Shloka 119
Śuka’s Guṇa-Transcendence and Vyāsa’s Consolation (शुकगति-वर्णनम्)
सम्पूर्णे नवमे मासि जन्तोर्जातस्य मैथिल । जायते नामरूपत्वं स्त्री पुमान् वेति लिड्गतः
sampūrṇe navame māsi jantor jātasya maithila | jāyate nāmarūpatvaṁ strī pumān veti liṅgataḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “O Maithila, when the ninth month is fully completed, the embodied being is born. At that time it comes to possess name and form, and by its distinguishing marks it is understood as either female or male.”
भीष्य उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames birth as the point at which the living being becomes socially and perceptibly individuated—acquiring ‘name and form’—and is recognized through bodily marks as female or male, a step relevant to later discussions of duties (dharma) tied to embodied life.
Bhīṣma is instructing the Maithila king within Śānti Parva’s didactic discourse, describing the moment of birth after the completion of nine months and the consequent recognition of the newborn’s identity and sex.