The Rig Veda: An Anthology

The Rig Veda is the product of a patriarchal culture; men composed its hymns to focus on male concerns. Women play a subordinate role in the Vedic pantheon and mythology: Aditi, the mother of the gods, is the only goddess of stature, though certain natural phenomena, such as Dawn and Night, appear as beautiful females. The role of mortal and immortal women in the Rig Veda is essentially limited to their sexual and maternal capacities—as O’Flaherty states, “throughout the hymns [women appear] as objects, though seldom as subjects” (245). Women play a significant role, however, in two genres of hymns: conversation poems and narratives about marriage. The conversation hymns often center on fertility and typically involve a dialogue between a man and woman (mortal, immortal, or semi-divine), in which one party invites the other to engage in sexual activity while the other resists. Sometimes the result is union, at other times separation. The marriage hymns also frequently concern the refusal of sexual advances and embody anxiety about the woman’s beauty and/or the man’s virility. Unlike the conversation poems, however, the marriage narratives always resolve the tension blocking sexual union and end happily.

The dialogue between