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Anonymous, Transl. Wendy DonigerThe Rig Veda: An Anthology
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Chapter 14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 14 Summary: “Women”
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 Yama and Yami, the first mortal man and his twin sister, is a typical conversation hymn depicting diametrically opposed attitudes. (10.10). Enflamed with sexual desire, Yami encourages her brother, whom she addresses as her husband, to impregnate her. She appeals to natural law and the will of the gods, claiming that Tvastr, the divine artisan, made her and Yama into husband and wife when they shared the same womb. Appalled at her immoral suggestion, Yama refuses, arguing that breaking the sacred law of Varuna would dishonor their divine parentage. He notes that Varuna’s spies stand vigilant over sinful acts and uphold Varuna’s authority; Yami counters that just as the sky and earth lay together, though brother and sister, Yama should fill her with seed and father a son. Repelled by her wanton desire, Yama tells her to find another lover and the frustrated Yami admits defeat, cursing her brother’s weakness.
In Hymn 1.179, Lopamudra, the wife of the ascetic sage Agastya, lures her chaste husband into sexual embrace. Anxious to conceive before she loses her physical beauty, Lopamudra tells Agastya that begetting children, not ascetic renunciation, is the path to certain immortality. Agastya replies that the gods encourage asceticism, so he and his wife must contend with each other, but that their eventual union will be prolific. Lopamudra, maddened by their abstinence and overwhelmed by desire, drains her now amorous husband of his semen. Drinking Soma, Agastya prays that the gods forgive them if their act has been blameworthy. The poet concludes that Agastya successfully pursued the goal of immortality both ways, through fathering offspring and practicing religious devotion.
The background to the dialogue of Pururavas and Urvasi (10.95) is a complex myth about the marriage of the water-nymph Urvasi and her mortal husband Pururavas, whom she has left because he broke his promise never to let her see him naked. Pururavas implores his wife to return, professing his love and wish to satisfy her desire; she responds that she submitted to his sexual advances without pleasure and that he should focus on his royal duties rather than pursuing her. After Urvasi reveals that she gave birth to his son, Pururavas begs to see the child, but she refuses. Despondent, Pururavas threatens her with the prospect of his own death; Urvasi relents, saying that women are incapable of friendship, so he should not take his own life. The nymph reassures Pururavas that though his son is mortal, Pururavas will taste the joy of heaven.
A provocative conversation between Indra, his wife Indrani, the monkey Vrsakapi, and his wife, suggests a strange ménage à quatre between the four (10.86). Indrani accuses Indra’s friend Vrsakapi of sexually defiling her and threatens to sever Vrsakapi’s penis. Vrsakapi mocks Indrani, who disparages the monkey’s advances, boasting of her sexual expertise and status as Indra’s consort. Indra defends Vrsakapi from Indrani’s wrath, and the monkey and his wife offer a lavish sacrifice of dozens of bulls and Soma to the great god. The two wives brag of their respective husbands’ sexual prowess. Vrsakapi, meanwhile, flees, apparently to expiate his sin. Indrani calls Vrsakapi home to be reconciled and the poem ends by invoking the wife of Manu, the ancestor of mankind, who gave birth to twenty children at once.
“The Courtship of Ghosa” (10.40) asks the Asvins, twin fertility deities, to bless the union of a young man and woman. Ghosa, the bride, recalls the Asvins’ services to their worshippers, particularly the wives of impotent men. She prays that the gods grant her husband virility and teach the couple the arts of love. Imploring the divine pair for strong sons, Ghosa hopes that she will be loved in her new husband’s house. The Asvins figure prominently in another marriage hymn describing the wedding of Soma and Surya, daughter of the sun (10.85). The union of Surya and Soma is the divine model for human marriages, and the formulaic verses of the latter half of the hymn apparently functioned as wedding liturgies. The poet begins by invoking Soma as a god, a plant, and the moon, and describes the poetic meters of the marriage hymn as bridesmaids attending the bride Surya, adorning her with songs. Surya had multiple suitors before Soma, including her brothers the Asvins, Agni, and Visvavasu, a demigod who deflowers virgins. The priest releases Surya’s bound tresses and the divine charioteer Pusan and the Asvins take her to the home of her husband. After the couple’s consummation, the robe displaying her hymeneal blood takes on a dangerous magical power requiring the priest’s purification. The poet asks Pusan to instill the bride with sexual desire and recounts the several divine suitors that successively possessed her before her present husband. The hymn ends by invoking Prajapati, Aryaman, and Indra, praying that the bride will give birth to strong sons and enjoy a long life.
The myth of Mudgala’s wife winning a chariot race, thereby restoring her husband’s affection, is the basis of dialogue Hymn 10.102. Several of the story’s details are puzzling, suggesting obscure symbolic meanings likely related to sexuality and procreation. Mudgala yokes a bull and a wooden club to the chariot, which his wife drives, besting her competitors in the race. Her rivals try to slow her down by making the bull urinate. However, aided by Indra, she claims victory and wins a thousand cows. Bystanders comment that she has won the race like a lactating woman who prospers, capable of bearing progeny even with a sexually deficient husband. Mudgala praises Indra and wishes for the god’s sexual potency, becoming like a virile bull rather than a steer.
Chapter 14 Analysis
Vedic hymns focusing on the theme of marriage or the sexual relationship between men and women often embody anxieties about virility, potency, female beauty, fertility, and marital fidelity. They also express the hope for fruitful union.
Several dramatic poems, such as the dialogues of Yama and Yami, and Urvasi and Pururavas, emphasize incompatibility. In the former well-known hymn, the brother and sister’s tense argument embodies the contradiction between the moral law that grounds social relations, presided over by Varuna, and instinctual desire, represented by the incestuous coupling of Sky and Earth. Both Yama and Yami employ legal arguments and appeal to different divinities to make their cases: Yama cites Mitra, Varuna, and the sun as the vigilant upholders of lawful order, while Yami invokes Tvastr, who she claims married the twins as he formed them in the same womb. The emotional intensity of the hymn builds as Yami abandons her attempt to persuade Yama by force of reason and confronts him with her naked lust, which he rejects. In the dialogue of Pururavas and Urvasi, the tables are turned as the water nymph refuses her mortal husband’s increasingly desperate pleas for reconciliation. The poem’s emotional drama intensifies through its life-like depiction of emotional blackmail and the contentious argument of the couple, in which Pururavas’s wife cruelly rebuffs his passionate entreaties. In this hymn, sexual incompatibility underscores the fundamental difference between mortals and immortals—Urvasi retreats to her divine world, while Pururavas and his son suffer the inevitability of death.
Hymns 1.179 and 10.86 happily overcome obstacles to union posed by sexual impropriety and abstinence. The dialogue of Lopamudra and her husband Agastya foregrounds two methods of achieving immortality: producing offspring and the spiritual practice of asceticism. Lopamudra embodies the sexual desire enabling the first; Agastya is a disciple of the second. As in the dialogue of Yama and Yami, each partner employs legalistic arguments in favor of their respective positions. Agastya admits, however, that antagonistically striving with his wife and deferring sexual pleasure will ensure a more productive union when they finally embrace. Lopamudra’s passionate response to her husband’s logic leads to the couple’s vigorous lovemaking. Replenishing his spent semen with Soma, Agastya defends their action, recognizing that mortals have many desires, sexual as well as spiritual. The hymn validates both methods of attaining immortality, reconciling the sexual and spiritual.
The myth of Indra, his monkey friend, and their wives suggests several simultaneous layers of symbolic meaning associated with conflict and resolution. On one level, the hymn is a sexual farce in which two couples of unequal status become embroiled in a squabble that resolves after accusations and crude banter. On another level, the hymn seems concerned with Indra’s role in sacrificial ritual; in this reading, Indrani’s molestation by Vrsakapi may allude to a rite in which the king’s wife copulates with a sacrificial horse to increase her husband’s power. The identity of Vrsakapi’s wife in the poem is unclear—and could be understood to be Indrani herself. At all events, the hymn is likely associated with a fertility rite and implies some exchange or sexual competition between Indra and Vrsakapi; the precocious monkey may transfer sexual potency to the god and in turn expiate Indra’s sin by exiling himself.
Surya’s marriage to Soma is the mythic prototype for human marriages. Sister (and sometimes wife) of the Asvins, who preside over fertility and marriage, Surya is the archetypal bride, simultaneously identified with maidenhood and sexual receptivity. The hymn functions on two levels: as a mythic narrative of the divine marriage and as a liturgical text for the Vedic marriage rite. These layers interweave throughout the poem—the name “Surya” at times refers to the divine personage, other times to the human bride, and sometimes to both at once. The poem begins by describing the goddess Surya’s wedding procession, comparing domestic details of the wedding with the movement of celestial bodies. After likening her husband Soma (the celestial deity, not the drink) to the waxing and waning moon, the hymn shifts to a series of benedictions and imprecations intended to bless the human couple and deter evildoers who would interfere with their happy union. The poem’s description of the deflowering of the bride embodies a cluster of sexual anxieties. While her hymeneal blood proves her virginity, it also carries a stigma, symbolizing a potentially dangerous force that must be exorcised. Correspondingly, the husband’s body becomes “ugly and sinisterly pale” after intercourse, and the gods are invoked to dispel the diseases stemming from the bride’s family. The implication is that the bridegroom is under his wife’s power, having bound himself to a feminine force with a destructive as well as benevolent dimension. The priest’s sacrificial shredding of the bridal “robe”—i.e., the marital bed linens—neutralizes the blood stigma and dispels the evil. The second half of the hymn encourages the bride’s desire by celebrating Surya’s sexual appeal and appetite as the lover of several divinities who possessed her before the current marriage. The poem ends with a litany of benedictions wishing prosperity, longevity, and abundant offspring to the married couple.
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