Shloka 32
Cyavana’s Water-Vow and the Ethics of Cohabitation (स्नेह-सम्वास-धर्मः)
ब्राह्मण पहले अन्य तीनों वर्णोकी स्त्रियोंको ब्याह लानेके पश्चात् भी यदि ब्राह्मणकन्यासे विवाह करे तो वही अन्य स्त्रियोंकी अपेक्षा ज्येष्ठ, अधिक आदर-सत्कारके योग्य तथा विशेष गौरवकी अधिकारिणी होगी ।।
brāhmaṇaḥ pūrvaṁ anyatrīṇāṁ varṇānāṁ striyaḥ vivāhya ānīya paścād api yadi brāhmaṇakanyayā vivāhaṁ kuryāt, sā eva tābhyo ’nyābhyaḥ strībhyaḥ jyeṣṭhā, adhikādara-satkāra-yogyā tathā viśeṣa-gauravādhikāriṇī bhavati. snānaṁ prasādhanaṁ bhartur dantadhāvanam añjanam; havyaṁ kavyaṁ ca yac cānyad dharmayuktaṁ gṛhe bhavet—yudhiṣṭhira! patyuḥ snāpanam, tasya alaṅkāra-sāmagrī-pradānam, dantakāṣṭha-manjana-pradānam, netrāñjana-pradānam, pratidinaṁ homa-pūjā-kāle havya-kavya-sāmagrī-saṅgrahaḥ, tathā gṛhe ye ’nye dhārmikāḥ kriyāḥ syuḥ teṣu sahāyatā—etāni sarvāṇi brāhmaṇasya brāhmaṇyā eva kartavyāni; tasyāḥ sati anyavarṇajāyāḥ striyāḥ etat kartum adhikāro nāsti.
Bhishma tells Yudhishthira that if a Brahmin, even after marrying women from the other three social orders, later marries a Brahmin maiden, she alone is to be regarded as the senior wife—more worthy of honor, formal respect, and special precedence than the others. He then specifies the domestic and ritual duties that, in a Brahmin household, properly belong to the Brahmin wife: arranging the husband’s bath and grooming, providing what is needed for cleaning the teeth, applying collyrium to the eyes, and gathering the requisites for daily offerings—both the oblations to the gods (havya) and the rites for ancestors (kavya)—as well as assisting in any other religiously sanctioned observances performed in the home. While she is present, Bhishma says, a wife from another order has no authority to perform these acts. The passage frames household service and ritual competence as matters of dharma and hierarchy, assigning precedence and religious responsibility to the Brahmin wife within the normative social code being taught.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a normative rule of household dharma: in a Brahmin household, a Brahmin wife is accorded senior precedence and is considered the proper agent for key domestic-ritual responsibilities (care of the husband and preparation for daily divine and ancestral offerings), while wives from other varṇas are denied that ritual authority when she is present.
During Bhishma’s extended instruction (Anushasana Parva), he addresses Yudhishthira on social and religious duties. Here he discusses marriage hierarchy and assigns specific household and ritual tasks to the Brahmin wife, framing them as matters of rightful entitlement (adhikāra) within the dharma code he is expounding.