Shloka 86

Devanagari script

पतिहीना तु का नारी सती जीवितुमुत्सहेत्‌ । “नाथ! अब तुम्हारे बिना यहाँ इस जीवनसे भी क्या प्रयोजन है? ऐसी कौन सी पतिव्रता स्त्री होगी, जो पतिके बिना जीवित रह सकेगी?

Transliteration

patihīnā tu kā nārī satī jīvitum utsahet |

Translation

Bhīṣma sprach: „Welche tugendhafte Frau, ihres Gatten beraubt, könnte sich noch dazu bringen, weiterzuleben? Im Ideal der pativratā gilt der Ehemann als wichtigste Stütze und Lebensbestimmung der Frau; so erscheint die Witwenschaft in diesem Wertesystem als ethisch‑seelische Krise.“

Word by Word

पतिहीनाhusbandless

तुbut/indeed

काwhich?/what kind of?

नारीwoman

सतीvirtuous/chaste

जीवितुम्to live

उत्सहेत्would be able/would dare

Speaker

भीष्म उवाच

Characters & Entities

Bhīṣma

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

War Context

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Geographic Context

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse voices a classical dharma-ideal in which a wife’s fidelity and life-orientation are centered on her husband; it portrays the loss of the husband as so decisive that a ‘satī’ is imagined as scarcely able to continue living, highlighting the intensity of conjugal devotion as a moral-emotional norm in the text’s discourse.

What is happening in the narrative?

In Bhīṣma’s instruction within the Śānti Parva, he makes a pointed rhetorical statement about the condition of a husbandless woman, using the figure of the ‘satī’ to emphasize how grievous and destabilizing widowhood is considered under the prevailing social-ethical framework being discussed.