#VishvavaraAtreyi

Viśvavārā Ātreyī · fl. c. 1400 BCE

In the books · 1 chapter

Who this is

Vedic poetry and ritual — a ṛṣikā, a woman seer of the Rigveda, credited with hymn 5.28 to Agni, the fire god.

“Three thousand four hundred years of unbroken memory preserved six verses and a name in an index — no story, no face, no dates — and that is enough to prove that at the very beginning of Indian literature, a woman did the priest's work and signed it.”

— The Great Indians, Ch. 2

The big idea, in the book's words:

“In the oldest book India possesses, a woman kindles the sacrificial fire at dawn and carries the offering to it herself — and the tradition's own ancient index names her, not a man, as the hymn's seer.”

— The Great Indians, Ch. 2