The Requirement of Mutual Impurity for Women, Embryos and Nonhuman Beings in Jaina Birth Narratives

Jaina birth narratives distinguish themselves among other Āyurvedic texts for their emphasis on reproduction as an impure, but necessary, process that especially implicates the “womb trio” of women, embryo-fetus, and nonhuman beings. Descriptions of pregnancy and birth found in the Jaina Tandula-veyāliya and Kalyāṇa-kāraka describe women’s reproductive capacity as generative, but also defiled. In this cosmological labor, women are not alone but joined through communal interactions with the embryo-fetus and nonhuman beings to co-create an immanent space of necessary life through food, bi-directional affects of the double-heart (dvai-hṛdaya), maternal emotions and cravings (dohada), as well as the transformation of consumed nonhuman living beings into the physical body of the fetus. Beyond a simple account of gender/species subordination, the mutual impurity and solidarity of the womb-trio invites fresh ethical reflections upon the metaphysical indebtedness to those who jointly the karmic cost for providing existential opportunities for other’s birth and advancement.