As all seeds and vegetation receive their nourishment from solar and lunar rays, the latter are believed in the same way to help embryonic development.[144]
The heat of the sun causes the trees and plants to give forth new sprouts, and therefore he is called ‘Savita’ or Producer.[145] Solar and lunar rays are also believed to facilitate and expedite delivery.[146] The medical science of the Hindus declares the Amāvāsya (new-moon day) and Pūrnima (full-moon day) days—on both of which days the influence of the sun and the moon is most powerful—to be so critical for child-bearing women as to cause, at times, premature delivery.[147] Hence, before delivery, women are made to take turns in the sunlight and also in moonlight, in order to invigorate the fœtus, thus securing that their delivery may be easy. [The assistance rendered by solar rays in facilitating the delivery is said to impart a hot temperament to the child so born, and that by the lunar rays a cool one.][148] After delivery, a woman should glance at the sun with her hands clasped, and should offer rice and red flowers to him.[149] Sitting in the sun after delivery is considered beneficial to women enfeebled by the effort.[150] It is a cure for the paleness due to exhaustion,[151] and infuses new vigour.[152]
The Bhils believe that the exposure of a new-born child to the sun confers upon the child immunity from injury by cold and heat.[153]
The practice of making recently delivered women sit in the sun does not seem to be widespread, nor does it prevail in Kathiawar. In Kathiawar, on the contrary, women are kept secluded from sunlight in a dark room at the time of child-birth, and are warmed by artificial means.[154] On the other hand, it is customary in many places to bring a woman into the sunlight after a certain period has elapsed since her delivery. The duration of this period varies from four days to a month and a quarter. Sometimes a woman is not allowed to see sunlight after child-birth until she presents the child to the sun with certain ceremonies, either on the fourth or the sixth day from the date of her delivery.[155]
A ceremony called the Shashthi-Karma is performed on the sixth day after the birth of a child, and the Nāmkaran ceremony—the ceremony of giving a name—on the twelfth day. The mother of the child is sometimes not allowed to see the sun before the completion of these ceremonies.[156] Occasionally, on the eleventh day after child-birth, the mother is made to take a bath in the sun.[157]
Exactly a month and a quarter from the date of delivery a woman is taken to a neighbouring stream to offer prayers to the sun and to fetch water thence in an earthen vessel. This ceremony is known as Zarmāzaryan.[158] Seven small betel-nuts are used in the ceremony. They are carried by the mother, and distributed by her to barren women, who believe that, by eating the nuts from her hand, they are likely to conceive.[159]
In difficult labour cases, chakrāvā water is sometimes given to women. The chakrāvā is a figure of seven cross lines drawn on a bell-metal dish, over which the finest white dust has been spread. This figure is shown to the woman in labour: water is then poured into the dish and offered her to drink.[160] The figure is said to be a representation of Chitrangad.[161] It is also believed to be connected with a story in the Mahābhāarata.[162] Subhadrā, the sister of god Krishna and the wife of Arjuna, one of the five Pāndavas, conceived a demon, an enemy of Krishna. The demon would not leave the womb of Subhadrā even twelve months after the date of her conception, and began to harass the mother. Krishna, the incarnation of god, knowing of the demon’s presence and the cause of his delay, took pity on the afflicted condition of his sister and read chakrāvā, (Chakravyūha) a book consisting of seven chapters and explaining the method of conquering a labyrinthine fort with seven cross-lined forts. Krishna completed six chapters, and promised to teach the demon the seventh, provided he came out. The demon ceased troubling Subhadrā and emerged from the womb. He was called Abhimanyu. Krishna never read the seventh chapter for then Abhimanyu would have been invincible and able to take his life. This ignorance of the seventh chapter cost Abhimanyu his life on the field of Kuru-kshetra in conquering the seven cross-lined labyrinthine forts. As the art of conquering a labyrinthine fort when taught to a demon in the womb facilitated the delivery of Subhadrā, a belief spread that drinking in the figure of the seven cross-lined labyrinthine fort would facilitate the delivery of all women who had difficulties in child-birth.[162]
