Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s16.345

v1.c3.s16.345

Jñāti (masc.), a word which originally seems to have meant ‘acquaintance,’¹ denotes in the Rigveda² and later³ a ‘relation,’ apparently one who was connected by blood on the father’s side, though the passages do not necessarily require the limitation. But this sense follows naturally enough from the patriarchal basis of Vedic society.⁴