ABSTRACT
The savants of India have classified men and women into four types and have explained their different bodily features and natures. In similar fashion, the women of all countries can be subdivided into padmini, citrini, sankhini, and hastini. Race entered Hindi and Urdu in a number of different ways. On the contrary, in contemporary Hindi discussions on the “struggle for existence” much more fixed ideas of race, along with an appropriation of eugenics as it was promoted by Galton and his followers, affirmed themselves right at the turn of the twentieth century. The degree of fixity of the racial concept varied also within Hindi and Urdu para-eugenics. The prevalently Hindi-language santati-sastra taught married couples that they could influence the physical and mental features of their offspring by exercising their “mental force” in this direction during the three key moments of menstruation, conception and pregnancy.
