Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.212

v1.c3.s21.212

Polygamy.—A Vedic Indian could have more than one wife. This is proved clearly by many passages in the Rigveda;³⁵ Manu, according to the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā,³⁶ had ten wives; and the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa³⁷ explains polygamy by a characteristic legend. Moreover, the king regularly has four wives attributed to him, the Mahiṣī,³⁸ the Parivṛktī,³⁹ the Vāvātā,⁴⁰ and the Pālāgalī.⁴¹ The Mahiṣī appears to be the chief wife, being the first one married according to the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa.⁴² The Parivṛktī, ‘the neglected,’ is explained by Weber⁴³ and Pischel⁴⁴ as one that had no son. The Vāvātā is ‘the favourite,’ while the Pālāgalī is, according to Weber, the daughter of the last of the court officials. The names are curious, and not very intelligible, but the evidence points to the wife first wedded alone being a wife in the fullest sense. This view is supported by the fact emphasized by Delbrück,⁴⁵ that in the sacrifice the Patnī is usually mentioned in the singular, apparent exceptions being due to some mythological reason.⁴⁶ Zimmer⁴⁷ is of opinion that polygamy is dying out in the Rigveda period, monogamy being developed from pologamy; Weber,⁴⁸ however, thinks that polygamy is secondary, a view that is supported by more recent anthropology.⁴⁹