method ../NIYOGA

[Michael Witzel]

H.-P. Schmidt has discussed this custom at length  in his small book,
actually a series of lectures at Poona:

 Some womens' rites and rights in the Veda, Poona, 1987

I have a summary in Journal of South Asian women Studies (JSAWS) :
www.shore.net/~india/jsaws
The first few volumes have been published as book recently: E.Garzilli
(ed.), Milano 1997

The earliest mention is in Rgveda:

RV 10.40.2 is very clear about this: Who takes you (the As'vin) to bed,
like a widow the brother-in-law (devR), like a young woman a man, in
the dwelling.


On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, S Krishna wrote:

> I would like to know the earliest known mention of the practice of
> Niyoga in ancient India( historical/mythological).


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Michael Witzel                       witzel at fas.harvard.edu
                                     www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm
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