Shloka 9
Liberation and Truth — Chanakya Niti
पत्युराज्ञां विना नारी ह्युपोष्य व्रतचारिणी ।
आयुष्यं हरते भर्तुः सा नारी नरकं व्रजेत् ॥
patyur ājñāṃ vinā nārī hy upoṣya vratacāriṇī |
āyuṣyaṃ harate bhartuḥ sā nārī narakaṃ vrajet ||
If a woman fasts and keeps vows without her husband’s consent, it is said she diminishes his lifespan; such a woman is destined for hell.
FAQs
This verse reflects a premodern Sanskrit didactic milieu in which household hierarchy and the regulation of religious practice were frequently framed through the authority of the husband within the domestic sphere. Such statements are characteristic of nīti-style compilations that encode social order, merit/demerit (puṇya/pāpa), and karmic consequence as instruments of moral instruction.
The verse frames fasting and vow-practice (upoṣa, vrata) as actions requiring the husband’s assent, presenting the wife’s independent observance as a transgression against household authority. The consequence is expressed through two linked claims: harm to the husband’s longevity and an otherworldly punishment (naraka), indicating a moralized, sanction-based model of domestic discipline.
Key terms encode a juridical-ethical register: ājñā (“permission/command”) implies hierarchical authorization; vratacāriṇī characterizes ritual discipline; harate (“takes away”) casts the act as a direct depletion of āyuṣya (“lifespan”), a common idiom in Sanskrit moral discourse connecting conduct with vitality and fate. The concluding naraka motif functions as a conventional punitive horizon in dharma-inflected literature rather than a descriptive historical report of practice.