Niyoga system of fertilization

To have a healthy baby long ago (several thousand years ago), especially when the mortality rate for infants and young children used to be very high, was a social need to keep the race and family going (genealogically), as well as a personal need to ensure that there would be someone later (grown up son etc.) to look after the aging parents and other family members (a kind of old age security). Moreover, the offspring might be needed anyway when the male spouse was incapable of impregnating his female counterpart.

Thus the religion (Hinduism) and society's elders devised a system, Niyoga, giving seven (or more) choices of men -- starting with immediate family members (husband's brothers etc.) and lastly the outsiders (learned brahmins etc.) -- to a childless woman (including a widow) so that she could obtain the seed (from these men, in order of priority) to bear a child, if she so wished. Note that the basis for Niyoga was to get pregnant to have a child and not the sexual gratification - Niyoga implying an impassive and emotionally detached union or intercourse.

Since having an offspring might be very important to a childless woman or a couple, from societal and personal considerations (as indicated above), Niyoga system of fertilization, sanctioned by religion and society, was perhaps the most practical, humane, compassionate and easy to employ.

Note that the system, even though practiced long ago, is now becoming quite popular around the world (in a slightly different form) as more and more single women and childless couples go for having babies through artificial insemination etc. by using sperm (seed) from outside males. In that sense, Niyoga seems to have been an ultra modern and liberal system of fertilization. There are even rumors that something similar to Niyoga was used by royalty outside India not long ago, with positive outcome.

Incidentally, in the Mahabharata, king Vichitravirya died suddenly leaving two young widowed queens (Ambika and Ambalika) behind without any heir. Then Satyavati (Vichitravirya’s mother and Bhishma’s stepmother) asked Bhishma to do the right thing as Vichitravirya’s half-brother and impregnate Ambika and Ambalika to get a child (heir) so that their family and kingdom would continue. But Bhishma, having taken earlier the vow of celibacy and to never father a child, declined this request from his stepmother. Satyavati then had to ask another male, as sanctioned by Niyoga, to carry out the act of fathering children with Ambika and Ambalika, which took place and led to the births of Dhritarashtra (from Ambika) and Pandu (from Ambalika).

Needless to say, it seems from the above example in Mahabharata that Hindu widows long ago did not commit sati or shave their heads and move to remote places (temples) after their husbands' deaths. The widows like Ambika and Ambalika even had children by another man after their husband died. Moreover, another widow (Satyavati) lived at home in her palace and made important decisions for the family and kingdom. All these rights and privileges to women, including widows, were in agreement with the society and religion.

By: Dr. Subhash C. Sharma
Email: [email protected]
Date: Oct. 2, 2008

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