Shloka 33
Cyavana’s Water-Vow and the Ethics of Cohabitation (स्नेह-सम्वास-धर्मः)
न तस्यां जातु तिष्ठन्त्यामन्या तत् कर्तुमहति । ब्राह्मणी त्वेव कुर्याद् वा ब्राह्मणस्य युधिष्ठिर
na tasyāṃ jātu tiṣṭhantyām anyā tat kartum arhati | brāhmaṇī tv eva kuryād vā brāhmaṇasya yudhiṣṭhira ||
Bhīṣma sprach: „Solange sie (die Brahmanen-Gattin) zugegen ist, hat keine andere Frau das Recht, jene Pflichten zu verrichten. Allein die Brahmanen-Gattin, o Yudhiṣṭhira, soll die vorgeschriebenen Dienste für einen Brahmanen-Gemahl ausführen.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts an exclusivity of household-religious service within the Brahmin household: when the Brahmin wife is present, she alone is considered entitled to perform the prescribed domestic and ritual services for her Brahmin husband, reflecting the text’s varṇāśrama-based norms of duty and propriety.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma. Here he specifies a rule about who may perform certain household and ritual duties in a Brahmin home, emphasizing that these are to be done by the brāhmaṇī herself and not by another woman while she is present.