Translator’s notes

1. The yakkha Indaka asks how the body can grow in the womb, apparently because he believes in an immortal, immaterial soul.

   Compare Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.3.8: “When at birth this person takes on a body, he becomes united with bad things, and when at death he leaves it behind, he gets rid of those bad things” (Olivelle’s translation). This shares many terms with Indaka’s verse: use of ayaṁ for the subject; sarīra for the body; sajjati for saṁsṛjyate. Furthermore, the “bad things” are explained in the commentary as the body and organs with which the soul becomes burdened at birth. This passage is part of the dialogue on the “light of a person” between Yājñavalkya and Janaka, which is alluded to several times in the Pali Suttas.

   ↩ sn10.1:1.1

2. Indaka is named after the mountain he inhabits. The mountain itself might be Mount Vediyaka, where Sakka/Indra appeared to the Buddha at Indra’s hill cave (DN 21:1.1.2). Indaka’s interest in human fertility is professional: such yakkhas were fertility deities, called upon with sacrifice in times of birth and death of children.

   The first two suttas of this chapter feature otherwise unknown yakkhas named Indaka and Sakka, while the Sakka/Indra is sometimes referred to as yakkha (MN 37:5.3).

   ↩ sn10.1:1.2

3. While this exact wording (rūpaṁ na jīvan) doesn’t seem to be a direct quote of the Buddha, it is a similar to taṁ jīvaṁ taṁ sarīraṁ, which the Buddha did indeed deny. Taken by itself, this does not deny that there is a soul, only that it is not physical. The use of jīva for soul, rather than attā, is characteristic of the Jains, but is used by Vedists as well.

   As a further connection with Jainism, I have come across a footnote in Muni Mahendra Kumar’s translation of the Ācārāṅgasūtra (6.25, pg. 278) that says, in agreement with the Pali tradition, that the kalala forms in the first week of pregnancy, the arbuda in the second. The author does not cite a source for this, so it is not clear that it is a Jain idea. He was an erudite polymath fluent in Pali, so he may have learned it from the Pali tradition.

   ↩ sn10.1:2.1

4. Indaka uses the Upaniṣadic style, indicating a subject with ayaṁ (“this one”) which is assumed to be the immortal Self or Person. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.3.8 has sa vā ayaṁ puruṣo, referring back the previous sentence, “this person made of consciousness amid the organs, the light in the heart” (ayaṁ vijñānamayaḥ prāṇeṣu hṛdyantarjyotiḥ puruṣaḥ).

   ↩ sn10.1:2.2

5. Yaka is normally “liver”, but the commentary explains yakapiṇḍa here as the “900 lumps of flesh”, i.e. “organs”.

   ↩ sn10.1:2.3

6. Bodhi (Connected Discourses, note 559) proposes deriving sajjati from sṛj, which he renders “begotten”. This is born out by the Upaniṣad’s saṁsṛjyate, which has the senses of being “created” and being “joined”.

   ↩ sn10.1:2.4

7. “Zygote” is kalala, a newly fertilized ovum. Commentary: “no more than a drop of cream of ghee on a single fibre of lamb’s wool”.

   The identification of the stages with modern medical terms is based on the words themselves, the commentarial description of them, and the commentary’s assumption that each stage represents a week’s development.

   ↩ sn10.1:3.1

8. Abbuda is otherwise used of a tumor or cancer. This fits the “blastocyst”, which is implanted in the uterine wall about a week after conception. At this time, the commentary says the embryo is the color of meat-washing water. For other meanings, see notes on SN 1.77:1.4 and Snp 3.10:8.2.

   ↩ sn10.1:3.2

9. “Gastrula” renders pesi, literally “scrap of flesh”, described as looking like melted lead. The embryo in the third week, only a few millimeters long, is forming distinct layers and emerging from the uterine wall.

   ↩ sn10.1:3.3

10. The “embryonic mass” (ghana, literally “clump”) sees the formation of internal organs starting around the fourth week. As the limbs have not yet appeared, the commentary says it is shaped like a chicken egg.

    ↩ sn10.1:3.4

11. The commentary locates this in the fifth week, with limbs (pasākhā) appearing first like five “pimples”. The medical term is “limb buds”, which become prominent at this time.

    ↩ sn10.1:3.5

12. The commentary says the explanation is abridged after the first six or seven weeks. The head hair etc. appear at the time the fetus is mature, namely after 42 weeks (or ten months). Medically, nails and hair are mostly developed by about week 36, which is also the earliest time when a baby is mature, as it may be born with a reasonable chance of survival.

    ↩ sn10.1:3.6

13. Whereas Indaka spoke of the subject who obtains a body, the Buddha’s reply avoids any mention of a subject until this last line. The “person” (nara) only appears when the fetus is mature enough to have limbs, hair, and nails.

    ↩ sn10.1:4.4