Shloka 39
Brahmacarya-Upāya: Jñāna, Śauca, and the Mind’s Role in Desire (शान्ति पर्व, अध्याय २०७)
ततस्त्रेतायुगे काले संस्पर्शाज्जायते प्रजा । न हाभून्मैथुनो धर्मस्तेषामपि जनाधिप,तदनन्तर त्रेतायुगका समय आनेपर स्पर्श करनेमात्रसे संतानकी उत्पत्ति होने लगी। नरेश्वर! उस समयके लोगोंमें भी मैथुन-धर्मका प्रचार नहीं हुआ था
tatas tretāyuge kāle saṁsparśāj jāyate prajā | na hābhūn maithuno dharmas teṣām api janādhipa ||
Bhīṣma said: “Then, when the age of Tretā arrived, offspring began to be produced merely through touch. O lord of men, even among the people of that time, the practice of sexual union as a social norm had not yet come into vogue.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma highlights that dharma and social customs vary by yuga: in earlier ages, procreation was portrayed as occurring through subtler means (mere touch), and sexual union was not yet an established social practice—implying a progressive coarsening of human conduct across ages.
In Bhīṣma’s discourse to the king, he describes conditions in the Tretā-yuga: beings begin to produce offspring through touch alone, and the institution or widespread practice of maithuna (sexual intercourse) is said not to have arisen among people at that time.