.1). This would indicate theassociation of thesQ two with sacrificial ritual; and, if they aro aiso tho author!tios on thoKamasastra, it is not unlikely that ritual-sex would influence their aphorisms; however7

their aphorisms regarding Kama are not available.

41. D. Desai, p. 75. Its condemnation by the Kdmasutra (II.9.22 tad etat tu na karyam;and earlier 12 kardvalambitam osthayopr upari vinayastam apavidhya mukhamvidhunuydt; and 13 osthdbhydm avapldya. It is interesting to note a ritual-abuse by theBrahmacarin to the prostitute, purusasya sisnapranejani discussed later. The practice isknown even later, Ydjn. Sm. II. 293 ayonau, and Vijiianesvara, mukhddau. Ydjna Sm. isabout 4th ct. A.D.

42. Dange, Vedic Concept. . . pp. 16-20; 59 ff; also by the same author, Cultural Sources fromthe Veda, Bharatiya V.B., Bombay, p. 87f.

43. Prof. N.S.V. Rao, V J.T.I. Bombay, had translated a Kanarese article on this topic,Karmavira, Hubli, Weekly, 12-9-76.

44. See Kanwar Lai, op. cit., PI. 28; PI. 97; at both as a third party, rather mischievous.

45. See Amita Ray, "Sculptures of Nagarjunakonda", Marg, XVIII-ii, March 1965, pp. 15ff.;also R.D. Banerji, Prehistoric, Ancient and Hindu India, 6th ed. 1950, p. 117f.

46. Vidya Prakash, op. cit., PI. 102; cf. the ancient Irish custom ace. to which the king enteredinto matrimonial relationship with the male, J. Gonda, Ancient Indian Kingship from theReligious Point of View, E. J. Brill, Amasterdam, 1961, p. 41.

47.,. Kanwar Lai, op. cit., PI. 41; D. Desai, pi. 100; this is at the Tripurantaka temples.

48. Kanwar Lai, PL 44.

49. Ibid., PL 35.

50. Kdmasutra, II. 6. 37-41, which are termed citra-rata.

51. Skanda P. VI.84.4 ff.; exp. 15 esd subhadrd ndma vikhydtd.

52. It comes at the Maitt. Sam. III. 12.20 sasasty 'asvakah saubhadrikdm kdmilavdsinim', theTaitt. Sam. has kampilavasini, but no Subhadrd; the Vdj. Sam. 23.18 = Maitt. Sam.; thealternate is subhagd; the words indicate ritual sanctity; cf. Vedic Index. Though theaccount is from Hatakesvara, in Saurastra (Nagarakhanda), the names get connectedwith the temple at Puri, which has the tradition of erotic figures; and there was regularcontact between these and other places; cf. Brahma P. 43; 44 : Story of Indradyumna, theking of Avanti, who went to the muktida ksetra in Utkala (Puri) and performed the Horse-sacrifice; built a temple and installed the images of the gods mentioned above; cf. alsoSkanda P. II.2.6 ff. for about the same account.

53. Skanda P., VI.84.18, 19; yd ndrl patina tyaktd vandhyd vd . . . bhavisyati sutrddhyusubhagd vd sukhdnvitd.

54. Kanwar Lai, PL 38; 44; 109; D. Desai, PL 65; 17; 100 etc.


55. The RV indicates certain curious poses in one place, where a young girl is involved;probably she is a ritual gift, and is described as: a-gadhitd and parigadhitd, which showtwo different poses, and Sayana comments that in the first case the initiative is with theman, in the other it is with the woman; if so, is there an indication of the purusdyita here?The simile is to be noted; how held? Kas'ikd iva; kas'ikd is said to be ichneumon (female)or a cat {Vedic Index). If that be so, does it indicate the citra-rata of the beast-type?- thenorm of which is the dhainukal She is said to be yddhuri, which is a sexy term, and maybe compared with tddurl, said of the female-frog that is invoked to release rain-waters(AV IV.15.14). The female frog here may be compared, in concept, with the Egyptian Frog-goddess called "Baubo" by M.A. Murray, "Female Fertility Figures" J.R.A.I., Vol. 64,1934; the "Nude Goddess" mentioned above has the same posture; see D. Desai, op. cit.,fig. on p. 12.

56. Kdmdsutra II. 6.37; gauyuthika is "one with many"; with the dhaimuko, i.e. a woman'sbuttocks to man, cf. RV-khila, V.22.3, yabhiyamdnd vi namyate, is curbed like a bamboowhile . . ."

57 This has been referred to above; see note 23.

57a. For old practices being given up cf. Sdiikh. $.S. XVII.6.1.2.

58. See note 23 above. Vidya Prakash suggests some of the posts to be Tantrik (op. cit., p.186); so does Kanwar Lai, though his approach is not studious (p. 89)r D. Desai believesthat Tantrism was one of the major factors in the case of the depiction of orgiasticmaithuna (p. 145), and yet the depiction of sex, in her opinion, was not of the pure Tantricnature; they were fake Tantric for worldly gain (p. 201).

59. Cf. Kalidasa, Raghuvarhsd, I. 1 vagarthaviva samprktau . . . p&rvatiparamesvarau;M.alavakdgnimitram, (ndndi) I.I kdntdsammisradehah.

60. &at. Br. X.5.2.8 tasyetam mithunam yo 'yam savye aksan purusah; ardham u etaddimanahyan mithunam...; and 9 so esa eva indrahyo fyam daksine aksam purisah; athaiyam indrdni (yah savye) tau ha hrdayasya dkds'arh pratyetya mithunibhavatah.

61. This pose is not attested by the Kdmasutra; we may compare the yava-yuma poses, whereSiva and 6akti are shown in close coitus, a furtherance of the dlingana pose (for examplethe Hevajra and the Sakti, nude embrace; P. Thomas, Incredible India, PI. 98); the ideacomes close to the Chinese Yang-Yin complex, which was introduced by Wang Ch'ung bythe 1st ct. A.D., and was represented in a figure (a circle divided by a reverse S-sign andthe tWO half figures now appearing like two tailed creatures, the face of one to the tail ofthe other, with a dot for the eye) by Chu Tun by the 11 ct. A.D., see J. Hastings, Enc. Rel.and Ethics, IV, p. 140.

62. AV VI. 141.2 lohitena suadhitind mithunam karnayoh krdhi\ the Agvinau are invoked tosupervise the act7 and it is apt; for they, in themselves, form a mithuna] and matemithunas were also enjoined by the texts; Dange, "The Vedic Mithuna"; also Gonda J., TheDual Deities in the Religion of the Veda, North Holland Pbng. Com., Amsterdam-London


1974. The mithuna-maxk was given for progeny and for prospority: tad astu prajaya bahuand sahasra-posaya krnutam laksma asvina (AV loc. cit 2 and 3).

63. RV 1.62.7 bhago na mene; on this point see Dange, "Mena — eka mithunasahketa"(Marathi language), Annual of the Vidarbha Samsodhana Mandala7 Nagpur, 1976.

The Vedic concept and belief in the making of the mithuna signs is seen in the laterliterature, where we have them on the door-jambs; cf. Agni P. 104.30, where, along withthe guards (ab) we have mithunaih padavarndbhih sakhasesam vibhalsayet, (ed.); thismotif is very common is sculpture.

S e x u a l F l u i d s

From the t ime of the Rgveda to the present , Indians have tended to view the processes

of sexual intercourse and bi r th in te rms of the interaction of various bodily fluids. Their

notions about the precise na tu re of these fluids and the manne r of their interaction have

varied from t ime to t ime and from text to text, bu t the undelying model emerges fairly

clearly from the corpus as a whole. My discussion will be based primari ly upon the

Sanskr i t texts; there are , however, s tr iking resonance between these texts and many

Bangali and Tamil sources, which I will cite in passing. These la ter examples though

necessarily more miscellaneous, even serendipitous, t h a n those from the Vedic material ,

indicate the persistence of classical ideas in so-called folk t radi t ions, or, as is equally

likely, the "folk" source of many so-called classical Indian concepts of the h u m a n body and

of sexual relat ionships.

Sexual fluids are almost always linked in some way to the process of eat ing food and

to the classical sacrificial r i tual (see chart 1); frequently they are also linked to the fluids

of the sky and to those of the sacred animals , the cow and the horse. These links raise

from the very s ta r t the difficult question of how to interpret metaphor in religious texts.

What is mean t when the text says, "The ra in is the ur ine of the sacrificial horse " (BAU

1. 1. 1)? How literally is one to in terpret symbolic s ta tements? al though there are

certainly impor tan t differences between the semantic levels of metaphorical discourse

and ordinary discourse, there mus t be some continuity between them if language is to

express religious ideas a t all. This is a serious problem tha t cannot be solved here, but it

would be well for the reader to keep it in mind in examining the texts adduced in this

chapter. The same symbolic equations will have different meanings on different levels: "x

is y* may means "x functions in the same way as y." or "x and y produce the same result,"

or many other things (cf. the saleswoman's clinch^: "Madam, tha t ha t is you77) (see

OTlahe r ty 1973, pp. 33-34, and Potter 1978, intro.).

Given this dilemma, I still th ink tha t it is possible to ask the texts questions about the

symbols used in metaphors involving sexual fluids, as well as about the things symbolized.

The key is context. Certain ambiguous te rms frequently occur in unambiguous contexts

tha t allow us to assign to them specific symbolic values; thus , when the te rm pay as


Female

Androgynous

Male

Chart 1.

Cosmic

water , river

Essence (rasa)

(in plants ,

women, men)

Rain

(vrsti), ocean

S e x u a l F l u i d s

Body

Sex

Menstrual blood

(puspa, rajas)

Seed

(rati, rasa)

Blood

(rakta, sonita)

Semen

(retas, virya,

blija)

Food

Milk

(payas)

Blood,

poison

Semen

Ritual

Water,

fire

But ter

(ghee)

Soma,

fire

occurs in the sentence "The bull sprinkles his payas is "semen"; and when we read "payas

s t rems from the udder of the cow" we may say tha t at least one other meaning of payas

is "milk."Vhen these te rms occur in more ambiguous contexts, we may seek to unders tand

those contexts by going back to our growing storehouse of the symbolic ranges of the

words, t rying to find the meaning tha t will allow the new sentence to make the best sense

in te rms of our tentat ive knowledge of Vedic ideas about these protean fluids. So, too,

s ta tements equat ing the functions of the phallus and the breast support unambiguous

interpretat ions of ambiguous terms, for the contexts imply tha t a specifically male fluid

is equated with a specifically female fluid. Poetic applications of even basic te rms always

reta in a certain measure of ambiguity.

Almost a century ago, Avel Bergaigne pointed out t ha t one mus t make a choice

between simplifying the Vedic lexicon and thereby having to deal with more complex

ideas, or complicating the lexicon in order to simplify Vedic ideas (Bergaigne 1883, pp.

468-74). In the first instance, one would simply t rans la te payas (milk), retas (semen), and

related terms as "fluids in motion" and discuss the various ways t ha t fluids move in the

Rg Veda; in the second instance, one would say tha t payas has the pr imary meaning of

"milk," the secondary meaning of "expressed fluid," and the ter t iary meaning of "semen";

one is then forced to decide whether this th i rd usage literally implies t ha t milk comes

forth from the phal lus or metaphorically i l luminates the similarity between these two

functions. Although Bergaigne preferred the first method (and may Vedists today still

follow him), my own feeling is t ha t Vedic words are more complex t h a n Vedic contexts and

tha t to use various contexts to i l luminate rich terms is ul t imately more productive than

Sexual Fluids 3501

to seek to compress a rich t e rm into a single neut ra l word t ha t can be plugged into any

context; for this leaves us no tool with which to find our way through the jungle of contexts

other t han the unequivocal—and self-vident—meaning of the word. In making this

choice, I realize t h a t I am placing myself in the camp of the weak linguists (as Samuel

Johnson said to one such. "He has too little Latin : he gets the Lat in from the meaning,

not the meaning from the Latin"). But I find this a familiar and congenial group— and one

tha t has made much sense of the Rg Veda.

B l o o d

Let us now t u r n to the texts themselves. In the Indian view, the most basic of all body

fluids (and sometimes, though not always, the basis of all sexual fluids) is blood, which is

essential to both male and female. Blood is seldom mentioned in the Rg Veda (a surprising

fact for such an ear thly an mar t ia l document); one late and notoriously problematic hymn

asks, "Where is the ear th 's breath, and blood, and soul?" (RV1.164, 6c). The commentator,

Sayana, in terprets this as a reference to the gross body (of ea r th and blood) and the subtle

body (of b rea th and the soul), in the context of the theory of the component elements

(dhdtus); despite the probably anachronism of this interpretat ion, the Vedic text itself is

certainly an early and clear reference to blood as the essence of the ear thly body. Another

late hymn of the Rg-Veda referes to demons who are smeared with the "blood of men,

horses, and cattle and who steal away the milk of cows (Rv 1. 87.16); the two life-

substances, blood and milk, are here paired in the context of dea th (loss of fluid) and

significant for centuries of Hindu though on this subject.

There is in the Rg Veda one veiled but highly charged reference to female sexual

blood—not mens t rua l blood but the blood of defloration. The "purple and red stain"

become a dangerous female spirit walking on feet, a witch who binds the husband and

make his body ugly and sinisterly pale : "it burns , it bites, and it claws, as dangerous as

a poison is to eat" (RV 10. 85. 28—30, 34—35). Poison is an impor tant negative female

sexual fluid in post-Vedic mythology, as we will see, and mens t rua l fluid is eaten in

Tantr ic ceremonies. The blood in the Vedic passage is not explicitly said to play a role in

procreation, bu t it is in a wedding hymn, resonant with expressions of fertility.

In the Upanisads , blood is explicitly incorporated into the model of the body, both

unisexual and differentiated: when water i s drunk, it is converted into ur ine, blood, and

breath (CU 6, 5, 2); when a person dies and the elements of the body disperse, the blood

and semen enter the water (BAU 3,2.13). A woman may theoretically (though improbably)

be included among the persons referred to in these texts; the first one poses no special

problem for a woman, and the second may imply either t ha t a man's blood and semen

enter the water or t h a t a woman's blood and (its equivalent) a man 's semen enter the

3502 Encyclopaedia of Hinduism *

water . But since the word purusa is used to designate the person in this second sentence.

It is almost certainly a man .

S e m e n

Semen, the essence of the male, is often mentioned in the Vedas, usual ly in r i tual

metaphors . Retas, the most impor tant word for semen, has as its pr imary meaning "the

outpouring of semen," "the flowing of semen" (Grassmann 1955, p.1181); in this sense it

has the pr imary connotation of a process r a the r t h a n a substance, though it is freely

applied to many substances, including the embryo engendered by the seed (RV 1.164. 36)

(an ambiguity which is also reflected in an equally ambiguous te rm for the female organ

of procreation, garbha, meaning womb or embryo). Gods are invoked to impel the seed of

a m a n to procure a h u m a n bir th (RV.10. 184), but semen (retas) has a secondary,

metaphorical use as applied to the fructifying ra in from heaven, the "seed of the clouds"

(RV 9. 74. 1; 1. 100.3). So, too, vrsti (rain) and vrsan (a powerful, virile, or lustful man , or

a bull) are both derived from vrs (to ra in or pour forth). Seed links heaven and ear th: m a n

is engendered by divine seed (RV 9. 86. 28). The flames of Agni are kindled by the seeds

of heaven, and the Soma oblation into the fire is regarded as a seed (RV 1. 71 . 8; 5. 17. 3:

4. 73. 7). Closely related to semen is ur ine: the clouds piss down Soma from the "swollen

men" (RV 9. 74. 4; cf. Wasson and O'Flaherty 1968, pp.25-34). And ra in is the ur ine of the

sacrificial horse, j u s t as soma is the stallion's seed (BAU 1.1.1; RV 1. 164. 35-36; TS 8. 4.

i 8 ) r

F e m a l e S e e d

The Vedas begin to suggest tha t the woman has seed, jus t as the man does; significantly,

this fluid is called "virile milk" (vrsnyam payas, more literally "bull-like" or "seed-like"

milk): "The wife embraces her husband. Both of them shed the virile milk. Giving forth,

she milks (his) juice [rasaf (RV 1. 105. 2bc). The word for juice (rasa) is a nonsexual word

for fluid in the Rg Veda; i ts pr imary meaning is "liquid." The fluid of life the sexual

secretion (Filliozat 1949, p . 126), and it comes to designate Soma, the oblation, an essence,

or a delicious and life-giving elixir; only once (in the verse jus t cited) does it represent

male (or female) seed. Sayana 's gloss on this verse is i l lumina t ing : "The two set the virile

milk is motion by rubbing together, one against the other, for the sake of engendering

progeny. Taking the juice, the vital seed of a m a n making it into the form of an embryo,

she is milked— t h a t is, she brings it forth in the form of a son." Where the text seems to

say t h a t the woman gives (female) seeds and takes the milk-seed of the man . Sayana says

tha t she takes seed and is "milked" of a child, a view more in keeping with later Hinduism

t h a n wi th the Vedas, where the concept of "milked seed" (dugdham viryam) is common

(AV. 14.2.14d). The commentator reverses the point of the Vedic myth; though he is, I

Sexual Fluids 3503

think, wrong aboout the Rg Veda, he is r ight about wha t he th inks , which is also of

interes t to us . The more paradoxical view of the Vedic text, which assigns a positive role

to the woman, is replaced in the commentary by the more "acceptable" Hindu view of the

woman who takes from her husband and give to her son. Both views continue to exist side

by side in la te t radit ion. Elsewhere, too, the Rg Veda implies tha t both mother ear th and

father sky have seed (retas) (RV1.159 . 2; 1.160. 3; 6. 70.1). The Upanisads instruct a man

who is about to impregnate his wife to say her "I am heaven, you are ear th; let us embrace

and place together seed to get a male child a son" (BAU 6. 4.20).

B l o o d a n d Milk or B u t t e r

One s t range passage in the Brahmanas presents a model of the female hydraulic

system t h a t contrast blood with milk: Bhrgu, the son of Varuna , went to the other world,

where he saw two women, one beautiful and one hideous; he saw a river of blood, guarded

by a black naked m a n with yellow eyes, a club in his hand: and a river of but ter , guarded

by golden men who drew all desires from it into golden bowls. His father told him tha t the

two women were faith and lack of faith and tha t the black m a n was anger (JB I. 44. 12-

13, cf. SB 11. 6. 1-7; O'Flaherty 1976, p. 340).

In this text, bu t te r is the positive, golden female substance (found in a golden bowl, a

common metaphor and the womb, and yielding all desires, like the wishing-cow), while

the river of blood represents the negative, black, deadly aspect of female blood. In later

texts, bu t te r becomes ambiguous or even androgynous; for it re ta ins i ts connection with

milk, and hence wi th the female, bu t in r i tual imagery it is metaphorically linked with

semen placed in the womb, the golden seed in the cosmic waters . The (male) libation into

the (female) fire (O'flaherty 1973, motif 10'c). The blood in the text may be mens t rua l but

is in any case erotic (guarded by a naked m a n with a phallic club), incontrast with the

fertile lake associated wi th the golden m a n (the source of golden seed; see Ibid., pp. 107-

8)—the cow-lake, la ter to become the ocean of milk. Thus certain basic oppositions are

laid down in this highly charges symbolic Vedic passage:

blood versus butter (semen or milk)

black versus gold

emotion (desire and anger [black man]) versus fertility (golden men)

eroticism versus fertility (male and female)

female versus male

evil female versus good female

death versus life


And, finally, t he one explicit in te rpre ta t ion offered by the text , a theological

interpretat ion: faith versus lack of faith.

Milk a n d S e m e n

Although bu t te r and blood and seed are fluids related to female sexuality in the Rg

Veda7 milk is by far the most impor tant female sexual fluid. The basic noun for this fluid

is payas, which Gras smann defines clearly: n. [from p i (to swell or become full)], milk; pi.,

s t reams of milk. Very often, especially in connection with duh or pi, used in a metaphorical

sense. This word has absolutely no other meaning in the Rg Veda. The apparent meaning,

"liquid, water , male semen, sacrificial drink" are all derived from its metaphorical

application (Grassmann 1955, pp. 773-75).

There can be no doubt, therefore, t ha t the pr imary meaning of payas is the female

fluid in the breas t or udder (the "swollen" object from which the work derives).

Similarly, the verb duh, to milk, " is very often applied to an udder of a cow, but it may

not be so closely associated with the female as is payas (if one accepts Grassmann 's

Bergaignian analysis of t ha t term); for three out of four of Grassmann 's definitions of duh

involve its metaphorical application to seemen: to milk. 1) to milk something out of

something, alstf ifsed metaphorically: to milk semen from the bull, liquid from the plant;

2) to milk something out, for example milk, also used metaphorically: Soma juice, blessings,

male semen, etc.; 3) to milk the cow, the udder; 4) to cause to flow forth, very often

metaphorically, for example to discharge semen, to let ra in fall. . . (ibid., pp. 619-22).

Here again the verb seems primarily related to the cow; though this animal is first

explicitly cited in Grassmann 's third definition of the verb and the bull appears in the

first definition the examples listed under tha t definition frequently have "udder" as the

direct object; moreover, the pas t participle, dugdha, is a noun meaning "milk." By a rough

word count, duh is applied to udhar (udder), dhenum (cow), or other unequivocally female

words more t h a n th i r ty t imes in the Rg Veda,1 in contrast with the relatively few times

it is applied to words for "semen" or "bull"; but this is hardly a mat te r t h a t can be decided

by majority vote, for there are many complicating factors. Many of the male references,

for example, are coupled with female ones : milking the cow of milk and the bull of seed

(RV 1. 160. 3), or the bull of heaven milking the udder of the cow of heaven, while he

himself is smeared with but te r and milked of his seed (RV 4.3.10). Here, as in several

other Rg Veda passages (1. 160. 3, jus t cited; 4. 1. 19; 9, 19, 5; 9. 54. 1; etc.), the "bright

milk" (s'ukram payas) is a te rm for male semen; in later Sanskri t , s'ukram, alone,

commonly denotes male semen. The te rm duh becomes still more complex when it is

applied to nonsexual entit ies (like "blessings") or to ambiguously sexual nouns like Soma

or but te r (ghrtam). According to Grassmann, therefore, the noun "milk" (payas) means

Sexual Fluids 3505

only milk bu t is metaphorically applied to semen. The verb "milk" (duh), by contrast, may

apply equally well to milk or semen; by the time of the Rg Veda, it has become androgynous.

There are, however, many instances in which context enables us to break out of this

circle, in which it is perfectly clear t ha t the poet in tends to highlight the sexual ambiguity

of the verb duh and to use it as a specific link between semen and milk. Thus the wife is

said to milk seed out of her husband (RV 1. 105, 2; 1. 179. 4; 9, 19. 5), and, contrariwise,

milk is called "the ancient seed" (RV 3, 31,10). One verse seems to refer to ea r th as a cow

with milk and heaven as a bull with seed but then speaks of "his" semen-milk being

milked out (sukram payo asya duksate)— "his" referring ei ther to heaven or to an

androgynous heaven-ear th (RV.l.160.3).

Thus , a l though the pr imary sense of payas is milk and the pr imary sense of retas is

seed, through the concept of their similar function—swelling up, pressing out, and

pouring forth—they yield the same set of secondary metaphorical applications: rain,

water, Soma, oblation, and child. Here one is faced with Bergaigne's dilemma, heightened

when payas and retas are equated with each other: ei ther the lexicon or the poet make the

equation and it is difficult to determine at which end of the linguistic/ metaphoric

spectrum the "is" occurs and how much of an "is" it is; but it is certainly clear t ha t at some

point, and in some way, the identification is indeed made.

Milk a n d S o m a

The male substance, semen, is r i tually combined with the female creative fluid, milk,

not in an explicit description of the bir th process (which is never directly discussed in the

Rg Veda) but in the metaphor of the Soma r i tual . For although milk is not strictly

procreative, it is in a broader sense creative, part icularly in the r i tual context. Thus Soma

juice is linked to a bull full of seed who mingles with the cows (the milk or water tha t was

mixed with the Soma in the ri tual) to ensure fertility (RV 9. 70. 7; 9. 79.9). At this point,

the metaphors become apparent ly paradoxical: Soma is also likened to an udder milked

of juices which are like cows (RV 3. 48. 3; 4. 23. 1; 7. 101. 1; 8. 9. 19; 9. 68. 1; 9. 107. 5; 9.

79. 9. Cf. OTlahe r ty 1976, p. 336 and Wasson 1968, p. 43). In this way, Soma is an

androgynous deity, sometimes equated with the source of milk, sometimes with milk, and

sometimes regarded as seed, the opposite of milk. Seed is equated not Only with milk but

with Soma; and this Soma in later r i tual is replaced by ghee, but ter , which is churned out

of milk jus t as, in the Rg Veda, the Soma juices are often said to be churned or milked

from the clean (RV 5. 47. 3; 9. 64. 8; 10, 115. 3), t ha t is, from the Soma vats metaphorically

regarded as an ocean. We have already seen tha t he as contrasted with blood, can serve

as an androgynous symbol of milk or of semen. Butter , semen, and Soma are all essences,

distilled body fluids. Thus , through Soma imagery, the semen of the bull is said to come


forth from the milk of a cow and to turn into milk. Even at this early stage we can see thebeginnings of androgyny (and hence the potential for unilateral creation) in the symbolismof the male sexual fluid and in its relationship with the female sexual fluid. Soma alsopartakes in the androgyny of fire and water (usually male and female, sometimes femaleand male), for it is the Indo-European "fiery liquid."

Soma is often called payoduh, "milked of milk," even when he has the form of a bull;his seed is milk (RV 9. 19. 5; 9. 54. 1; 9. 108. 8; cf. AV. 2. 6. 2. 6. 2). A more explicitandrogyny occurs in the figure of the rain god Parjanya, some of whose complexities maybe related to the androgynous figure of Heaven/Earth, whose milk-seed we have alreadynoted. One hymn to Parjanya reveals in this maze of identities, oppositions, and paradoxes :[The poet addresses the rain cloud] : Raise the three voices with light going before them,voice that milk the udder that gives honey. [Sayana suggests that the three voices ofParjanya are the thunder preceded by lightning and followed by rain. The udder is thecloud that is milked of sweet rain, which Parjanya cause to fall from the clouds; in thatsense the voice are milked from him by the hymns of praise.] Creating the calf who is theembryo of the plants, the bull roared as soon as he was burn. [The calf is the fire born oflightning. Often called the germ of embryo of plants to increase, and the waters, who rulesover the entire world, may he grant us the triple refuge and comfort, the triple light thatis o£good hope to us. [The triple light may be the three energies of the sun at spring,summer, and autumn; or fire, moon, and sun; or fire, wind, and sun.]

Now he becomes sterile [f.], now one who give birth; he takes whatever body hewishes. The mother receives the milk \payas] of the father; with it the father and the sonincrease and prosper. [Sayana : he becomes a sterile, milkless cow when he does not giverain; then, live a cow, he brings forth, when he rains waters. The mother earth receivesthe milk of rain water from the father, heaven; with it, when it has developed into theoblation, the father of the heavenly world—prospers; and with it, in the form of water,won—the creatures on earth who breathe—also prospers.] He is the bull who places theseed in all (plants); in him is the vital breath of what moves and of what is still. Let thistruth protect me for a hundred autumns; protect us always with blessings (RV. 7. 101.1,2,3,6; cf. RV 10. 115.1).

Parjanya is male and female, the bull and the cow; his rain is milk, seed, and hisoffspring, his calf. Thus he can give "milk" (seed) to the mother, even as he can becomepregnant though he is sterile. Whatever the ambiguity ofpayas, lexically or metaphorically,it here simultaneously designates milk and semen, two extracts regarded as complementaryopposites.

Like Parjanya, Tvastr is sexually complex; he is, to begin with, a good who places seed

Sexual Fluids 3507

in women to make them pregnant . "The bright bull of a thousand, rich in milk, bearing

all forms in his bellies,. . . he is male, yet pregnant , big, rich in milk. . . Fa the r of claves,

lord of the inviolable (cattle), his seed is calf, afterbirth, fresh milk, the first milk after

birth, curd, ghee" (AV 9. 4. 1-6). Again payas and retas interact to contrast . In the la ter

Vedas, Prajapat i , like Tvastr , is andrygynous: he said to rub up milk and but te r from

himself and thus too propagate (SB. 2. 2. 4. 1-8); Prajapati , the male creator, has the

breas ts and womb of a woman; the two breasts of Prajapat i are milked by the priest to

obtain whatever he desires, and, after creation takes place, Prajapat i is milked out and

empty; Prajapat i becomes pregnant with creatures in his womb (TB 13.11.18; 9. 6. 7; J B

1. 225; !§B 2. 5. 1. 3; MS 1. 6. 9). If there remains any question about the specificity of the

fluid, payas is here clearly defined by its anomalous male container—the breast . An even

more specific equation is made with reference to Agni: "Seed is milk; milk is female and

seed is male , and so together they give life; the god of fire desired the sacrificial cow; his

seed became t h a t milk of hers" (&B 9. 5. 1. 55-56; cf. 2. 3. 1. 14-15; 2. 5. 1. 16).

The equation of a man ' s seed with his offspring is continued in the Upanisads : Death

makes his seed into the year, his child, and bears h im for a year (as in female pregnancy);

he then a t t empts to eat the child (the usua l inversion of feeding with milk) (BAU 1. 2. 4).

The commentator, Sankara , explains t ha t P r a j apa t i , as death, produces ^eed and places

himself in it, so t h a t he becomes born as the year; t hus Sahkara identifies the father with

the child.

S e e d a s F o o d

In view of the fact t h a t semen is so often compared with milk and Soma, the two

quintessent ial foods (one h u m a n , one divine), it is not surpris ing t ha t the Vedic mater ia ls

abound in texts in which semen is regarded as a form of food. But ter and honey, frequent

metaphors for Soma, also come to be compared with semen. The r i tual ingestion of semen

or its metaphorical subt i tu tes is ancient: the Avesta gives evidences t ha t the ur ine of the

cow or bull was used in purificatory r i tuals , and it has been suggested t ha t the drug

properties of thee Soma remained potent in the ur ine of anyone who had d runk it, so t ha t

it became the practice to dr ink such ur ine (Wasson 1968, pp. 25-34 and 71-76). In the

Mahabh&rata, Indra (who is often depicted as a stallion or bull) is said to ur ina te Soma

as an elixir for the age Ut t ahka , the same hapless Brahmin who, elsewhere in the epic,

is forced to swallow the ur ine and dung of an enormous bull (MB/i 14. 54. 12-35; cf. 1. 3.

100-105). Nowhere in the Vedic corpus is a woman said to dr ink seed itself, though there

is one hjncnn in which the god Indra (Shedder of seed, dr inker of Soma) falls in love with

a girl who presses Soma for h im in her mouth (RV. 8. 91 ; cf. Brhaddevata 6. 99-106).

In the Upanisads , the dr inking of semen is implicit in the basic description of the


bir th process, a description t h a t persists through late Indian elaborations: the soul of the

man who is to be reborn goes to the moon, pours down onto £he ea r th as ra in (the old Vedic

metaphor for seed shed by the gods in heaven, here applied to a nontheistic process), goes

into p lants (of which Soma is the king), is ea ten (By a man) and transformed into semen

tha t impregnates a woman. This model undergoes several variat ions. It usually appears

in a pejorative description of the process of t ransmigrat ion experienced by those who fail

to enter the pa th of the flame tha t leads to the sun and xaltimate release; these inferior

creatures enter the moon (explicitly identified with Soma) and become food for the gods;

then they ra in down, become food for men, are eaten, transformed into semen, and placed

in women to become embryos (ChU 5. 4-8; 5. 10. 3-6; BAU 6. 2. 16). Even here the

"deluded" creatures , in the midst of their journey, serve as food for the gods, and in a later

text the process of recycling is seen as an element in the preferred pa th , the r i tual pa th

of the flame and the sun: the offering made to the god by living creatures goes through fire

to the sun; from the sun comes rain; from rain, food; and from food, living creatures (MU

6. 37; cf. Manu 3. 76).

Various fluids can be t r ansmuted alchemically into one another, since they can

function in the same way. Soma can be used instead of seed, and seed instead of rain. This

is more t h a n mere -homoeopathic magic, though tha t elements certainly present : if you

put Soma into the fire, ra in will come down and male children be engendered. But these

text§ seem to imply more t h a n t h a t : the Soma placed in the fire is actually made of ra in

in some essential way and will again be made into rain; there is process as well as

metaphorical description.

In these Upanisadic texts, the m a n drinks the food tha t is to become semen (as the

male priest dr inks the Soma); apparent ly the woman plays no significant role in creating

the child; she is merely the receptacle for the final stage. Her sexual fluid (milk) will be

used only later, to feed him (as he was "fed" to his father before conception took place). In

the impregnation process in the Upanisads milk appears only in its role as seed substi tute :

a woman who wishes to have a son should eat rice (itself a symbol of seed) prepared with

milk products (ghee, milk, sour milk ) or water (BAU 6. 4. 14-16). The more of this milk

substances t ha t she eats , the more semen substances is produced in her, and so she sill

have a male child, grown on seminal milk-based food. Thus there is still no direct

ingestion of seed but merely ingestion of ra in or milk t ha t will become seed.

A n d r o g y n y a n d Uni la tera l Crea t ion t h r o u g h Milk

From these late Vedic texts it is clear t ha t the image of pressing out milk is used in

an extremely loose metaphorical sense to indicate any kind of giving forth, as in the image

of shedding seed t h a t "droppeth as the gentle ra in from heaven." Thus the Rg Veda knows

Sexual Fluids 3509

of the "milking" of the (female) ear th , whose white udder yields Soma as milk for the gods

(RV 1. 84. 10-11; 2. 34. 2; 5. 52. 16; 5. 60. 5; 8. 101. 5; 10. 123. 1-5); this myth is later

expanded in an episode in which the ear th , a cow, is milked of other things as well (SB 1.

8. 3. 15; AV 8. 10. 22-29). The second point is t ha t the interchange ability of these

essential, creative fluids, semen and milk, leads to apparent instances of uni la teral

creation by male alone or by female a long: things are born from the seed (or the bull) with

no reference to the seed enter ing a fertile receptacle, and things come forth directly from

milk (or the cow) without any apparent fertilizing agent.

In part icular , we find the image of the pregnant male, the t ruly androgynous figure,

though it is usual ly a male androgyne. Most ancient Indian androgynes are primarily

male—men who can have babies as women do. Prajapat i is basically a well-known male

sod who is suddenly endowed with a womb and breast . On the other hand, it does not

happen tha t some woman or goddess suddenly finds herself endowed with a phal lus or,

so surprise and ours, became able to produce children all by herself. Many of these acts

of male uni la tera l creation take place when the "thigh" of the male is churned (manth),

a verb also applied to the production of but te r from milk or the kindling of fire from the

two fire sticks (OTlaher ty 1976, pp. 334-35; cf. J u n g 1967, pp. 145-46). Since seed is

equated with milk, and the breas t is likened to the phallus, to "milk" a man ' s thigh of seed

is equivalent to milking the woman's breas t of milk (and the kdmasvtras liken the action

of the yoni on the lihga to t ha t of the milkmaid's hand on the cow's udder) . "Thigh" may

simply be a euphemism for a phal lus (as in RV 8. 4. 1), but in this context it functions as

an androgynous symbol, serving as ei ther brest or phallus—or both at once. The equation

of thigh and phal lus— and the further equation of seed with free— is apparen t from one

ancient text: "On the r ight thigh of the Udgat r priest they churn fire; for from the right

side the seed is discharged" (TB 12. 10. 12). This beneficial r i tual churning is in sharp

contrast with the churning of the left thigh of the evil Vena, from which barbar ian tribes

were produced (OTlaher ty 1976, pp. 321-31). thus sexual "churning" can be applied not

only to the male and female, "Churning" together, bu t to the fluid of ei ther the male or the

female alone (ibid., pp. 333-34). The two parents share payas, rasa, and retas— the first

primari ly female, the last primari ly male and the middle one neut ra l .

Woman as "Field"

The image of the woman as an insignificant receptacle for the unilateral ly effective

male fluid persists , not only in these early texts but in la ter ones as well. The woman is

the mere "field" in which the seed is sown, not an active par tner in the process. This is

merely a res ta tement , on another level, of the facts t h a t semen is regarded as more

powerful t h a n u ter ine blood (in models t ha t see this substances as the female contribution


to the bir th process) and tha t the child resembles the father in all socially significant

qualities (Marriott 1976; Inden 1976, p. 95). The "field" metaphor is a na tu ra l development

from the Vedic premise of uni la teral creation (already somewhat androcentric) supported

by the Upanisadic tendency toward misogyny. The early expressions of this idea are often

coupled with aggressive and competitive feelings, not only toward the woman but toward

the rival seed-sower. The principal text of the fertility ceremony between the queen and

the stallion contains, among several verses of t ruly ingenious obscenity, a passage tha t

demonstra tes this a t t i tude toward the woman: When a deer eats the barley, one does not

approve of the fact t ha t the animal has been nourished; so when Sudra woman has a noble

lover, she does not bear fruit for growth. [Commentator: The farmer does not think,

"Good, the beas t ha s been nourished," but, ra ther , "My crop has been eaten!" So the

husband becomes sad, thinking, "She has gone astray." ] (VS 23. 30-31.

The use of the metaphor of an eaten crop (the inverse of the sowing of seed) is here

easily adap ted to express an unfavourable a t t i tude to sexual in teract ion. In the

Brhadaranyaka Upanisad the cuckolded husband is encouraged to do more t h a n scold: If

a man 's wife ha s a lover whom he hates , he should spread out a row of reed arrows, their

heads smeared wi th ghee, and sacrifice them, in inverse order, into a vessel of fire, saying,

"You have made a libation in my fire! I take away your breath, your sons, your cattle, Your

sacrifices and good deeds, your hope and your expectations. You have made a libation in

iriy fire, you [Mr.X]." If a Brahmin who knows this curses a man, t ha t m a n dies impotent

and without meri t . Therefore one should not t ry to get on "joking te rms" with the wife of

a learned Brahmin (BAU 6.4.12).

This is an interes t ing example of transferred meri t in a sexual context: the cuckold

takes away the sons, cattle, and virility of his wife's lover. (The Atharva Veda has spells

to destroy a man 's virility [6.138; 7. 9], but not to transfer it to the speaker of the hymn.)

The arrows smeared with ghee are pa ten t symbols of the phal lus with seed, and their

inverse order of sacrifice into the fire inverts their normal power to perform. The sacrifice

into the fire is here , as so often in the Upanisads (see BAU 6. 2. 13; 6. 4. 3), a metaphor

for impregnation, seed being equated with but ter or Soma. Power is lost through seed (the

lover's seed defiling the wife) and reclaimed through seed ( the r i tual use of but te r as

seed).

A g g r e s s i o n a n d Compet i t i on i n S e x u a l Creat ion

Seed is also an ins t rument of power and conflict in the sexual union between husband

and wife. This is clear from a Brhadaranyaka Upanisad passage tha t separates eroticism

from fertility: "When one desires a woman but does not wish her to conceive, he should

enter her, join his mouth with her mouth, inhale, exhale, and say, W i t h power, with

Sexual Fluids 3511

semen, I reclaim the semen from you/ Thus she comes to be without seed" (BAU 6. 4. 10).Two desiderata are accomplished by this: the first, the gbvious, one, is that the womandoes not get the seed, does not become pregnant; the other, perhaps even more importantto the ancient Indian, is that the man gets the seed back This concern is the sole basis ofanother mantra in this text: Whether asleep or awake, if one should spill his semen, heshould touch it and say. "That semen of mine which has today spilled on the earth, or hasflowed to plants or to water, I reclaim that semen. Let virility return to me, and energyand strength. Let the fire be put in its right place, on the fire altar [f.]." Having said this,he should take (the semen) with his thumb and fourth finger and rub it between hisbreast or his eyebrows (BAU 6. 4. 4-5).

Again we find both the ritual metaphor of fire and the seed placed over the heart orbrain — the source of sacred ritual power — reclaimed from profane danger.

This ritual is based on the Vedic belief that the normal flow of procreattve semen isfrom plants and water to the human body (BAU 6. 22. 16; CU 5. 10. 6). The "lost" semenwould have reversed that process, flowing back into plants, in the direction of death—thedark half of the cycle and, more particularly, the direction of the death of someone whohas not become enlightened (BAU 3. 4. 13). The Rg Veda states that the dead body, at thetime of cremation, dissolves into plants and water (RV 10. 16. 3), an idea that may wellbe of Indo-European origin (see Lincoln 1968); thus the Upanisads regard the loss of theseed as a kind of death. Great danger is therefore implied in the Brhadaranyaka text; afew verses earlier, it is remarked that, if a man has intercourse with a woman withoutknowing the proper mantra, "Woman take his good deeds to themselves" (BAU 6. 4. 2-3).Thes four incidents, joined in a single text, supply the beginning of the idea that power,carried by semen, is lost from one's own body and transferred, through sexual contact, toa rival, one's own wife, or another woman.

What, then, is the picture that emerges from these various Vedic metaphors for sexualinteraction? First, one must note the primacy of the Vedic ritual as a model for sexualcreation; this is hardly surprising, since these are all ritual texts, the ritual being theprimary locus in which all other phenomena are mirrored. Yet to a certain extent this isa chicken-or egg question, for surely there is a deep, perhaps even subconscious, level onwhich the rituals are created and accepted because of their resonances with the basicprocess of human physiology.

Churning fire, presssing a plant, offering libations into fire, are elementary units ofritual activity that are repeated for simple, practical reasons as well as for their unconsciouspsychological appeal; they are then described in the poetry in terms of the fairly obviousmetaphors of sexual friction, milking the breast, shedding the seed. What happens next


is t ha t when an actual bi r th model is finally constructed, beginning sketchily in the

Upanisads , the model is an almost literal application of the r i tual metaphors . Another,

and related, example of this procedure may be seen in the way tha t the pinda oblation to

the ancestors was used as a basis for the pinda model of the creation of the embryo

(OTlaher ty 1980, chap. 1).

A second characterist ic of the Vedic world view is implicit in the frequent examples of

uni la teral or competitive procreation t ha t occur in the texts. There are, of course, many

examples of more conventional sexual cooperation as well, which I have not bothered to

cite; it is the unexpected metaphor tha t proves ul t imately i l luminating for the peculiar

Indian viewpoint, the Rg Veda has a great deal to say about the way in which men and

woman make babies together; wha t is interesting, however, is t ha t other al ternat ives are

also considered, a l ternat ives tha t I emphasize, with the unders tanding tha t they are

supplementary to the many texts dealing with normal procreation. Similarly, it is

abundant ly clear for the Rg Vedic hymns of procreation and the Upanisadic descriptions

of intercourse t ha t the predictable interdependence of phal lus and womb had been

noticed in the appropriate h u m a n contexts and made use of in r i tual context; nevertheless,

it was the less obvious correspondence between the phallus and the breast t ha t furnished

the basis for a theoretical model of fluid interaction.

Side by side with conventional observations on where babies come from, the Vedas

suggest t ha t a m a n can create without a woman, a woman without a man. Semen by itself

is fertile; milk by itself is fertile; semen may become milk, and milk may become semen.

However, since milk is not literally procreative, there is a tendency to emphasize the

male's role in sexual engendering; though semen and milk are equal, semen is "more

equal." Thus a m a n may become an androgyne, but a woman seldom does. This Vedic

quasi-equivalence becomes further s lanted in the Upanisadic period, where a m a n can

create alone but a woman never does; where much is said about seed, but, in contrast with

the Vedas, very little about milk; where a man mus t be careful to guard his seed, to get

it back from the woman, to keep her from stealing his meri t even as he himself would steal

away the meri t of her defiling lover. Finally, since both semen and milk (or male semen

and female semen) are extracts of blood and function independently, they are competitive

and mutual ly destructive; their interaction is potentially dangerous, like the coming-

together of ma t t e r and ant imat ter . Semen and milk do not a t t ract each other, as t rue

opposites would (such as Yin and Yang). But repel each other, since they are so much

alike in form (white fluids expressed from a "swollen" protrusion on the body) and in

function.

Though goddesses are not impor tant to the Rg Veda, women are impor tant as things

to be possessed, like cattle. Fluids of all kinds are in many ways "female"; they are the

Sexual Fluids 3513

mater ia ls of regeneration, the moist, Dionysian element, whether they flow in the veins

of men or of woman Milk is the pr imary Vedic procreative symbol, but gods are the

pr imary procreative figures. The semen of the gods is therefore identified with milk,

which then becomes a male fluid. The corresponding identification, which credits women

with seed, is far less common in the Rg Veda; yet the fact t ha t this identification occurs

at all lays the groundwork for the later development of a more egali tar ian view of the

relative importance of woman in procreation.

The Post -Vedic P e r i o d

In the one Vedic model developed above, the parallel to a man 's seed was a woman's

milk; the phal lus corresponded to the breast , not to the womb. The late Vedas, on the

other hand, suggested another model for the woman, a t tempt ing to account for her dual

sites of sexuality: blood in a m a n produced semen, while blood in a woman produced

female seed and milk. Later still, this model was challenged by another: seed is a man

corresponded with mens t rua l or u ter ine blood (rajas or puspa ) in a woman. In t rue

Indian fashion, the Vedic models were also retained, and a bas ta rd compromise was

sometimes a t tempted: blood in a m a n produced semen, and blood in a woman produced

milk, u ter ind blood, or female seed. This elaborated complex of dualit ies made good sense

in the now well-developed context of the split image of the woman. Simultaneously erotic

(the mare , whose power centered upon the vagina) and procreative (the cow, whose power

centrered upon the breast) (O'Flaherty 1976, pp. 346-48; see below, chaps. 6-8).

B l o o d a n d S e e d

Although in the medical texts blood is androgynous (in the sense of being bisexual or

of being the source of both male and female qualities), it tends to become primari ly female

in most post-Vedic discussions. Perhaps because all fluids tend to become regarded as

female in contrast with solids (or igneous substances), which are male. Thus blood is said

to be given to the child by the mother, bone from the father (MBh 12. 293. 16-17). In this

way, mens t rua l blood comes to be regarded as the female counterpart to semen in many

texts, in contrast with nonsexual blood, which is deemphasized as a sexual fluid in the

woman.

Moreover, blood often appeared as a metaphor for male semen or as a seed subst i tute:

Siva produces a son from the blood of Visnu (Vdm P 2. 31 . 844-87). and blood is the source

of a number of demons, most notoriously of offspring of the aptly named Raktabija

("blood-seed"). From whose every drop of blood shed in bat t le another demon was born;

significantly, these rapidly multiplying creatures are disposed of by being eaten (while

Kali herself such as out the blood of Raktabija) — The classical inversion of the act of

procreation (Vdm P. 44. 30-38; KP 1. 16. 123-240; MP 88. 39-61; Matsya P. 179. 1-86; PP


5. 43. 1-95). Demons also arise from each drop of the blood of the demon Andhaka,

whereupon Siva creates goddesses to devour them; when these goddesses prove to be an

additional th rea t . Visnu creates yet another band of goddesses from par t of his body,

including his genitals , to ea t the first group; and then Visnu reabsorbs (i.e., eats) the

whole lot (Vdm P . 43; VDP 1. 226. 1-82; OTlahe r ty 1973, pp. 281-82; cf. p. 271). This

corpus is further l inked to the cycle of semen as food by the myth of the demon Ruru,

overcome by yet another set of insatiable goddesses, who finally consent to accept as their

good the testicles of Siva (PP 5. 26 91 - 125; LP 1. 106, 1-27; Matsya P. 262. 5-19). This

blood-seed imagery persis ts in contemporary Indian folklore in the belief t ha t semen

ra ther t h a n blood flows from the wounds of a chaste yogi who res t ra in his seed, a theme

to which we shall re tu rn . I t is also reflected in the widespread fear t h a t a m a n who

receives a blood transfusion from a female will lose his masculinity (Howard 1977).2

Blood appears in a woman most significantly in mens t rua l or uter ine blood, rajas or

puspa. The first t e rm is derived from the noun denoting "passion"; the second is the word

for "flower." According to the medical textbooks female (uterine) blood uni tes with the

man 's semen in order to produce a child (Eliade 1958, pp. 239-54; Meyer 1930, pp. 359-63;

OTlahe r ty 1980). A daughter is born, in one myth, when a drop of mens t rua l blood shed

by the'sixty-four Yoginis is fertilized by the shadow of a hawk (Elwin 1949, p. 420;

OTlahe r ty 1973, p. 137); this abnormal primacy of female blood is clearly inauspicious:

the child is not only a girl bu t an insatiable eater of men. The other tradit ion, t ha t the

woman's seed r a the r t han her uter ine blood is her contribution to the bir th process,

makes for ambiguities in several texts: "From desire the semen is born, and from semen

the mens t rua l blood" (MBh 14. 24 5; Meyer 1930, p. 362). This makes sense only if

"semen" here is the woman's semen ; yet, to fit it with the later theory of the woman's

blood as her contributing element (in contrast with the seed, which would make her a

more equal par tner) , th is seed is said to be the source of the blood t h a t makes it logically

superfluous (and the fluid moreover, from which the female seed is usual ly said to be

made). A final, if drastic, solution is achieved in the Tan t ras by the simply unexplained

s ta tement t h a t "the blood in the womb is called seed" (Samvarodaya Tantra 2. 23), jus t

as raj commonly denotes female (Stablein 1980).3

F e m a l e S e e d

There remains a basic ambiguity in Sanskr i t texts as to whether the creative fluid in

the womb is female semen or mens t rua l blood, and this ambiguity is found in the Tamil

sources as well. One hesi ta tes to adduce Tamil mater ia l in this context, because, though

there are certain s tr iking correspondences, there are also some very basic disparit ies in

the underlying world view. Yet to ignore this mater ia l — which has been exposed to the

Sexual Fluids 3515

Sanskrit tradition and has influenced it in turn — would be needlessly impoverishing. Letme simply prefact the discussion with the caveat that there is a great deal of Tamil dataon the birth process that does not follow the Sanskrit model. Having said that, let mequote a contemporary study from South India that reveals several of the ambiguitiesencountered in the Sanskrit texts: According to T.'s interpretation of Tirumantiram, whatappear in the Vagina at intercourse is the female seed, the same as the male semen.Tirumantiram says, "The whiteness that appears in the vessel of semen, in the same wayappears in the yoni.". . . T. calls this whiteness "a kind of water in the form of feeling.".. . The textual commentary calls the female substance cennir ("red water, auspiciouswater") and curonitam, which are polite words for blood, especially menstrual blood. Butintercourse at the time for menstruation is strongly forbidden — it is believed that bysuch an act that man will die in convulsions — and T.'s interpretation of the female seedas the lubricating fluid in the vagina seems more apt (Egnor 1978, pp. 62-63).

If one interprets this fluid as menstrual blood, intercourse is forbidden; if one interpretsit as semen, female semen, intercourse is mandatory, according to the Hindu doctrinethat requires a man to impregnate a woman when she comes into season (rtugamana)

(MBh 7. 18. 32; Manu 3. 46-48). The native informant cleverly solves this dilemma byoffering a third, neutral, mediating definition of the fluid as merely an emotional lubricant(perhaps harking back to rajas, "passion," as well as to menstrual blood). So, too, aSanskrit term for female seed (rati) means "sexual pleasure," separating the woman'serotic fluid (in the vagina) from her fertile fluid (in the breast) or her destructive fluid(blood in the veins).

The milk between the fluid in the womb and the emotion of the womb ("hysteria") ismade explicit in South India, where this feeling is also atributed to the male: "The soulcomes and mixes in the colour of the two people. Colour {cayam), this means the juice/theessence (caram [Skt. sara]) of the two people. . . What is colour? Feeling, Your feeling,another person's feeling. Male feeling, female feeling, A certain king of juice which ismixed as a result of both" (Egnor 1978, p.61).

Yet another term for the female sexual fluid, rasa, also denotes "emotion." Thiscluster of affective overtones can be no accident; the female in her genital site is passionate(greedy, taking), while in her maternal site (the breast) she is merely giving. The confusionbetween female blood and female semen is further heightened by the connection of bothof these terms with the protean rasa, which designates both female and male fluid in theRg Veda. Among the Bauls of Bengal, rasa refers to male semen;4 according to the medicaltextbooks, it is equivalent to female seed: "The embryo is born from rasa" ; (Caraka 4. 3.18); From rasa comes the blood of a woman that appears at the time of puberty as is called


rajas" (Susruta 1. 14. 2). Here rasa functions like the "semen" t ha t is the source of

mens t rua l blood in the text cited above; but rasa in the broader sense is the fluid (made

from digested food) tha t is consecutively t r ansmuted into blood7 flesh, fat, bone, marrow,

and semen, comprising the seven dhdtus or physiological elements.

The conflict between the view tha t postulate blood or female semen as the woman's

contribution to b i r th is exacerbated by the explicit hierarchical value placed on these

substances: the medical textbooks and folk tradit ions s ta te tha t it takes sixty drops of

blood to make one drop of semen (or milk) (Obeyesekeere 1976, p. 213; Egnor 1978, p. 69).

But both men and women are said to possess the seven dhdtus, which include both blood

(male and female) and semen (male and female ) but not milk (merely female). If the

woman's substances remains the undistil led raw substances, blood, produced directly

from rasa fluid (digested food), in contrast with the semen tha t is refined OUT o f blood as

the ul t imate of seven increasingly concentrated essences, her contribution is clearly one-

sixtieth t ha t of the man . If, however, she is credited with semen of her own-given equality,

though androcentric equality — this hierarchy of fluids is negated on the social level by

the fact t ha t the male along is responsible for the "coded substance" of the child. In

mythology the woman achieves this equality by creating through milk, refined, like

semen, from the blood and therefore its equivalent; this is the earlier physiological model.

Here, as elsewhere, one can see the mind of the author of the medical text working ha rd

to create complex epicycles, as it were — too make some sort of logical order out of the

inconsistent mythological models he has inheri ted and feels called upon to reconcile,

though they had existed side by side for centuries in the mythological texts, happily

contradictory.

The Rg Veda, as we have seen, suggests t ha t a woman has seed; and the classical

medical texts insist upon this (e.g. Sus ru ta 1. 14. 18, 3. 2. 38). This idea persists in later

periods throughout India, often precipitating a conflict between the blood-semen model of

reproduction and the semen-semen model (for the milk-semen model is largely ignored by

the medical texts as a s t ra ight procreative explanation, though its symbolic importance

is still felt in less direct ways). A confusion similar to tha t of the Tirumantiram appear in

Orissa (an a rea nea r Calcutta): The female sexual fluid. . . in Oriya is. called raja. This

fluid is not mens t rua l blood — which in colloquial Oriya is called by different terms —

since the woman should not be mens t rua t ing at the t ime of this r i tual . It is a colorless

fluid which corresponds to semen in the male and like semen is believed to be secreted by

the woman a t the t ime of intercourse. Fur thermore , in local theories of conception raja

plays a role symmetrical to tha t of semen in the conception of a child (Marglin 1978b, pp.

15-16).

Despite the persistence of the blood-semen model as the primary post-Vedic explanation

Sexual Fluids 3517

for conception, the Kdmasutra (2.1) assumes that women do have seed ("If they had nosemen, there would be no embryo") and proceeds to argue about whether or not the semenof the woman falls in the same way as that of the man (the final conclusion is that it does).In contemporary Ceylon, thousands of women have been diagnosed as suffering from lackof (female) semen, and doctors cure them with prescriptions analogous to those given tomen similarly diagnosed (Obeyesekera 1976, pp. 207-09).

In the post-Vedic myths, when partenogenesis among females takes place, the modelused is usually not the female substances (milk) but the male substance (semen-forwhich, as we shall see, other substances are frequently substituted). The goddess Parvatiproduced Skanda from her own spittle, and Ganesa was born from the water in which shewashed herself after she had made love with Siva, water mixed with her own seed(Caturvargacintdmani 2.2.359; Vdm P. 28. 71-72), or from the rubbings of her body whenshe anointed herself in the bath (SP 2. 4. 13. 20). The female seed is thus equated withdirt, and interesting reversal of the widespread motif in which the male creates unilaterally(and anally) from dirt or faeces in an awkward attempt to mime female pregnancyunilaterally, she must apparently produce seed substitutes to ensure "true" (i.e., male)pregnancy; what she uses in place of the "pure" male seed is dirt. In imitation of the male,the Goddess creates Kali from her urine after she has made love with Siva(Caturvargcintdmani 2. 2. 366; cf. O'Flaherty 1973, p. 271). The unilateral nature ofGane^a's creation is made clear in a folk etymology of his name, Vinayaka, said to havebeen given to him because Parvati created him "without a husband" (vind ndyakena) Vdm

P. 28. 71-72). Again, working on the male analogy (or rather the male-female analogy withmale predominance), two women may have intercourse together, "acting like virile men,"so that their two sets of seed mingle to produce a child—but it is a child who lacks bones,for these are given by the male alone (Susruta 3. 2. 47).

The persistence of the theory of female semen in the fact of another, more pervasivetheory of conception (the female-blood-plus-male -semen model, which is, incidentally, forcloser to our own, since it relates conception to a monthly cycle of female fertility ratherthan to an everpresent female fluid) might lead one to surmise that there was a desire forsome sort of equality, an equalizing of the flow of fluids in sexual contact. But this is notthe case. Instead, the mutative aggression of the female toward the male seed is simplytransferred, and a tantric texts which exalt the female, the male is encouraged to takeback from the female not only his seed but hers as well, by the so-called fountain-pentechnique (Eliade 1958, pp. 232-33; cf. Snepllgrove 1959, pp. 35-36, citing hevajra Tantra

1. 7d). In a Tantric ceremony recorded in Orissa, the female seed is eaten rather thansexually reabsorbed; the woman is to secrete her seed at the time of intercourse, but theworshipper. . . must not let his seed fall. The female sexual fluid is collected on a flower


or a "bel" leaf [and is eventually placed in a conch s h e l l ] . . . The r i tual concludes with the

main worshipper dr inking the res t of the content of the conch shell. . . Ins tead of the

women receiving within her the make sexual fluid, the opposite process is followed, and

it is the m a n who ingests the female sexual fluid. I t is thus very graphically and

specifically the inverse of conjugal intercourse and well meri ts the appellation of "inverse

sexual intercourse" (Marglin 1978b, pp. 15-16; cf. Tantrdloka 29. 127-28, cited by Tucci

1968, p . 292, and Eliade 1971, p. 101).

This r i tual may be based on a more classical Tantr ic text, in which the Kundagolaka,

a mixture of both male and female secretions, is collected in a consecrated vessel and

eventually eaten. The female pa r t of this mixture is sonita, mens t rua l blood, which is also

consumed in other Tantr ic r i tuals . This may be an extension to the secondary model

(seed-blood) of the reversal first applied by Tant r i sm to the pr imary moded (seed-seed); in

both cases, the female fluid is consumed in clear contrast to its role in non-Tantric Hindu

thought , where the male fluid is consumed and the female fluid is "consuming".

Another Tantr ic text resolves this conflict in a still bolder way: the yoni h a s semen on

the left and mens t rua l fluid on the right; if the procreative wind moves on the right, the

child will be^male; if on the left, it will be female (Samvarodaya Tantra 2.23). Not only is

a woman said to have both seed and mens t rua l blood, but both are said to be actively

precreative and to occupy positions opposed to those of the normal order ((male) seed on

the right, (female) blood on the left). Yet the male child is born from the right, the female

from the left, in the t radi t ional manne r — a s ta tement a t odds with the locations of the

male and female sexual fluids in the womb and perhaps indicating the subconscious

persistence of the more "orthodox" model.

S e e d Subst i tu tes : S w e a t a n d T e a r s

In Hindu mythology the instances of unilateral female creation are by far outnumbered

by uni la tera l male creation. The male seed is fertile in itself, part icularly the seed of a

great ascetic who has kept it within h im for a long t ime and is therefore "one whose seed

is never shed in vain" (amogharetus); t ha t is, he engenders a child every t ime he sheds his

seed, no mat te r where he sheds it. Even an ordinary man 's seed is basically the source of

life, as is evident from the Upanisadic tradition; in Dharmasas t ra , too, the seed remains

more important t h a n the womb (Manu 9.35). The seed shed by a powerful male may fall

into any of a number of womb subst i tutes (a pot, the ear th , a river, or someone's mouth)

and produce an embryo. In addition, other fluids from the body of the male may serve as

seed subst i tu tes , part icularly sweat and tears (OTlaher ty 1973, p . 272). The sweat of lust

is part icular ly fertile: when Brahma desired Sandhya but managed to control his lust, his

sweat fell to the ground and produced a mul t i tude of sages, and, a t the same moment, the

Sexual Fluids 3519

sweat of Daksa produced Rati , the goddess of sexual pleasure (whose name also designates

females seed) Kalika P, 2.45-47; SP 2.2.3.48; 2.2.3.51). Siva creates a demon from his

sweat to dr ink the demon-producing blood of Andhaka, himself born of Siva's sweat

(Matsya, P, 252.5-6; Vdm P., 44.41-43). These are all negative, demonic creations, perverse

creations, not because no woman is involved in the bir th (for exclusively male procreation

very often has auspicious results) but because sweat is regarded as an inferior, negative

form of seed; it is the fluid of emotion (passion, anger, lust), in sharp contrast with the

seed t h a t is held back by means of emotional control.

Creation by tears is part icularly central to the early mythology of Siva, for the Rudras

are said to be born of Prajapati 's tears (SB 9.1.1. 6-7), and Rudra himself weeps unti l he

is fed (KP 1.10.22-27). The connection between tears and food is further developed in

another context: Tears flowed from Atri 's eyes, flooding the universe with light. The ten

points of the compass, taking the form of a woman, received tha t embryo in their belly,

and after 300 years they released it, and Brahma made it into a youth, Soma (Matsya P ,

23.1-10; PP 5.12.1-13).

The tears , a seed substi tute, are ultimately transformed back into Soma, the Upanisadic

source of all seed.

B l o o d a n d Milk

A number of significant tensions are associated with female blood in the post-Vedic

period. There is a tension between neut ra l blood (the source of male semen and female

milk) and female blood (contrasted with male semen). A men produces blood when he

dies; a woman produces blood when she creates. In this context, it is evident wha t the

mens t rua l blood is not primari ly polluting, as is so often said. Rather , it is taboo or sacred

in the broadest sense: because it is the woman's creative power, it is of course dangerous,

but it is by no means negative (Gross 1977a, p. 499). In post-Vedic mythology, mens t rua l

blood comes to be a symbol of the passion of women, the cause of the loss of Eden (MP

46.1-35; KP 1.28.15-40; OTlahe r ty 1976, p. 27), or the visible sign of women's share of the

guilt of Brahminicide. They accept this st igma in r e tu rn for the privilege of bearing

children (TS 2.5.1; BhP 6.9.9-10; OTlaher ty 1976, pp. 157-58).

Milk and blood mingle symbolically within a woman in various ways. The uter ine

blood t h a t mingles wi th the male's semen is, by analogy, confounded with the blood tha t

produces milk (distilled, like semen) in the breast; "The blood of women, in the breast ,

causes the sperm to grow; for the semen of men, in the seed, grows by union with women

and is nourished by the blood of the woman. At the t ime of the falling of the seed of the

man, a portion of the soul (jlva) grows in the pregnant womb, nourished by the "blood" (H.

app. 1.2909-15). In mythology, th is contrast between blood and milk is clarified and given


strong moral overtones: "Parvati sucked the Gond gods, but they sucked her right breastuntil blood came, and they continued to such blood untiil the breast shrivelled up. Havingsucked her blood, they could not be controlled by anyone on earth" (von Furer-Haimendorf1948, pp. 102,129-37). Again the problem of uncontrollable demonic powers is linked withthe drinking of blood, blood that flows instead of the normal milk. In the Brahmanas, anexpiation must be performed if blood is found in the cow's milk {SB, 12.4.2.1).

This contrast between blood and milk is heightened by the introduction of yet anotherrelated fluid — poison — in a well-known myth: The ogress Putana, a devourer ofchildren, was sent to kill the infant Krsna. She assumed a charming form to let him suckher breast, which she had smeared with a virulent poison. But Krsna, pressing her breasthard with his hands, angrily drank out her life's breath with the milk and killed her,having cut off her breasts (Bh P 10.6.1-44; cf. H 50.22; PP 6.245; Visnu P. 5).

Although blood is not explicitly mentioned, it is surely implicit in the "life's breath"that Krsna drinks out of her breasts and in the cutting-off of her breasts. Just as Putanareverses the fluid that she intends to give him, changing milk to poison, so he too effectsa reversal, changing the poison to blood, which he sucks from her.

Blood is*efben explicitly said to produce milk in a woman (in contrast with the sementhat it produces in a man) or to produce female seed (rati) and male seed (virya) (YalmanJL963, p. 30; cf. Egnor 1978, p. 60; Sinha 1961, pp. 194-96). The first of these modelsseparates the woman's fertile fluid from her sexual base entirely; the second substitutesfor the fertile fluid the erotic fluid of that base but defines it as creative as well as erotic.Blood is the source of both of these fluids in the woman. The blood that flows from thebreast, however, is an inauspicious milk substitute, an anti-milk substance; for theinverse of the woman whose breasts flow with milk is the demoness who drinks blood.When the gods milk the earth of strength, the demons milk her of blood (AV 8.10.22-29).This negative correspondence is reflected in the statement of a contemporary Tamil: "Weall drink our mother's blood for ten months before we are born, and after birth again wedrink her blood in the form of milk" (Egnor 1978, p. 172), a view supported by Ayurvedictexts stating that, since the unborn child drinks its mother's blood, there is a conflictbetween them. Thus the medical texts points out that during gestation the fetus gainsflesh and blood while the mother loses strength and color: the fetus eats the mother(Caraka 4.4.22). The demonic implications of the Tamil's statement are clear: "This wasM.'s most often repeated speech. And the pre-occupation is not only his own. In Sri Lanka,for instance, there is a large body of mythology about disease demons, several of whichwere born of a dead mother, surviving by eating her body and drinking her blood" (Egnor1978, p. 173). The dead mother cannot give milk; this makes her son into a demon who

Sexual Fluids 3521

drinks her blood (or, as we shall see, into a yogi who holds back his own fluids).

The in t imate connection between blood and milk in a woman is further expressed in

a classical medical text: With women, the channels of the vessels carrying the mens t rua l

blood, after conception, become obstructed by the fetus. Hence, with p regnant women

there is no mens t rua l discharge. Obstructed below, the blood . . . reaches the breasts .

Hence the breas t s of p regnan t women grow large and projecting (Susruta , 3.4.24; cf.

Zimmer, 1948, p . 185).

According to this text, milk is made, not from nonsexual blood, but from mens t rua l

blood; the most polluting of substances is t r ansmuted into the pures t of substances, rising

from the genital site as semen rises in a m a n to become t r ansmuted into Soma.

To dr ink blood directly is demonic, typical of the evil goddess Kali and the erotic mare ,

the inverse of the mother; to dr ink blood when it ha s been made into milk is na tu ra l and

good, the defining characterist ic of h u m a n s (and other mammals) ; and to feed with milk

t h a t ha s been made from blood is sacred, typical of the ma te rna l goddess Parvat l and of

the cow. Fetuses , a subdivision of the middle category, exist in a l iminal s ta te , nei ther

demons nor gods, ne i ther dead nor alive; they dr ink a fluid t h a t is nei ther entirely blood

nor entirely milk, and so thei r relat ionship to the mother is ambivalent. By being filtered

through the purifying breast , the blood is transformed into milk (the blood itself had

earlier been made out of food filtered through the body). Blood thus mediates between raw

food and "cooked" food; for milk is said to be "cooked" by the body, distilled like semen.

Blood may be d r u n k before it is made into blood or after it ha s been made into something

else, bu t i t is dangerous and demonic to eat it in i ts mediat ing form. Since blood is closely

related to milk bu t sharply contrasted with it, danger arises when blood and milk are

combined or when one is subst i tu ted for the other.

Here, as so often, the symbolism of interaction of body fluids expresses a deep

emotional ambivalence, extending to the parent-child relat ionship as well as to the male-

female relat ionship. Another manifestation of the belief t h a t the child feeds on his

mother 's milk/blood resul ts in yet another "fluid" barr ier between husband and wife:

In rare cases when the husband and wife have the same blood type nei ther is willing

to dbnate blood to the other. This s tems from the belief t h a t whoever receives blood will

become the offspring of the other. For example, it is thought t h a t a m a n would become the

daughte r of a m a n (her husband) after receiving a blood transfusion from him. Any

further sexual relat ions between the couple would be considered incestuous (Howard,

1977).

Milk is made from blood; yet blood pollutes and endangers , while milk purifies and


engenders.

Milk a n d S e m e n

In the sense t ha t milk (ra ther t h a n uter ine blood) is the female equivalent of seed,

milk is a directly creative fluid (as well as a nourishing fluid) in the mythology. Milk in

the woman comes to be explicitly equated with seed: "In the male the principle of life is

in the semen (ratas); in the female it is in the milk, known as pdyas, which la t ter word is

also frequently used to mean semen" (N. Brown 1942, p. 87). This s ta tement applies

equally well to the Vedic and post-Vedic mater ia l . In the same sense t ha t personality

qualit ies and karmic tendencies are transferred from parents to children in the seed, it is

believed tha t the mother 's menta l faculties, intelligence, and fears and worries are

transferred to the child through the milk of the breast (Egnor 1978, p. 146).

The myth of creation from milk can be traced back to the Vedic metaphor of Soma

churned or milked from the ocean (i.e., the Soma vats); in post-Vedic texts one encounters

the cow, or earth-cow, who is milked of all t ha t one desires — tha t is, who creates

unilaterally, wi thout a male agent other t han the milker and the calf. In the epic myths ,

this milking is t ransformed into the churning of the ocean (a more direct multiform of the

Vedic Soma-pressing): the gods churn the ocean and produce first milk, then but ter , then

wine, then poison, and, finally Soma {MBh 1.15-17). In addition, the magic wishing-cow

is produced when the ocean is milked, and the ocean of milk cow is produced when the

crcean is milked, and the ocean of milk flows from her udder {MBh. 1.23.50; R. 7.23.21);

thus the cow and the ocean are each other's mothers . This logical circle is s ta ted explicitly:

the magic cow was born of the Soma tha t B rahma spat from his mouth; from the cow's

milk, the ocean of milk arose on ear th , and four cows were born from her; when the gods

and demons churned the ocean tha t was mixed with the milk of these cows, they obtained

the Soma (MBh 5.100.1-13). Ea t ing and the reversal of eajting produce milk and the

source of milk. Like the Vedic Prajapat i , the cow is her own parent .

Milk functions as semen not only in its creative power but in its role in the image of

the retentive body. This is based on the analogy, not between the actual fluids themselves,

but between their containers, the bears t and the phallus, whose similarity is affirmed in

such words as paryodhara, "milk-bearing" or "liquid-bearing," which designates both a

breast (filled with milk) or a cloud filled with water (metaphorically called seed or urine,

a phallic image). Melanie Klein has advanced a fruitful hypothesis of "the breas t t ha t

feeds i tself , the breas t t ha t holds back milk for its own use; the also appears in Indian

mythology as the breas t t h a t kills with poison instead of milk (the myth of Pu tana) . But

in India and image of the self-cannibalizing limb plays a more important role in the male

t h a n in the female: the yogi seals his powers within himself by storing up his semen,

Sexual Fluids 3523

drawing it away from the phal lus (Hayley, 1976; Klein, 1948, pp. 265 and 357; OTlaher ty ,

1976, pp. 355-57). In popular folklore in India today, it is believed tha t when a yogi

re ta ins his seed, the seed is transformed into milk: "Semen of good quality is rich and

viscous, like the cream of unadul te ra ted milk" (Carstairs 1958, pp. 83-84). The yogi

actually develops breas ts , j u s t as a pregnant woman does when her "seed" (i.e., mens t rua l

blood) is obstructed. I t is also said t h a t the yogi becomes "pregnant" as his stomach swells

with the re ta ined seed.5 The yogi t hus becomes like a productive female when he reverses

the flow of his male fluids.

The pervasiveness of the image of the pregnant yogi supports the mythological

equivalences of breas t and phal lus , milk and seed, which occur in numerous episodes

(OTlaher ty 1976, pp. 341-42). When King P r t h u milks the earth-cow, she promises to

yield her milk, which is the seed (bijabhutam) of all vegetation (Visnu P 1.13.80). But

there is a significant difference in the values placed on the two "retentive" organs, for it

is good for milk to flow out but bad for semen to do so. The breast t h a t feeds itself is

symbolic of the evil mother, but the phal lus t ha t draws up its seed is symbolic of the evil

mother, bu t the phal lus t ha t draws up its seed is symbolic of the perfect man. Women are

mean t to give, men to keep. Or, on another level, materna l flow is good, while sexual flow

is bad. I t is suggested again and again by the myths t ha t the ideal is to stop the flow, to

keep back — or t ake back — the sexual fluid, which tends always to leave the body. Since

semen and milk are literally constructed of one's life-blood, it is clear t ha t to keep them

back means to preserve one's very life, to save one's life — literally, as one would save

money (in a kind of blood bank); whereas to give milk is to give life. In one Hindu view,

the loss of semen destroys not only the life of the man who spills it; one informant s tated

tha t the Banias regard all sexual intercourse "as sacrilege because so many small

creatures m u s t die every t ime the semen comes out" (Carstairs 1958, p. 117).

Thus &iva functions like those whom F. Scott Fitzgerald characterized as having "old

money" — rich because of wha t they have; while Krsna, orgistically dispensing but te r to

his friends and to the monkeys and to the par t ic ipants in his Hid, functions like the rich

who have "new money" — rich because of wha t they spend. The direct equation of semen

with life emerges from the medical texts, where semen is expressly said to promote

longevity; therefore, to live long one mus t re ta in semen (Caraka 1.25.39). This is merely

a reformulation of the Vedic hypothesis: Soma promotes immortality; to become immortal ,

one mus t dr ink Soma.

The Upanisads s ta te t ha t a man 's soul is t r ansmuted from food into semen; in

contemporary Tamilnadu, it is said tha t a man 's power, sakti, enters h im in food and is

stored in semen: "to increase and re ta in this sakti, males mus t re ta in their semen and


hence lead an ascetic life. Females, while having greater sakti of their own, also acquire,in intercourse, the sakti stored in the semen, thus further increasing their supply/' Menare encouraged to perform asceticism; "females, however, can increase their sakti at afaster rate merely by being chaste wives" (S. Daniels 1978, p. 6). The chaste wife is amother full of milk, the source of a woman's power in Tamilnadu. Thus the femaleincreases her power, not by performing asceticism (for then she would be denied across toher supplementary source in the male), but by remaining "chaste" in the socially sanctionedway: by letting milk flow. Thus, she increases her power by letting her fluids flow freely.

Here one may recall that in between his breasts or eyebrows (BAU, 6.4.4-5). These twoplaces are the two most important cakras or centres through which, in Kundalini Yoga,the seed moves upward from the base of the spine to the tip of the head. The rich supplyof semen stored in the yogi's head is symbolized by his high-pilled hair (Leach 1958;Obeyesekere 1978); his powers, like those of the seduced Samson or the macho Sikh withhis topknot, reside at the top of his head, in the "snake locks," or matted hair, thatcharacterize the Sadhu (Hershman 1974). The highest point for the semen, and thehighest cakra, is at the very top of the head; but the point on which the mythology usuallycenters is the more conspicuous cakra in the middle of the forehead. The significance ofthis cakra, and its relationship to milk (and, by analogy, to semen), are evident incontemporary South India: Each person, says T., has an invisible third eye between hiseyebrows. It is at this point that the soul or life (uyir) of the person may be perceived,though the soul is spread throughout the body. It is ar^alogous to milk being spreadthroughout the body of the mother, but only emerging at a certain place on the body, hesays (Egnor, 1978, p. 24).

The yogi, by drawing his semen to this special point, the site of the third eye, reversesthe flow of normal sexuality and hence the flow of normal time; thus he transmutes seedinto Soma, converting the fatal fact of intercourse into an internalized act that will assureimmortality (Eliade 1958, pp. 267-68).

So pervasive is the concept of semen being raised up to the head that popular versionsof the philosophy believe that the semen originates there: Girdari Lai gave another reasonfor the importance of the head: "There's a sun inside your belly, that keeps your bodywarm, and there is nectar in your head. It drips down your throat from that point (theuvula) and is caught by the sun inside your umbilicus. . . There are some holy men wholearn the trick of stopping the falling nectar with their tongues; and as long they do that,they cannot die" (Carstairs 1958, pp. 78).

This concept of the head as the "reservoir in which semen is stored" (ibid.) may be seen

either as a distortion of the yogic philosophy or as an extension of other classical Indian

Sexual Fluids 3525

ideas, such as the contrast between Soma, representing ecstatic cool religion (above thenavel), and Agni, representing world-oriented hot religion (below and navel). Thus the"sun inside your umbilicus" is the internal fire (Agni Vai^vanara), which converts nectarinto mere semen (or food into blood), in contrast with the yogic power (also at the navel,the transition point), which converts semen into Soma. A powerful yogi is said to have an"intact store of rich, uncurdled semen in his head" (Ibid., p. 86) — Soma that is still milky,in contrast with the more usual view that the yogi's semen becomes as rich as cream. Thefinal condition is the same — the yogi's semen is like milk or butter and is stored in theform of Soma in his head — but in the more usual view semen is the original material thatundergoes transmutation. The other view, however, lends support to the large body ofmythology that equates beheading with castration; if every man, not merely the yogi,stores his semen in his head, every beheading is a castration.6

Although the yogic aspiration to transmute semen into Soma is taken literally, andacted upon, by only a small and esoteric section of Indian society, it is known andsubscribed to on a theoretical level by most Indians, even nonliterate villagers. This ismerely one example of a more general dichotomy between the rao£sa-oriented, vedanticlevel of Hindu society and the rebirth-oriented "transactional" level (to use McKimMarriott's term; one might also say Vedic or Puranic level), which includes the largemajority (L. Dumont 1960, pp. 33-62; O'Flaherty 1973, pp. 78-83). Thus, though mostHindus say that a yogi is doing the best thinking (an expression of what they think theythink), they act in a way that belies this belief, by procreating as much as possible (anexpression of what they do think).7 Some Indians have a positive attitude to the processof flow and, indeed, to the world of mdyd, while others have a negative attitude. Thisraises the basic question of the general applicability of all the relatively elite, if notesoteric, texts cited in this study; in defense of their general relevance, one can only citethe manner in which they are so frequently mirrored in contemporary folk belief. Moreover,Louis Dumont (1960) has demonstrated brilliantly how the soi-disant "renunciation"traditions are in fact a constant source of important new ideas assimilated by theorthodox traditions with which they are supposed to have no contact.

Another significant hiatus between classical theory and folk belief may be seen in aparadox that emerges from traditions about the transmutation of blood into milk orsemen. According to general folk belief this transmutation takes place as the result ofintimate physical contact: blood is transformed into mother's milk when the baby sucksat the breast, and blood is transformed into male semen during the sexual act. In theother words, the transmutation takes place only when the fluid is about to leave the body:the baby makes the milk, and the woman makes the seed. Theoretically, therefore, awoman should not be able to without her milk, since it would still be blood if the child had


not stimulated the mother to want to give it; if she does not give milk to him, what she iswithholding should still be technically classified as contact (as Parvati's breasts begin toflow when she merely hears that a child has been born who is technically — though notphysically — hers) and can be kept in the body as milk. Similarly, it should be impossiblefor a man to hold back his seed (since it remains blood until a woman excites him). Butthis, too, is not the case, for the mere thought of a woman can cause a man to spilt hisseed, and the seed that is not spilt remains seed within his body (unless it is furthertransmuted into Soma). In the absence of physical contact, mere emotion can effect thetransformation of blood into either milk or seed; indeed, as we have seen, it is theemotional component of the sexual fluids that contributes the essential spark of life in theact of procreation. Thus the folk view that the fluids are transformed simply as the resultof physical contact is superseded by the more subtle view that regards physical contact assecondary to emotional involvement. And since the emotion of maternal love is highlyvalued and the emotion of lust is devalued, it follows that for a woman to without her milkis bad and for a man to withhold his seed is good.

S e e d a s F o o d

The identification of the seed with Soma and with milk (or butter) leads to manymyths in wKich pregnancy is brought about by the ingestion of either seed or a substitutefor it (usually a milk product). This idea can be traced back to Upanisadic views of thebirth process, and it persists in contemporary Bengal and Tamiinadu. In Bengal, the manproduces seed, the woman uterine blood, from food that is "transformed progressively intodigested food (rasa), and then into blood (rakta)" (Inden and Nicholas 1977, p. 52). Thismight also be interpreted to mean that food, when eaten, turns into neutral, protean seed(rasa) or "food-juices" (Meyer 1930, p. 359), in the Rg Vedic sense, and then into blood(and, ultimately, into male seed). In South India the mixing of male and female fluidsduring intercourse is said to be the mixing of the juice from food and the feeling (rasa) offood, for the semen, which is the soul's power, is in the substance of the food (Egnor 1978,p. 61).

The concept of food transformed into seed also survives in modern rituals in which apregnant woman, to procure a male offspring, eats milk-based and rice-based "seminalfoods"; for such foods will be converted within the embryo into semen rather than uterineblood, with the result that semen will prevail and the child will be a male (Inden andNicholas 1977, pp. 54-55). It is interesting to note that if there are equal quantities ofsemen and uterine blood in the embryo, the child will be born as an androgyne; in anotherview, however, the embryo will turn out to be twins (presumably a boy and a girl (MBh

1862,1.90.14; GP U 22.18-21), and a Tantric text states that it will be a eunuch (neither

Sexual Fluids 3527

a girl nor a boy), not as a result of the equal amounts of blood or semen ( as Susrutamaintains (3, 3, 5)) but as the result of the circulation of the progenerative wind midway

between the left side of the womb (where semen is and female embroys are engendered)and the right side (where menstrual blood is and male embryos are engendered)(Samvarodaya Tantra 2.26-27).

Yet another seed substitute — urine—is sometimes ingested (together with milk) inthe ceremony of the "five cow products": milk, curds, ghee, dung, and urine. (Blood,another liquid product of the cow, is conspicuously absent; since blood is nonmilk, orsometimes anti-milk, and is often a deadly symbol, it would be out of the question to drinkblood in a milk-based, life producing ceremony, to say nothing of the problems raised inIndia by injuring a cow to secure her blood). Thus, drinking of the stallion's Soma-urineand the Avestan bull's urine was replaced by drinking of the cow's milk-urine. A mythexplains this practice: The goddess of fortune went to the cows and asked to dwell withinthem; though they at first refused since she was so inconstant and fickle, she insisted thatno part of their bodies was disgusting, and the cows agreed to let her dwell in their urineand dung (MBh 13.81.1-26).

The goddess of fortune, fickle and erotic, is consigned to the least attractive parts ofthe cow, who is the constant mother. Filtered by the body of the cow, even the dangerousgoddess may be safely ingested.

Semen is like butter in being the reduced essence of blood or food, as butter is theessence of milk: "As butter is churned out from milk by the churning sticks, so seed ischurned out (of a man) by the churning sticks born of bodily desires" (MBh 12.207.21).The man of continence, who restrains his seed and resists these erotic churning sticks, issaid to have seed rich as butter (like Prajapati in the Vedas). So, too, the Tamil informantsays that performing asceticism "is like churning milk for butter, so we churn our bodiesto draw out this kind of heat" (Egnor 1978, p. 148). In many myths, a woman becomespregnant by drinking a man's seed rather than by receiving it into her womb. This is ofcourse a widespread folk belief (cf. Hartland, 1909 1:12; O'Flaherty, 1973, pp. 276-77), butin India it is strongly supported (as are the other models of sexual hydraulics) by theritual metaphor; for if the seed is Soma or the oblation of butter, it is natural to place itin the mouth of the woman, just as it is placed in the mouth of the gods — in Agni, thegod of fire (O'Flaherty, 1973, pp. 277-78).

Indeed, in addition to the many stories in which women are impregnated by drinkingthe semen of a male (see ibid., pp. 275-76)7

8 Agni himself is said to become pregnant as aresult of drinking diva's seed (Vdm P 28.50). Sometimes Parvati drinks the seed, too(Matsya P, 158-33.50), but she never becomes pregnant. This is surely significant; the


myths strongly resist any episode that allows Parvatl to participate normally in the birthof her child (OTlaherty 1973, p. 273). Agni, however, not only becomes pregnant buttranslates this pregnancy to all the gods (as he transfers the oblation itself), so that theyall begin to lactate (Saura P 62.5-12). (This is the one act that Parvatl is usually allowedto perform; when her child is born, far from her and without her agency, her breasts beginto flow with milk (OTlaherty 1973, pp. 105-7). Yet even this is often denied her, for herson is given the Krttikas as his wet nurses (ibid., pp. 98-103). Although the male gods donot usually object to being pregnant (this being a very Vedic thing for them to be), theydo object so lactating, which makes them a "laughingstock" and is the last straw. Similarly,when King Yuvanasva accidentally becomes pregnant (by drinking a pot of waterconsecrated for his wife), the sages arrange for him to give birth to a son without laborpoints; this was a marvel, says the text, which easily accepts the fact of his pregnancy.Problems in fact begin to arise only when the boy is born and needs to such milk. Indrathen lets him such his (Indra's) thumb — Indra being the storm cloud and henceandrogynously able to produce semen or milk/rain (MBh 3.126.1-26; cf. Visnu P 4.2.12-17). Agastya, a great sage and, like Indra, a notorious drinker, is also said to lactate fromhis thumb. Thus the male is able to do anything that the female can do, even to producemilk. In §oijth India, on the other hand, the word karu (mouth) designates either themale or the female reproductive organ, but its primary reference is to the womb; the penis4s thus a small womb. Moreover, "The belief that generativity is essentially a femalephenomenon appears again in a Tamil expression for one's own child, 'a child born in mybe l l / . . . Not only women, but men also, say this of their children, subsuming their maleparenthood to motherhood" (Egnor 1978, pp. 143-44). The male participates in pregnancyby imitating the woman.

In the medical texts, it is clear that women can procreate unilaterally but men cannot;in the myths, the situation is reversed, and men, but not women, are capable of unilateralprocreation (albeit men do it into a "female" receptacle of some sort — any container atall). In the myths, when women become pregnant by drinking seed (or seed substitutes),the outcome is usually less auspicious than when men create in this way. Ganesa is saidto have been born to female demon who had drunk the unguents mixed with the body-rubbings discarded by Parvatl, i.e., female seed (Getty 1936, pp. 6-7). We have seen thatwhen Yuvan^va drank the consecrated water by mistake, all was eventually well withhim; but when one of the two wives of a king ate a consecrated pot of rice boiled with milkand butter, and the second wife then had intercourse with her in the manner of a man,the child "born without male semen" lacked bones and was a mere ball of flesh (PP

Svagakhanda 16.11-14). "This is the natural consequence of the mating of females", saysthe modern Indian editor (ibid., p. 44). Even miraculous births follow the logic of the

Sexual Fluids 3529

model; indeed, it is here that the model emerges most clearly, for it is only the logic of themodel (and not the logic of natural observation) that dictates the rules.

In the banal human context, drinking semen is generally regarded as definitely de

trop; &va says to Agni, "You did a perverse thing, to drink my seed" ($P 2.4.2.46) (thoughsome of the "perversion" derives from the fact that it is a man, rather than a woman, whodrinks the seed). The law books prescribe an expiation for a man who has unwittinglyswallowed semen (Manu 4.333; cf. MBh 7.51.35a), and even the permissive Kdmasutra

(2.9) has nothing but blame for this particular perversion, which is confined to eunuchsand prostitutes. Thus it is said, "He who performs sexual intercourse in the mouth of hiswife causes his ancestors to eat his seed for a month (VD$ 12.23; cf. O'Flaherty 1973,pp. 278-79). Here the prohibition on the human level is combined with a parallel descriptionof a reversal in the world of the dead, where the usual pinda offering is replaced by theseed that in the birth model is itself an inversion of the "seed" given on the ancestors.

Yet there are certain beliefs about the drinking of semen that echo the mythologicaltexts and doubtless spring from them ultimately. Su^ruta recommends that a man whois incapable of erection may remedy this by drinking semen (commentator: of anothermain), which will expand his semen-carrying ducts (Su^ruta 3.2.38). In present-day SriLanka, men who are anxious about their virility may in pathological cases drink theirown semen, though there is probably more fantasy (i.e., myth) about this than actualoccurrence (Obeyesekere 1976, p. 214). Equally significant, certain seed substitutes areprescribed in modern folk medicine in Sri Lanka: Many young unmarried men, particularlystudents in the university dormitories, eat raw eggs in the morning to enhance strengthand vitality. I interpret this custom, also found in the West, as an unconscious attempt tocompensate for loss of vitality due to night emission, masturbation, or an imagineddischarge of semen in the urine. In Sri Lanka the term for egg is biju, which is also usedfor seed, semen, and penis (ibid., p. 208).

To eat seed in order to produce seed is a simple homeopathic method that makes sensein Western terms too. But a more particularly South Asian line of thought appears in yetanother proposed Sri Lanka remedy: an Ayurvedic doctor prescribed cow's milk for a manthought to be suffering from semen loss. In Rajasthan, too, the anxieties of men preoccupiedover loss of semen could often be palliated by "eating certain exceptionally good, health-giving foods, namely Wheat flour, rice, milk and butter, honey and white sugar. Thosesubstances have two valuable attributes: they are 'cool1 foods, that is to say they givenourishment without inflaming the passions, and they have the property of building pure,unspoiled semen" (Carstairs 1958, p. 166). These foods, which closely resemble theingredients given to women who wish to conceive male children, have an additional value:


not only do they build up a store of semen, they build up the ability to resist thetemptation to shed it. Thus they are destined to create an internalized male power, nota form of virility designed to be used in an outpouring of creative energy. It is significantthat, in addition to milk, rice, and eggs, butter is regarded as a producer of semen;bridegrooms and other male guests at weddings are encouraged to swallow as much astwo pounds of ghee at a single sitting, a feat regarded "as a mark of virility . . . And theboasting and testing which attends these feasts make it clear that here ghee is beingequated with semen" (ibid.). The Vedic equation of butter and semen on the ritual andmythic level is thus put to use on the medical and psychological level.

In Tantric rituals, where female seed as well as male semen is procreative andmagical, the adept drinks not only semen but menstrual blood (Tucci 1969, p. 62).9 Thisceremony, in which the deity is said to enter into the ingested fluids, may be seen as akind ofprasdda or eucharist, albeit in an esoteric version (Carstairs 1957, p. 103); but inour context it functions as an instance of sexual power entering through ingested food.The iconography of the Tantric rituals also suggests that the fluid drunk from the skull-cups held by the servants of the Goddess may be menstrual blood.

The drinking of urine is also curiously persistent in soi-disant real life as well as inmyth. Among the many practices that orthodox Rajasthanis attributes to the "left-hand"(heterodox) yogis was this: "It is a dangerous way, all the time they are breaking the rulesof nature, drink their own urine, live in filth" (ibid., p. 232). Among the more respectableeccentrics. India's Prime Minister Desai at the age of eighty-one revealed that he dranka glass of his own urine every morning, and he claimed that this "water of life" was a curefor cancer, cataracts, and tuberculosis. The concept of preserving bodily fluids is clearlyat work here, for Desai also pride himself for not having had sexual intercourse since hewas thirty-three.10

The eating of semen has numerous remification in the mythology. One image that wewill encounter again and again is that of the devouring female, the woman who eats theman during intercourse. This image pervades not only the explicit instances of oralimpregnation in the myths but even descriptions of the normal sexual act, through theimage of the devouring womb, the vagina dentata. In South India it is said that at thetime of union the womb spreads open like the mouth or eye; the vagina dentata, as weshall see, often has eyes as well as teeth. The passage to the womb is called karuvay, acompound meaning "womb-mouth," and sexual union is likened to the hand of the motherfeeding rice to the child (Egnor 1978, pp. 141-42). The image of rice as seed is one that weshall often encounter in the mythology; the image of the womb as a mouth is also arecurrent one. Though the imagery, every sexual act is an instance of the drinking of

Sexual Fluids 3531

semen.

A m b i g u o u s F lu ids : Milk, P o i s o n , a n d F ire

What does al of this indicate about the Hindu image of the fluids of the body? Firs t of

all, it is evident t h a t the categories of male and female interact so closely in Hindu

thought t ha t one begins to wonder whether they are t rue categories a t all. I th ink they

are; they are certainly grammatical, categories, and language forces thought into certain

pa t te rns . Male and Female are assumed to be complementary opposities in the medical

texts as well as in the r i tual texts, which use them to express other oppositions. But the

myths tell us over and over t h a t things are mixed all the time, sometimes with good

results t h a t sometimes with bad resul ts .

Second, it is evident t ha t the woman is far more complicated t han the man. She has

two sites of sexual fluids to his one, and the one t ha t they share (the genital site) is doubly

productive in he r (of both seed and blood). Moreover, the fluid t ha t they share — blood —

is also ambiguous in her: her blood is in pa r t productive but life-draining (venous blood,

producing milk and female seed) and in pa r t dangerous but life-creating (enstrual blood,

acting as female seed). - ~

Her milk, issuing from her secondary sexual site, is similarly ambivalent. The ambiguity

of milk is heightened when erotic overtones are a t t r ibuted to the mate rna l substance,

when emotions more appropriate to the genital site are carried to the breast . This

happens quite often, of course, for Indian eroticism has always placed enormous emphasis

upon breas ts swelling like mangoes. Many examples of this appear in the mythology of

Krsna, who enjoys the goals both as foster mothers whole breas ts he sucks and as

mistresses whose breas ts he fondles (Masson 1974; cf. below, chap. 4, sec. C).

The symbolism of ambivalent milk is enhanced by the belief tha t , since milk is good,

an evil woman h a s ei ther no milk or else poison in her breasts , like Pu tana . Poison as the

inverse of Soma appears throughout the mythology; a fiery poison is said to devour the

world — like the doomsday fire — in contrast with Soma or milk, t ha t is itself devoured

(O'Flaherty 1973, pp. 278-79). Poison is also thought to reside in the genitals of the

destructive erotic woman, the poison damsel (Penzer 1924, pp. 275-313). In the Bengali

Manasdnyingal, Lakh indara is fated to die on is wedding night (the recurrent myth of

fatal sexuality); when he flies in the face of the prophesy, he is bi t ten by the snake damsel

and dies of her poison. Snakes (often symbolizing women) perform an alchemy in which

milk is t r ansmuted into poison, the inverse of t ha t alchemy tha t women perform by

turn ing blood into milk. In the village r i tual , milk is fed to a snake; the snake then tu rns


th is into poison, which in t u rn is rendered harmless by Soma (or by the shaman , who

controls Soma, drugs, and snakes). Yogis, the inverse of mothers in t e rms of fluid

hydraulics, dr ink poison, which they regard as Soma, and t hus have power over snakes

(OTlaher ty 1973, p . 279). A yoni can also dr ink poison and t u r n it into seed, and he can

tu rn his own seed into Soma by activating the (poisonous?) coiled serpent goddess,

Kundalinl . When the ocean of milk is churned, poison comes out, together wi th Soma

(MBh. 1.15-17). Thus , a l though poison is not literally a bodily or sexual fluid, it forms an

impor tant opposition to milk and Soma.

The myth of P u t a n a is significant not merely for the image it presents (which occurs

elsewhere) bu t for the intensi ty wi th which the image is depicted and the frequency with

which the myth itself is retold in India. This is an instance of the role of mythology in

highlighting those psychological concepts t ha t are not merely present but are actively

influential in a culture: The secret fantasy of poisoned milk, of nour ishment t h a t kills,

originates early in life when the decisive separat ion between child and mother takes

place. The elevation of this fantasy, which is occasionally encountered clinically, to s ta tus

of myth for a whole cul ture indicates the intensi ty of inner conflict associated with this

separa t ionjn^the Indian set t ing (Kakar, 1978, p . 147).

We will r e tu rn to the question of the cultural use of individual fantasy through myth.

Fire is also a kind of r i tual fluid in the Indian view, a form of Soma t h a t can be

opposed to Soma or ident i f ied wi th it; opposed as a female receptacle for male butter ;

identified as a male form placed in female water (A. Khun 1886; cf. OTlahe r ty 1973, pp.

286-89). The view of fire as a female substance into which the male substance, liquid seed,

is sacrificed appears in the Brahnxana texts on oblation and the Upanisadic imagery of

procreation; the view of fire as male substance, liquid seed, which is sacrificed into a

female substance or surrounded by a female substance, the watery womb, appears in the

Rg Vedic image of Hi ranyagarbha and in the Puranic image of the flame linga in the

cooling yoni. Here, as so often, the Vedic/Puranic symbolism contrasts with the Vedantic,

and both systems of imagery continue to flourish side by side in la ter Indian thinking,

though they are technically contradictory. Fire is an androgynous liquid or the opposite

of l iquid, an e l emen t which , as we have seen in t h e Agni m y t h s , becomes an

anthropomorphic creature who is sexually complex. The P u r a n a s use tejas, fiery energy,

as a euphemism for semen; bu t Sus ru ta (3.3.3, 1.14.3) characterizes semen as moonlike

and Soma-like (saumya), like i ts pale color, while female "seed" (menstrual blood) is red

and fiery. Only when the male and female uni te does the man 's seed acquire tejas; water

belongs to the father, while fire belongs to the mother (Samvarodya Tantra 2.2.8). Both

views of fire merge in the myth of the bir th of Skanda: &va gives his seed to Agni, who

Sexual Fluids 3533

becomes p regnan t (cool liquid semen placed in the fiery female, as the oblation is placed

in fire); bu t the Agni places this seed in the Ganges (firery semen placed in the cool liquid

female, as wate r is poured over the flame liiiga to cool it) (OTlaher ty 1973, pp. 286-89)'

T h e D a n g e r of F l u i d s

The sexual fluids from the breas ts of the woman are generally creative and good,while those from her genitals are generally destructive and bad. The "good seed" of awoman (as of a cow) is in her breasts ; she creates best with milk; the "bad seed" from thegenitals is dangerous. (This distinction may apply to a m a n as well — good seed fromabove the navel, bad seed from below (TS 3.25.1) — but it is less evident in themythology). The concept tha t there is potential danger in a woman's sexual fluids remergesin Hindu folk beliefs, as is amply testified by E. Valentine Daneil 's hilarious interviewwith a gent leman in a Truchy village, who expressed strong opinions about the manne rin which a man ' s life-fluids would be sucked out of h im ("blowing his brains out" orleaving h im "with his tongue hanging out") where he to have intercourse with a younger(or, more often older) woman whose sexual fluids were incommensurate with his own(E.V. Daniel 1979, pp. 117-33). As long as there is perfect balance, the sexual act isregarded as a positive source of hea l th in Truchy; but if there is unbalance — watch out.We will r e tu rn to th is essential point of balance in the hydraulic systems.

In spite of (or because of) these powerful complexities, the woman is far less significantt h a n the m a n as an agent of procreation. He is more often unilateral ly creative t h a n sheis, and it is he who plays by far the more important role in "normal" sexual creation. Inthe apparen t equation of milk and seed, it is evident t ha t seed is the more basic substance;milk is like seed, but seed is not usual ly the milk. The apparent androgyny of the fluidsystem does not actually function in t ruly androgynous fashion; it functions competitivelyra the r t han harmoniously. The m a n imitates the woman (male pregnancy) or the womanthe m a n (creation through the shedding of dirt-seed). There is astonishingly littleinteraction between these fluids in the mythology of the Pu ranas ; even when a m a n andhis wife both part icipate in producing a child, they may do so in physical isolation fromeach other; the male seed reaches the female (if a t all) through a series of miraculousinterventions, which tend to keep the m a n and woman as far apar t as possible; they matelike fishes, one pass ing gracefully over the place where the other has been fore, or likestock animals impregnated with frozen sperm; there is no opportunity for sustainedemotional contact.

The fear Of losing body fluids leads not only to retention but to a t tempts to steal the

par tner ' s fluid (and the fear t ha t the par tner will t ry the same trick) — yet another form

of competition. If the woman is too powerful or too old or too young, terrible things will


happen to the innocent m a n who falls into her t rap , a fate often depicted in te rms of hislosing his fluids. The Ind ian texts describe this fear in a strikingly powerful and detailedway, but it is a widespread and recurrent anxiety. It underl ies the tale of Samson's lossof s t rength and recurrent anxiety. I t underl ies the tale of Samson's loss of s t rength whenDelilah cuts off h is ha i r (for hair , as we shall see, may be a symbol of semen), and it ispresent in the common idiom t h a t describes a seductive woman, part icularly a prosti tute,as one who "bleeds a m a n to death" or as "man-eating." In our day, it may be seen in theobsession of the mad general , played by Sterling Hayden in Stanley Kubrick's Dr.

Strangelove, who was convinced t h a t the enemy was polluting his "precious bodily fluids";more commonly, it is the basis of the red-blooded American tradit ion t h a t football playersshould not have sexual contact with women dur ing their t raining, part icularly on the eveof the Big Game.

In India, it is the older woman who is the pr imary th rea t of the man 's sexual fluids.An explanation for this emerges from a conversation Cars ta i rs h a d wi th one of hisRajasthani informants . When the la t ter remarked t h a t too much sex is bad for you,Cars ta i rs asked. "Do you believe t h a t the m a n is weakened and the woman not?" This wasthe response: No, both are weakened, bu t their weakness is also compensated by thecombination of the man ' s semen (viri) and tha t of the woman (raj). When these combineproperly, both of t hem are benefitted; but for this to happen it is necessary tha t thewoman should be young, younger t h a n the man. . . (If she is much older) it will be very-harmful for him, because her raj is th in and watery so it will not combine well with hissemen, so he will get to benefit from intercourse, only loss (Carstairs 1958, p . 225).

This s ta tement reveals a number of assumptions: t ha t the woman has seed, like the

man, and t h a t dur ing intercourse her seed is t ransferred to him, as his is to her . An old

woman, i t is argued, will not have enough seed to make up for this inevitable loss. There

are other reasons why there would be greater danger from an older woman, as we shall

see in chapter 4 (section C) — dangers s temming from the greater power and greater

th rea t t h a t she represents ; bu t in the Tantr ic concept of fluid interaction, it is the

"weakness" of the older woman t h a t makes her dangerous.

S t o p p i n g t h e F l o w

The belief t h a t the sexual act is extremely dangerous is expressed again and again in

the mythology. The most notorious case is the story of King Pandu, who was under a curse

to die immediately if "decided by cast" and seduced by a woman he loved; therefore, in

order to beget the Mahdbhdrata heroes, he allowed his wife to invoke male gods to beget

his sons by proxy — an instance of the union of a mortal woman with an immortal man,

the relatively "safe" combination (MBh 1.109.1-31; cf. below, chap. 4, sec. C, and chap. 6,

sees C-D). In many myths of this type, the m a n is forbidden to have intercourse with his

Sexual Fluids 3535

wife (or a woman he loves) but is not prohibited from having casual sexual relations. This,coupled with the belief that younger women alone are safe, may be part of a generalpsychological pattern based on fear of the mother (Carstairs 1957, p. 168). Psychoanalysishas much to say about these fears and, even more, about the envy of the "pregnant male,"the anal fixation of the "breast that feeds itself', and the terrors of the vagina dentata.The parallel between the breast that holds in the fluids and the phallus that holds in itsfluids is not merely structural but actually causal, in the psychoanalytic view: the malechild withdraws from the mother (later, the wife) as a result of her sexual aggressiontoward him; the phallus holds back in revenge because the breast has held back. Thisrevenge may become manifest in another, related, way in the belief that women shouldnot have pleasure in sex, that it is inappropriate for a woman to be erotic : "The doublestandard or the ideal of chastity is the infant's revenge for oral frustration" (Roheim1945b, p. 197). In this logic, because the mother has held back milk, denying the sonpleasure, he later denies pleasure to his sexual partner by thwarting her eroticism orsimply by withdrawing and holding back his seed.

In addition to (or instead of) revenge, it is possible to see simple self-protection at theheart of this causation: the yogi draws up his seed in order to keep his fluids from beingdrained by the evil mother, who holds back her fluids and will take away hi^. Asceticismis, moreover, capable of transmuting vulnerable fluids into "safe" substances: semen istransmuted not only into Soma, the elixir of immortality, but also into milk. Thus a Tamilmyth tells that the magic wishing-cow performed such intense asceticism that "her bodybecame very hot and much of it was turned into milk", which she poured over a Siva-linga(Egnor 1978, p. 70; cf. below, chap. 8, sec. E). We have seen instances of yogis who turnedtheir seed into milk and even began to develop breasts. The udder full of milk is thecounterpart of the phallus full of seed; from the myth of the ascetic cow, it appears thatthe fluids of a man who performs asceticism should be held inside him but that, when awoman performs asceticism, her fluids should flow from her.

The link between the woman's bad breast and the man's withholding his seed mayalso be seen in Indian hagigraphies describing the lives of ascetics. &ankara is said tohave suckled the breast of the image of the goddess in a temple (Masson 1976, p. 611).n

Theologically, this may be taken as a statement that he so completely accepted thegoddess as his mother that he sought the quintessential maternal contact with her, evenwith her sanctified image. But psychologically it may have other implications, such asthat oafikara's nursing experience was probably "not very satisfactory" (ibid.), i.e., thatretained milk lead.; to ascetic retention of semen. A psychoanalytically oriented Indologisthas compared ascetic fasting and anorexia nervosa, both of which are characterized by thefantasy of oral impregnation and increased fluid intake (ibid., p. 619); we have seen thesemotifs in the mythology of asceticism. That they represent an actual pathology seems less

3536 Encyclopaedia of Hinduism.

likely t h a n t h a t they represent the formalization and shared cul tural expression of awidespread experience; the fear of the bad breast .

Examples of such mythological expressions of infantile fantasies abound. Freudwould have loved the P u r a n a s and might have made a great Tantr ic guru. But it isevident, even without complex interpretat ions, t h a t the fluidity of the h u m a n body is seenby Hindus as a source of danger. If all things flow, as Parmenides said, the Hindu wishesto stop the flow or to reverse it (the Taoist would go with it; the Buddhis t would accept itas the na tu r e of an ephemeral life).

C h a n n e l i n g t h e F l o w

To stop the flow, one mus t construct elaborate meditat ional techniques, such as thoseposited in r i tua l contexts (in which normal social relations tend to be reversed). This isthe extreme Yogic or J a i n a or Vaisesika view, well known in the West, though it istypically "Indian" only in the limited sense discussed above — on the level of wha t peopleth ink they think. In th is view, the Vedantic ideal is to keep the vi tal fluids within theindefinable bounds of the h u m a n body (in effect, to wi thdraw from all sexual contact). Butfor most "transactional," or conventionally interacting, Hindus , the flow was an essentialpa r t of the desirable process of life and procreation; this represents more directly wha tpeople think. Rajputs, for example, were pround of the following of the seed and maximizedi t to the greates t extent possible. For them, the dangers inherent in the flow of vital fluidsmight be offset by the construction of elaborate social barr iers — the caste system, themost complex system in the world for the selection of the one safe, sanctioned, perfectlybalanced and appropria te marr iage par tner , the woman guaranteed to be in cosmicequil ibrium wi th he r husband . With such a complete social equal, the flow would beminimized; for fluids seek their own level. If people are properly matched, thei r sexualrelat ionship is regarded not only as beneficial to both but far bet ter (in the generaldharmic view) t h a n total res t ra in t . In ancient South India, marr iage was regarded as ameasure for controlling the dangerous powers at tached to the chast i ty and sexuality ofwomen (Har t 1975, p . 111).

Nor is th is merely a ma t t e r of remaining within the caste group, for the inst i tut ion of

cross-cousin marr iage makes it "safe" to mar ry outside the caste. If imbalances still

remain to occasion misgivings, astrology may be pu t to good use: the astrologer can

weight h is scales wi th p lanets to rectify an apparen t imbalance, to find the woman who

is t ruly matched in cosmic terms.1 2 Similarly, the Kdmasutra r anks men and women

according to their sexual dimensions, their force of passion, and their s taying power, but

it does not merely sanction "equal" unions (though it regards these as the best); it

specifies techniques by which unequal unions may be made satisfactory (2.11). The

problem of m u t u a l control through an ordered ecstasy is also expressed through the

Sexual Fluids 3537

mythology of the dance. Thus, imbalance produces a problem — but one that can beovercome by careful, scientific procedures. These forms of control offered a "viablealternative" to yogic semen retention: in this view, each of the partners drew his or hershare from the common pool of coded substance, and both were the better for the drawing.

It is certainly not proposed that the underlying cause of the Indian caste system is theidea that the interaction of sexual fluids is dangerous; however, the caste system doesseem to be well designed to allay the fears reflected in this ancient and persistent belief.How successful is the attempt to strike a balance? One of Carstairs' informants spoke ofthe conflict between the desire for chastity (to lead the proper religious life and topreserve one's health) and the opposed claims (the need for normal sexual outlets as wellas the duty to beget children). He remarked, "The best they can hope for is to order theirlives so that their acts of piety suffice to compensate for the inevitable wastage of soul-stuff and semen." Castairs' comment is illuminating: The clue to this compromise lies inthe words niyam se — "in proper measure." Appetities may be indulged, feelings given anoutlet, sexual relations experienced, provided always that they be subjected to a strictvoluntary control: if that is observed, this situation is not too threatening, but theproblem is to know what is the correct niyam . . . As a mechanism of defence againstanxiety, this attempt to confine sensuality "niyam se" too often let them down — hencethe widespread pre-occupation with jiryam ("a real or imagined spermatorrhoea"), whichI would claim to be the commonest expression of anxiety neurosis among the Hinducommunities of Rajasthan, and perhaps elsewhere as well (Carstairs 1958, pp. 85, 87).

Control and balance are useful ideals, particularly as theoretical solutions of conflictingclaims. But balance and compromise are not the normal Hindu way of dealing withparadox and conflict (O'Flaherty 1973, p. 82), and control is a problem that haunts themythology, as we shall see. The rules set forth in the Dharmasastras, therefore, wiselysupplement exhortations about control with suggestions of ways to minimize the damagedone by the inevitable loss of control. Instead of boundaries, these rules make channelsto keep the fluids flowing — if only in the direction in which they will do the least damageand the most good. But the fluids within the body are basically a pernicious force, as isevident from the etymology of the term used to describe the humors (dosa), whose basicmeaning is "fault," 'Vide", or "crime"; from this comes the meaning of "harm" and then themore specific meaning "disease"; finally, dosa comes to denote the humors of the body asthe causes of disease. The stream of life samsara, another fluid image) is a dangerousforce. Some Hindus believe that it should not be dammed up; most Hindus know that itcannot be dammed up; but all of them participate in a system of mythology that suggeststhat the stream can be shored up by ritual to keep us from being totally overwhelmed bythe doomsday flood or our own physical and emotional currents.13

- E.B.

encyclopedia of hinduism. vol.12 (selected).(ed.n.singh)

Documents