[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Vedic Index of Names and Subjects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912) › v1.c3.s21.308 # Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.308 Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.308 - **Language:** English ### [v1.c3.s21.308](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s21.308) But the main object of a woman’s marriage was the production of children, this being repeatedly asserted in the Rigveda and later.¹²³ The desire for offspring, as was natural in a society which mainly counted relationship through the father, took the form of a wish for a son to perform the necessary funeral rites for the father, and to continue his line. It was no doubt possible to adopt a son, but in the Rigveda¹²⁴ this custom is plainly viewed as unsatisfactory. The practice is recognized,¹²⁵ as we have seen above of Niyoga, in the appointment of a brother to beget children with the wife of a dead man, or perhaps of a man who is childless. ‘Sonlessness’ (\*avīratā\*) is placed on the same level as lack of property (\*amati\*), and Agni is besought to protect from it.¹²⁶ The birth of a daughter was certainly not specially welcome: the Atharvaveda¹²⁷ in one hymn distinctly invokes the birth of a son, and deprecates that of a daughter, while the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa¹²⁸ contains an old verse which says that a daughter is a misery (\*kṛpaṇam\*), while a son is a light in the highest heaven (\*jyotir ha putraḥ parame vyoman\*). But there is no proof that the Vedic Indians practised the exposure of female children. This conclusion, deduced from certain passages in the later Saṃhitās¹²⁹ by Zimmer¹³⁰ and Delbrück,¹³¹ has been disproved by Böhtlingk. - [Previous: v1.c3.s21.307](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s21.307) - [Next: v1.c3.s21.309](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s21.309) - [Up: v1.c3.s21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s21) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s21.308](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v1.c3.s21.308) · Pramāṇa