Shloka 22
यावन्तो रोमकूपाः स्युः स्त्रीणां गात्रेषु निर्मिता: । तावद् वर्षसहस्राणि नरकं पर्युपासते,स्त्रियोंके शरीरमें जितने रोमकूप होते हैं, उतने ही हजार वर्षोंतक व्यभिचारी पुरुषोंको नरकमें रहना पड़ता है
yāvanto romakūpāḥ syuḥ strīṇāṃ gātreṣu nirmitāḥ | tāvad varṣasahasrāṇi narakaṃ paryupāsate ||
Bhīṣma said: “As many hair-follicles as are formed upon the limbs of women, for just so many thousands of years do men who violate sexual fidelity remain in hell.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Sexual infidelity (vyabhicāra) is treated as a major breach of dharma, and the verse emphasizes its severe karmic consequence through a striking numerical metaphor: the punishment is unimaginably long, measured in thousands of years corresponding to the countless hair-follicles on a woman’s body.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma and right conduct. Here he delivers a moral warning about the consequences of violating sexual fidelity, framing it within the broader didactic discourse on ethical restraint and social responsibility.