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{{italic title}}
{{Infobox Upanishad
| image = 9-Week Human Embryo from Ectopic Pregnancy.jpg
| caption = Human embryo or Garbha in sanskrit
| name = Garbha
| Devanagari = गर्भ
| Sanskrit_transliteration =
| meaning = Human womb
| type = Samanya, Physiology
| Veda = Krishna [[Yajurveda]],{{Sfn|Prasoon|2008|p=82}}<br>[[Atharvaveda]]<ref name=deussen567/>
| verses = Unknown, manuscripts are incomplete
| philosophy = Vedantic<ref name=deussen567/>
}}
The '''''Garbha Upanishad''''' ({{lang-sa| गर्भ उपनिषत्}}) or ''' Garbhopanishad ''' meaning "Esoteric Doctrine over the Embryo"{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|p=639}} is one of the minor [[Upanishad]]s, listed number 17 in the modern anthology of 108 Hindu Upanishadic texts. Written in [[Sanskrit]], it is associated with the Krishna [[Yajurveda]] by some,{{Sfn|Prasoon|2008|p=82}} and as a Vedantic Upanishad associated with the [[Atharvaveda]] by other scholars.<ref name=deussen567>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814691}}, page 567</ref> It is considered as one of the 35 [[Samanya]] (general) Upanishads.<ref name="Tinoco">{{cite book|author=Carlos Alberto Tinoco|title=Upanishads|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7xoNEM63hZEC&pg=PA87|publisher=IBRASA|isbn=978-85-348-0040-2|page=87}}</ref> The last verse of the Upanishad attributes the text to sage [[Pippalada]], but the chronology and author of the text is unclear, and the surviving manuscripts are damaged, inconsistent with each other and incomplete.<ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814691}}, pages 639-640, 644</ref>

The Garbha Upanishad is a text that almost exclusively comments on medical and physiology-related themes, dealing with the theory of the formation and development of the [[human embryo]] and human body after birth. The Upanishad gives details of the elements (essential parts and principles) and various features of the body and gives detailed explanation on the evolution of the embryo in the mother's womb. [[Paul Deussen]] ''et al.'' consider this Upanishad on the garbha or human embryo to be more like "a manual on physiology or medicine" than a spiritual text, with the exception of a passage which includes a number of statements about the foetus{{'}} awareness, including the assertion that the foetus has knowledge of its past lives as well as intuitive sense of good and bad, which it forgets during the process of birth.{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|pp=639-640}}

The text is notable for its style, where it states a proposition, asks questions challenging the proposition, thereafter develops and presents answers to those questions.<ref name=pauldeussen640full>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814691}}, pages 640-644</ref><ref name=aiyar116full>KN Aiyar, Thirty Minor Upanishads, University of Toronto Archives, {{oclc|248723242}}, pages vii, 116-123</ref> It is also notable for its attempt to enumerate and offer relative measure of human anatomy from foetus to adult stage of human life.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/>

==Etymology==
The term ''Garbha'' literally means "womb" and "relating to gestation".<ref>[http://spokensanskrit.de/index.php?script=HK&beginning=0+&tinput=+garbha&trans=Translate&direction=AU garbha], Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Koeln University, Germany</ref> The text's title means "esoteric doctrine relating to gestation, womb, foetus". It is also called ''Garbhopanishad'' (Sanskrit: गर्भोपनिषत्).

==Structure and manuscripts==
The surviving manuscripts are incomplete, most of the text is lost or yet to be discovered, and the text is discontinuous, inconsistent between the manuscripts available.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/> The most studied version has been the Calcutta manuscript, which has four prose sections in one chapter.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/><ref name=sanskritgarbha>[http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/garbha.html?lang=sa ॥ गर्भोपनिषत् १७ ॥] Sanskrit text of Garbha Upanishad, SanskritDocuments Archives (2009)</ref>

==Contents==
The four sections are structured in a form of [[dialectic]] style inquiry, where a proposition is presented, followed by a series of questions, and these questions are then answered.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/><ref name=aiyar116full/> For example, the Garbha Upanishad opens with the following,

{{Quote|
Consisting of five, connected with each of the five,
Supported on six, burdened with six qualities,
Having seven constituent elements, three impurities, twice procreated,
Partaking of fourfold food is the body.

'''Why is it said to be consisting of five?'''

Because it consists of ''prithvi'' (earth), ''apas'' (water), ''agni'' (fire), ''vayu'' (wind) and ''akasa'' (space, ether).

'''What is earth? what water? what fire? what wind? what ether?'''
|Garbha Upanishad|Section 1<ref name=pauldeussen640full/><ref name=aiyar116full/>}}

===Section 1: What is the human body?===
Human body is composed of five elements, states the Garbha Upanishad.{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|p=639}}<ref name=Aiyar>{{Cite web|last=Aiyar|first= K. Narayanasvami |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/tmu/tmu18.htm|title=Garbha-Upanishaḍ Of Kṛshṇa-Yajurveḍa|access-date=23 June 2015|year=1914|publisher=Sacredtexts.com}}</ref> Whatever is hard in the body is constituted of earth, whatever is liquid is of water, what is warm is from fire, what moves in the body derives from the essence of air, and the hollow in the body is the essence of space.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/> The earth principle provides it with support, the water necessary for assimilation of food, the fire essence for illumination, the wind principle distributes of substances with the body, while ether provides ''avakasha'' (room within).<ref name=aiyar116full/>

The five objects of sense are related to ear, skin, eye, tongue, nose. The related support system consists of the mouth to speak, hands to lift, feet to walk, tongue for tasting, nose for smelling, ''Apana'' for excretion, and the genitals for sexual enjoyment.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/> The body discriminates and knows by ''Buddhi'' (intellect), fancies and thinks through ''Manas'' (mind) and speaks with speech.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/><ref name=aiyar116full/> There are five tastes, representing food it needs for development, and these are sweet, saline, bitter, pungent and astringent.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/>

The body goes through six stages from existence in its life, and these are creation as foetus, birth, growth, maturity, decay and death.<ref name=aiyar116full/> It develops six "[[chakras]] (wheels)", which denote "the ''dhamani'' (nerves), ''[[Muladhara|mūlāḍhāra]]'', ''[[Svadhishthana|svāḍhishthāna]]'', ''[[Manipura|maṇipūraka]]'', ''[[Anahata|anāhaṭa]]'', ''[[viśuḍḍhi]]'', and ''[[Ajna|ājñā]].''"<ref name=aiyar116full/> Then six [[gunas]] and seven notes of sounds, which are combined to form sounds, some acceptable and some non-acceptable.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/><ref name=Aiyar/>

===Section 2: How is human embryo formed?===
Seven colour constituent elements (dhatus) in the body are, states the text, white, red, opaque, smoke colored, yellow, brown and pale colored. From white which is food ''rasas'' (juice, sap, essences) develops the blood (red), out of blood develops the flesh (opaque), from flesh develops the fat (smoke colored), from fat develop the bones (yellow), inside bones develops the bone marrow (brown), and from marrow develops the semen (pale colored).{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|pp=641-642}} From the union of the male ''shukla'' (शुक्ल , semen) and ''shonita'' (शोणित, blood, female vital energy) develops the [[human embryo]],<ref name=sanskritgarbha/> asserts the Garbha Upanishad.<ref name=pauldeussen640full/><ref name=aiyar116full/>

===Section 3: How does the embryo develop?===
The Upanishad gives details about how the conception takes place in the womb and how it develops over a period of nine months.<ref name=Aiyar/>{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|p=642}} After the union takes place in a particular ([[Ritu (Indian season)|Ritu]]) season, the growth of the body in the embryo on the first day is a "nodule". It becomes a "bubble" by the seventh night; in 15 nights it becomes a "lump"; in a month's time the embryo is hard; by the end of two months, head is formed; parts of the feet appear by three months; stomach, the hips and ankle appear by the fourth month; the vertebral column shapes up by the fifth month; the face, nose and ears appear by the sixth month; the seventh month is when fetus is imbibed with [[Jiva]] or [[soul]] ([[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]]), in the eighth month has all body parts, and fully developed in the ninth month.{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|p=642}} The fetus grows and is nourished by what the mother eats and drinks, through a vein, states the text.{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|p=642}}

The Upanishad asserts its theory for the gender of the child, birth defects and the birth of twins. It states that dominance of male semen results in a male child while a female child is born when there is surfeit of female or mother's semen. When semen of both male and female are equally strong birth of a hermaphrodite occurs.{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|p=642}}<ref name=Aiyar/> Birth defects are asserted to result when either parent is suffering from anxiety and trauma at the time of conception.<ref name=aiyar116full/>{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|p=642}} Twins of same gender develop when the ''shukra'' and ''shonita'' burst into two; however, when only ''shukra'' bursts into two or when the parents copulate often, then twins of mixed gender may be formed.<ref name=aiyar116full/><ref name=sanskritgarbha/> Development and birth of a single embryo is most common among humans, states the text. However, up to [[List of multiple births|Quintuplets]] are observed among humans, asserts the ancient text.<ref name=aiyar116full/>

===Section 4: What does the embryo know?===
By the eighth month, states Garbha Upanishad, the embryo knows its past birth, meditates and perceives [[Om]], gains the intuitive knowledge of good and bad.<ref name=aiyar116full/><ref name=sanskritgarbha/>{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|pp=642-643}}

The text states that in the last weeks of its development, the fetus remembers the good and bad [[karma]] and being born anew through many births, resolves to remember Maheshwara ([[Shiva]]) and Narayana ([[Vishnu]]), resolves to study and practice [[Samkhya]]-[[Yoga]] after birth because all these bestow the reward of liberation. The fetus resolves, states the Upanishad, to meditate on [[Brahman]] after birth.<ref name=aiyar116full/><ref name=sanskritgarbha/>{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|pp=642-643}} However, when the fetus is in the process of birth, states the text, the squeezing out of the womb causes it to forget its resolutions.{{Sfn|Deussen| Bedekar |Palsule |1997|p=643}}

;Developments after birth
The text, states [[T.M.P. Mahadevan]], asserts that soul resides in the human body and longs for liberation.<ref>TMP Mahadevan (2010), Upaniṣads: Selections from 108 Upaniṣads, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120816114}}, page 176</ref>

The Garbha Upanishad posits the question, "Why is it called ''Sharira'' (the body)?", and in response states that because in it ''Shriyante'' (exists) three fires – the fire for knowledge, the fire for seeing and the gastric fire.<ref name=deussen644>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814691}}, page 644</ref> The text uses similes of [[yajna]] (fire) ritual to describe how cosmic processes are repeated in the temple of body, with food as offering, mind the [[Brahman]] and seeking of the soul (Atman) as the goal of the ritual of life.<ref name=sanskritgarbha/><ref name=deussen644/>

The text then abruptly jumps to enumerating anatomy of a developed human body, likely from lost chapters of the manuscript. It asserts, states [[Paul Deussen]], that in a human adult, "the head has four skull bones, and in them there are on each side sixteen sockets; in the body there are 107 joints, 180 sutures, 900 sinews, 700 veins, 500 muscles, 360 bones and 45 million hairs".<ref>Paul Deussen (1966), The Philosophy of the Upanishads, Dover, {{ISBN|978-0486216164}}, pages 285-286</ref> Further, enumerates the Upanishad, the heart of an adult human male weighs 364 grams, tongue weighs 546 grams, bile in the body 728 grams, semen produced is 182 grams, fat 1,456 grams, and excrement generated is uncertain in amount because it depends on what and how much the body eats and drinks.<ref name=sanskritgarbha/><ref name=deussen644/>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|last1= Deussen |first1=Paul |last2= Bedekar |first2=V.M. |last3= Palsule |first3=G.B. |title=Sixty Upanishads of the Veda|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYepeIGUY0gC|date=1 January 1997|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1467-7}}
*{{cite book|last= Prasoon |first=Prof.S.K. |title=Indian Scriptures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvmAwVXPKbQC&pg=PT82|date=1 January 2008|publisher=Pustak Mahal|isbn=978-81-223-1007-8}}
{{Mukhya Upanishads}}

[[Category:Upanishads]]
[[Category:Sanskrit texts]]

Garbha Upanishad - Revision history

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