By Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik - Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist
The Rig Vedic hymns were composed over 3,000 years ago, most probably by children of men who migrated into India with horses from Central Asia, and married local women. The hymns mostly reveal the valours of the fathers, but occasionally the longings of the mother. The marriage hymn tells us about a girl called Surya, who is fetched by the Ashwins and taken to her husband. We learn how the woman already has had three husbands: Soma, Agni and Gandharva, before receiving her fourth husband. Does it mean women had four husbands, a pre-Vedic practice frowned upon by Aryan men?
