Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s3.137

v2.c4.s3.137

Bhāryā, later a common expression for ‘wife,’ does not occur in that sense at all in the Saṃhitās. It first appears, according to the St. Petersburg Dictionary, in the Aitareya Brāhmaṇa,¹ where, however, Delbrück² suggests that merely a member of the household (‘who is to be maintained’) may be meant. In the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa,³ however, the two wives of Yājñavalkya are so designated.