Introduction (worship of female deities)

It is observed that the Vedic seers, in their panegyrical verses, dedicated to certain divinities, deified the diverse phenomena of nature, existing around them. This process of deification was characterised with anthropomorphism. While imposing humanly characters upon these natural objects, it is obvious to be mixed their views and attitudes toward human society. They personified certain objects as male deities and others as female deities. Hence, to understand their attitude toward femininity and to have an idea of womanhood of that time, it is necessary to go through the exaltations of the female deities.

The Atharvaveda enumerates a good number of female deities. Some of these deities also occur in the earlier texts like the Ṛgveda, etc., and many new deities have come into existence in the Atharvavedic pantheon. Some of them enjoy a prominent place, while some others have a subordinate position. The study, concerned here to the character and function of these female deities and the modes of worshipping them as reflected in the Atharvaveda, is envisaged to be helpful for the proper understanding of womanhood, prevailed at that time. For the methodological study, these female divinities are arranged here according to their alphabetical order.