Bhopal: Abhimanyu apparently learnt warfare tactics while in the womb, thanks to a lecture by father Arjun to his pregnant wife Subhadra. A state-run university in Bhopal has picked up from where the Mahabharat left off.
It is offering expectant mothers counselling and training courses that it says enhance foetal development and ensure the child turns out a good citizen, a claim questioned by doctors.
The courses on offer at the "Garbh Sanskar Tapovan" centre at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Hindi University last one to nine months and contain lessons in yoga, music, painting and "dialogue with the foetus".
The women are also exposed to Vedic hymns and ayurvedic medicines. Some Muslim women who have participated were exposed to Islamic literature.
About 250 women have joined the courses since they started in 2014, said Rekha Rai, a teacher of Hindi literature who conducts the programme.
"According to our traditional beliefs, a child's mental and behavioural development starts at conception. Personality begins to take shape in the womb, and this can be influenced by a mother's state of mind during pregnancy," Rai said.
A senior obstetrician who specialises in foetal medicine said that exposing a mother to yoga or music may help relieve any stress she feels, but the suggestion that such activities can influence the personality of her unborn child is not validated by science.
"This is unscientific. Maybe it's a false attraction to draw women to the courses," said Pragya Mishra Choudhary, chair of the genetic and foetal medicine committee of the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India.
"Scientific evidence has established that personality depends on multiple factors, including the environment the child is brought up in during infancy and adolescence," Mishra Choudhary said.
But Rai claimed that many mothers had returned to the centre to thank the university authorities, herself and her two women assistants.
She said the course's popularity had spread through the word of mouth. The university had in 2015 distributed a pamphlet through newspaper vendors offering the Garbh Sanskar course.
"The response was amazing. We had 20 pregnant women registering in a single day," Rai said.
But she added that the centre was not enrolling any more women at the moment as the university had moved to a new campus. Efforts are under way to find a designated space for her centre, she said.
The university also runs engineering courses in Hindi, but they are proving a challenge for the students, who are unable to find quality Hindi textbooks in their subjects.
The university also runs short courses on ancient Indian studies, alternative medicine, world civilisation, cultural studies and social empowerment.
Additional reporting by G.S. Mudur