SB 3.17.18 · Srimad Bhagavatam

Devanagari

प्रजापतिर्नाम तयोरकार्षीद् य: प्राक् स्वदेहाद्यमयोरजायत । तं वै हिरण्यकशिपुं विदु: प्रजा यं तं हिरण्याक्षमसूत साग्रत: ॥ १८ ॥

Verse text

prajāpatir nāma tayor akārṣīd yaḥ prāk sva-dehād yamayor ajāyata taṁ vai hiraṇyakaśipuṁ viduḥ prajā yaṁ taṁ hiraṇyākṣam asūta sāgrataḥ

Synonyms

prajāpatiḥ — Kaśyapa ; nāma — names ; tayoḥ — of the two ; akārṣīt — gave ; yaḥ — who ; prāk — first ; sva — dehāt — from his body ; yamayoḥ — of the twins ; ajāyata — was delivered ; tam — him ; vai — indeed ; hiraṇyakaśipum — Hiraṇyakaśipu ; viduḥ — know ; prajāḥ — people ; yam — whom ; tam — him ; hiraṇyākṣam — Hiraṇyākṣa ; asūta — gave birth to ; sā — she (Diti) ; agrataḥ — first .

Translation

Prajāpati Kaśyapa, the creator of the living entities, gave his twin sons their names; the one who was born first he named Hiraṇyākṣa, and the one who was first conceived by Diti he named Hiraṇyakaśipu.

Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)

Kaśyapa gave names to his sons. He who was first to be impregnated in Diti was known as Hiraṇyakaśipu and he who came out first from Diti was known as Hiraṇyākṣa. This verse describes how Kaśyapa (prajāpatiḥ) gave the twins names on the tenth day after birth. He named them such the child which came first from his body was known as Hiraṇyakaśipu and the child which first came from Diti’s body was known as Hiraṇyākṣa. Yathā and tathā should be supplied. The Piṇḍa-siddhi says: yadā viśed dvidhā bhūtaṁ bījaṁ puṣpaṁ parikṣarat dvau tadā bhavato garbhau sūtir veśa viparyyayād When a person impregnates semen twice in the womb, the two embryos are born in reverse order to the impregnation. Hiraṇyakaśipu was the eldest from the perspective of Kaśyapa, since he had been deposited first. From the perspective of the mother, Hiraṇyākṣa was eldest since he was born first from her womb. Though either could be considered elder, because of the stronger position of the father, Hiraṇyakaśipu was considered the elder.

Purport

There is an authoritative Vedic literature called Piṇḍa-siddhi in which the scientific understanding of pregnancy is very nicely described. It is stated that when the male secretion enters the menstrual flux in the uterus in two successive drops, the mother develops two embryos in her womb, and she brings forth twins in a reverse order to that in which they were first conceived; the child conceived first is born later, and the one conceived later is brought forth first. The first child conceived in the womb lives behind the second child, so when birth takes place the second child appears first, and the first child appears second. In this case it is understood that Hiraṇyākṣa, the second child conceived, was delivered first, whereas Hiraṇyakaśipu, the child who was behind him, having been conceived first, was born second.