Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s20.473

v1.c3.s20.473

Nārī, ‘woman,’ occurs in the Rigveda¹ and later.² The word seems in the Rigveda³ to have a distinct reference to a woman as a wife, because it occurs in several passages with distinct reference to matrimonial relations,³ and in the later Vedic literature, where it is not common, it sometimes⁴ has that sense. Delbrück,⁵ however, thinks that it does not indicate marital relations, but merely the woman as the sexual complement of the man.