The paragraph describing the sammūrcchima or agglutination mode of birth for humans comes from the Prajñāpanā Upāṅga of the Jaina canon. This text preserves some of the oldest of all the teachings found in the Jaina tradition. The most ancient Jaina scriptures, the Pūrvas, are long lost. They were summarized in the twelfth Aṅga, the Dṛṣṭivāda. It, too, is lost, and has been for about 2,000 years. Before its disappearance, however, some of its teachings were recorded in the Prajñāpanā (see: prajnapana_and_satkhandagama). The paragraph on the sammūrcchima or agglutination mode of birth for humans is very likely one of these ancient and mostly lost teachings. We may assume this because, as we have seen, the commentator Malayagiri had no words of explanation for it. Apparently no tradition of its explanation had been passed down to him. It is as anomalous in Jainism as are the four modes of birth for humans taught in Buddhism, that the commentators had to come up with examples from mythology to explain.
The preceding paragraph in the Prajñāpanā had asked the question, what are humans?; and had answered by saying that there are two kinds, sammūrcchima humans and those that come from an embryo or womb (garbha). The paragraph under discussion describes the sammūrcchima
humans, those born by agglutination, also called spontaneous generation. Although Nathmal Tatia did not tell us that his source was the Prajñāpanā, it was; and the statement that he made about these humans closely follows the text of this paragraph. “The humans born of agglutination originate in human excreta such as faeces, urine, sputum, mucus, vomit, bile, pus, blood, semen, etc.” Besides these nine, this paragraph gives four more. These are even stranger, and also more obscure. The listing given in this paragraph is as follows. They are all declined in the locative plural, but I have given their undeclined forms, except in one case. I have added hyphens to divide the words in compounds.
humans, those born by agglutination, also called spontaneous generation. Although Nathmal Tatia did not tell us that his source was the Prajñāpanā, it was; and the statement that he made about these humans closely follows the text of this paragraph. “The humans born of agglutination originate in human excreta such as faeces, urine, sputum, mucus, vomit, bile, pus, blood, semen, etc.” Besides these nine, this paragraph gives four more. These are even stranger, and also more obscure. The listing given in this paragraph is as follows. They are all declined in the locative plural, but I have given their undeclined forms, except in one case. I have added hyphens to divide the words in compounds.
1. Pkt. uccāra; Skt. uccāra; Eng. feces.
2. Pkt. pāsavaṇa; Skt. prasravaṇa; Eng. urine.
3. Pkt. khela; Skt. śleṣma; Eng. saliva (glossed in the Abhidhāna-Rājendra-Koṣa as kaṇṭha-mukha-śleṣmaṇi, which means “the phlegm of the throat and mouth”).
4. Pkt. siṃghāṇa; Skt. śleṣma; Eng. nasal mucus (glossed in the Abhidhāna-Rājendra-Koṣa as nāśikā-śleṣmaṇi, which means “the phlegm of the nose”).
5. Pkt. vaṃta; Skt. vānta; Eng. vomit.
6. Pkt. pitta; Skt. pitta; Eng. bile.
7. Pkt. pūya; Skt. pūya; Eng. pus.
8. Pkt. soṇiya; Skt. śoṇita; Eng. blood.
9. Pkt. sukka; Skt. śukra; Eng. semen.
10. Pkt. sukka-poggala-parisāḍa; Skt. śukra-pudgala-pariśāṭa; Eng. loss of semen matter.
11. Pkt. vigaya-jīva-kalevara; Skt. vigata-jīva-kalevara; Eng. a body from which life has departed.
12. Pkt. thī-purisa-saṃjoesu (declined); Skt. strī-puruṣa-saṃyoga; Eng. the joining of female and male.
13. Pkt. ṇagara-ṇiddhamaṇa; Skt. nagara-nirdhamana; Eng. literally the blowing away, or derivatively the piping away, from a town; apparently a city sewer (glossed in the index as nagara-jalādi-nirgamana-mārga, which means “the pathway for the going out of water, etc., from a town”).
The excellent critical edition of the Prajñāpanā or Paṇṇavaṇāsuttaṁ from the Jaina-Āgama-Series adds another one between the twelfth and thirteenth. It is: gāma-ṇiddhamaṇa (= Skt. grāma-nirdhamana). It is not found in other editions of the Prajñāpanā, but rather is added from a quotation of this paragraph found in Malayagiri’s commentary on the Nandī-sūtra. However, as may be seen, it is practically identical with no. 13, the only difference being the change of one word for town, nagara, to another word for town, grāma. In textual criticism, this is easily explained as a gloss written in the margin of a manuscript, that was incorporated into the main text the next time the manuscript was copied. That is, the next scribe understood it as supplying an omission in the text rather than as a gloss of the text. In any case, the text concludes the list by indicating that these are some among many. So there are more than thirteen.