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(8) PUMSAVANA OR CEREMONIES CALCULATED TO HELP A WOMAN CONCEIVE A MALE CHILD鈥擳his ceremony known as the 'Pumsavana Samskara' or the 'Male-making Rite' is performed during the third month of the wife's prgnancy. It is intended to propitiate the deities which are supposed to govern the sex of 311 the foetus, so that thereby a male issue be born. But Dhanapala has not adopted this rite in its original form and in consonance with with the scriptual prescriptions. He has, however, presented it in its popular natural form and in keeping with the psychology of the queens and the relatives of the king consequent to his lack of a male issue. While giving a picture of the 310. Tilakamanjari, p. 74(19-20 ) - anatibahusu ca vyatitesvahah svanantare rta snata babhara garbha mudarena | 311. abudappb HOS,p.223.

456 activities at the royal palace of King Meghavahana, Dhanapala has drawn quite a vivid and realistic picture of the ways and means adopted by the relatives of the king a and by his queens and other inmates of the royal harem in their anxiety to explore the expedients for securing a male issue for the king. 312 Here is a brief account of them all: (i) Urged by the relatives of the king, some astrologers calculated the horoscope; (ii) Others put forth the questions, the answers to which involved counting of fingers beginning with the thumb (angusthakadi-prasna); (ii) Still othe astrologers resorted to the mystic procedure regarding the 'Karna-pikacika', a goblin supposed to whisper in the ear of her devotee the answer to his query; (iv) And some predicted about the princesses fully guaranteed to bear a male child. (v) The courtiers and other people directed the Brahmins to wor_ship, on behalf of them, particular deities famed in the Puranic stories to have granted the boon of a male child to childless kings in the past. 312. Tilakamanjari, pp.64-65.

457 (vi) The ladies of the harem took to medicines guaranteed by trustworthy persons; (vii) avoided wearing ornaments studded with even spotless diamonds; (viii) dispatched, with deep faith, auspicious fruits, free from faults like crooked shape and etc., to Brahmins; (ix) showed to knowledgeable friends the portion of the side of the left palm just below the root of the thumb; (x) asked innocent children to choose between the two, spread out fingers each of which represented a male and a female issue respectively; (xi) tied (to the left hand) charmed amulets prepared by mystic magicians utilizing various herbs acquired through a long tradition; and (xii) engaged in auspicious bathing ceremony calculated to help easy conception as instructed by the nuns who certified about the effectiveness of such ceremonies.