BOOK REVIEW 141 significant step in that direction.,Particularly interesting is her study of the evolution of apsaras, the celestial nymphs, from mother goddesses to'celestial prostitutes'. Shah traces the, beginnings of male dominance to patrilocality, which in her view militated against women developing-a collective consciousness of their exploitation and gave rise to social and psychological processes leading ultimately to the total subordination of the female body and mind. She deals with the problem of the cultural production of patriarchy and its connection with other kinds of production and political processes, and argues that all forms of coercion, physical, social and psychological, were used to achieve this end. Women were excluded from war and warrior-like training and this constituted an important element in the definition of femininity. In this they resembled slaves and serfs who were also deprived of access to arms. However, the .increasing marginalisation of woman in the political sphere and privatisation of her function is attributed to her breeder-feeder role which was a whole-time occupation in the primitive technological scenario and made her a 'non-specialist', a 'Jill of all trades' in a developing society moving towards greater specialisation and class differentiations. With the creation of patriarchy women are seen as harbingers of evil and Shah argues that male psychology played an important role in attributing negative qualities to the female biological rhythm. She agrees with the view of Gerda Lerner that in patriarchal societies a man's class status is determined by his economic relations and a woman's by her sexual relations, and cites Rigveda VI, 22.10 to prove the first point, 'that by means of wealth, a dasa can become an Aryan' (p. 130), interpreting Arya and Dasa as economic categories. Here, however she is on slippery ground. The hymn is an invocation to god Indra and may be roughly translated as follows: 'O Indra, for conquering the enemies give us inexhaustible luck (svastim) which may strengthen the hands of Nahushas and make the Dasa and Arya enemies flee.' Thus the poet prays for the defeat of enemies b'elonging to Aryan as well as Dasa tribes and there is nothing to imply a change of status. Perhaps the authoress has relied on some secondary source, since the Rigveda is outside the limits of her study, but the correction has to be stated as it is an important statement and misuse and misinterpretation of Rigvedic data are unfortunately not uncommon owing to the inability or carelessness of scholars in handling the original source. Some of the conclusions appear to me hasty and questionable. Shalini Shah thinks that the material context of polygyny was provided by the fact that multiple wives could create 'a new generation of labourers in addition to contributing their own work' (p.