A-bhrātaraḥ (‘brotherless’). — The lot of girls without brothers is referred to in the Rigveda1 as unsatisfactory — apparently they became prostitutes. The Nirukta2 expressly forbids marriage with a brotherless maiden, probably because of the risk of her being made a putrikā (‘adoptive daughter’) by her father — that is, any son of hers being counted as belonging to her father's, instead of to her husband's, family. See Ayogū.[Footnote] 1) i. 124, 7; iv. 5, 5. Cf. Av. i. 17, 1. [Footnote] 2) iii. 5 (abhrātrī). Cf. Bloomfield, Hymns of the Athar-vaveda, 259; Zimmer, Altindisches Leben, 328.