Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v1.c3.s21.936

v1.c3.s21.936

On the failure of natural children, adoption was possible.²⁵ It was even resorted to when natural children existed, but when it was desired to secure the presence in the family of a person of specially high qualifications, as in Viśvāmitra’s adoption of Śunaḥśepa.²⁶ It is not clear that adoption from one caste into another was possible, for there is no good evidence that Viśvāmitra was, as Weber²⁷ holds, a Kṣatriya who adopted a Brāhmaṇa. Adoption was also not always in high favour: it may be accidental or not that a hymn of the Vasiṣṭha book of the Rigveda²⁸ condemns the usage. It was also possible for the father who had a daughter, but no sons, to appoint her to bear a son for him. At any rate the practice appears to be referred to in an obscure verse of the Rigveda²⁹ as interpreted by Yāska.³⁰ Moreover, it is possible that the difficulty of a brotherless maiden finding a husband³¹ may have been due in part to the possibility of her father desiring to make her a Putrikā, the later technical name for a daughter whose son is to belong to her father’s family.