The Buddhist texts contain a theory of prenatal development, one of the earliest if not the earliest found anywhere. The principle underlying this is that the embryo undergoes a gradual process of growth, little by little acquiring the physical features and sense organs. During this process the embryo is nurtured by the food supplied by the mother. In other words, it is a naturalistic explanation.

In SN 10.1 this process is given in response to a question by a yakkha, who believes in a soul theory, specifically that the soul is rūpa, i.e. that one’s essence is material.

While it might seem odd to have a yakkha so invested in matters of procreation, in fact one of their chief roles was in childbirth and fertility. Like many deities of the ancient world, yakkhas or yakkhinis could just as well be the agent of death (perhaps smallpox) that took children away, or the blessed spirit who delivered them. To make sure you get the right kind of yakkha involvement, you have to pay insurance, i.e. sacrifice. Such sacrifices, it seems, often required the death of children. Give up one child now, get a lot more later.

So if the Buddha attests that the growth and health of an embryo is purely a natural process, and the mother need only stay healthy and eat well, then this is a direct challenge to the livelihood of the yakkhas.

Anyway, the prenatal theory involves a series of four preliminary stages. These are usually left untranslated. However, given that Indian medical science is usually grounded in keen observation, I wonder whether they might correspond with actual developmental stages. Hence my question.

Here are the stages, with a brief explanation as best as I can. Remember that they had no advanced technology, so any changes must have been visible to the naked eye.

kalala: Apparently = “mud”, also used for an oily residuum, and the yolk of an egg. Probably a predifferentiated state. (blastocyst?) abbuda: Apparently = “tumour”. pesi: a lump of flesh, a piece of meat. ghana: A mass; interpreted by the dictionary here as a “swelling”.

After this, the limbs, hair, and nails are said to emerge.

The much later Visuddhimagga adds a little detail to this, although as always it is uncertain whether this is the same as that found in the suttas.

The four stages are said to occur in the first month.

The kalala is said to be “no more than a drop of cream of ghee on a single fibre of new-born [kid’s] wool”.

Sorry, that’s not much to go on. Anyway, if there are any modern terms that approximate to these, I would be interested to learn.

While it may not be possible to identify these stages exactly, I think that leaving them untranslated—as most translators do—does a disservice to the text. Each of the terms clearly stands for something that can easily be understood as a naturalistic observation of prenatal development. If we don’t translate them, we leave open the implication that they refer to a supernatural process.

Thanks!