जेठानीJethaniHusband's Elder Brother's Wife
Jethani (जेठानी) is your husband's elder brother's wife — the woman married to your jeth. The term exists only between daughters-in-law: it is how the wife of a younger brother names the wife of an elder one.
Who is your Jethani?
In a joint family the daughters-in-law are ranked by their husbands' birth order, and the jethani sits above you in that order regardless of who is older in years. Traditionally that seniority was practical: the senior wife led the kitchen, opened the festival rituals, and spoke for the younger wives before the saas. The devrani-jethani relationship is one of Hindi cinema's favourite studies — sometimes a sisterhood between two women who arrived as strangers, sometimes the joint family's most delicate rivalry.
How it's used
A woman refers to her as jethani and addresses her respectfully as didi or bhabhi, rarely by bare name. For example: "घर के तीज-त्योहार की रस्में मेरी जेठानी ही शुरू करती हैं" — "It is my jethani (husband's elder brother's wife) who begins the festival rituals of the house."
Jethani vs similar terms
The jethani's counterpart is the devrani, the wife of the husband's younger brother; the two terms describe the same pair from opposite ends. Note the anchor: rank follows the husbands' ages, so a jethani may be younger in years than her devrani and still be the senior. To the husband's own siblings, both women are simply bhabhi.
Frequently asked questions
What does Jethani mean in Hindi?
Jethani (जेठानी) means your husband's elder brother's wife. It is used between daughters-in-law of the same family, and marks her as senior in the household's traditional order.
What is the difference between Jethani and Devrani?
Both are wives of your husband's brothers: the jethani married his elder brother, the devrani married his younger one. The two women call each other by these paired terms, ranked by their husbands' ages rather than their own.
Related terms
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