We are often told that the Rig Veda had nearly 30 Rishikas, or women rishis. Names such as Lopamudra, Juhu, Shraddha, Ghosha, Apala, Vishvavara and Shachi are presented as evidence that women composed Vedic hymns just like men. It is an attractive idea, especially today, when we want to find examples of gender equality in the ancient world. But history is rarely so convenient.

The Rig Veda certainly contains women. Women speak. Goddesses speak. Wives speak to husbands. Women express desire, anger, jealousy and sorrow. But a woman speaking in a poem does not necessarily mean that a woman composed the poem.

Where does the confusion come from?

Much of the confusion comes from the Anukramani, the traditional index attached to the Vedic tradition. Such indexes were composed almost a thousand years after the Vedic mantras, around 100 BC, in order to help Brahmins access the hymns easily.

The most famous of the Anukramani is the Sarvanukramani, attributed to Katyayana. It identifies the rishi, deity and metre associated with each hymn. The index tells us how later Vedic scholars understood the old hymns. It does not necessarily tell us who historically composed them.

Take Vishvavara Atreyi, traditionally identified as the woman rishi of Rig Veda 5.28. The word vishvavara occurs in the hymn, but it can function as an adjective. Some modern philologists have therefore questioned whether Vishvavara was really the historical name of a female poet. The later tradition may have converted a word found in the hymn into the name of its supposed composer.

An even stranger case is Juhu Brahmajaya, associated with Rig Veda 10.109. Juhu is the ritual ladle into which ghee is poured during a sacrifice. Brahmajaya means the wife of a Brahmin. Yet these words eventually become part of an author’s identity in the traditional index.

The same process can be seen with Dakshina, the sacrificial fee; Shraddha, faith or trust; and Vac, speech. All these are feminine words. They can also be personified as female beings. Later tradition therefore treats them as female rishis associated with particular hymns.

What happens when goddesses, mythical beings enter the list

The problem becomes even clearer when goddesses and mythical beings enter the list. Aditi, Indrani, Urvashi, Yami and Surya appear as speakers. Sarama, the divine bitch of Indra, speaks in the famous dialogue with the Panis. Sarparajni, the serpent queen, also appears in the traditional lists. If every female speaker is counted as a female poet, we end up confusing the character inside the poem with the person who created the poem.

Think of a modern play. Shakespeare gives Juliet some of the most memorable speeches in English literature. This does not make Juliet the author of Romeo and Juliet. A male playwright can create a female voice. Likewise, a female writer can create a male voice.

This becomes important when we examine the dialogue hymns of the Rig Veda. Lopamudra speaks to Agastya in Rig Veda 1.179 and openly expresses sexual desire. Yami tries to persuade her brother Yama to become her lover in Rig Veda 10.10. Apala speaks about her body and her encounter with Indra in Rig Veda 8.91. Ghosha is associated with hymns addressed to the Ashvins. These are powerful female voices. But a powerful female voice within a poem is not proof of female authorship.

Why social setting also matters

The larger social setting also matters. The Rig Veda emerges from families of ritual specialists. Entire books are associated with bardic lineages such as those of Gritsamada, Vishvamitra, Vamadeva, Atri, Bharadvaja and Vasishtha. Poetry, sacrifice and memory were connected. Hymns had to be remembered and transmitted with extraordinary precision. The evidence overwhelmingly places this specialised profession within male priestly lineages.

This does not prove that no woman ever composed a Vedic verse. That would be going too far. Absence of evidence is not proof of impossibility. The Rig Veda is more than three thousand years old, and we simply do not possess biographical information about its poets in the modern sense.

There are particularly interesting cases such as Shachi Paulomi in Rig Veda 10.159. The hymn has a female first-person speaker who celebrates her triumph over rivals. But even here, we cannot establish whether a historical woman composed the verse or whether a male ritual poet created a woman’s voice.

Female voice and female authorship are different things

The safest conclusion, therefore, is not that “the Rig Veda had twenty or thirty women poets.” That’s clearly an exaggeration. Nor can we say that “women definitely composed no Vedic poetry.” That may be a bit extreme.

Modern readers often want ancient texts to confirm modern values. Traditionalists may want the Vedic age to demonstrate that India had gender equality thousands of years before the modern world. Critics may want the opposite: an entirely male and oppressive past. Both approaches ask ancient poetry to participate in a modern argument.

What we can say is more interesting. The Rig Veda preserves many female voices, but female voice and female authorship are two different things. The traditional identification of female rishis comes largely from later systems of classification, and some of these classifications clearly treat characters, goddesses, abstractions and even animals as rishis.