Shloka 20
Aṣṭāvakra and the Woman: Disclosure, Permission, and Marital Resolution (अनुशासन पर्व, अध्याय २२)
सअद्टावक्र उवाच स्वतन्त्रा त्वं कथं भद्रे ब्रूहि कारणमत्र वै नास्ति त्रिलोके स्त्री काचिद् या वै स्वातन्त्रयमहति,अष्टावक्रने कहा--भद्रे! तुम स्वतन्त्र कैसे हो? इसमें जो कारण हो, वह बताओ! तीनों लोकोंमें कोई ऐसी स्त्री नहीं है जो स्वतन्त्र रहने योग्य हो इति श्रीमहा भारते अनुशासनपर्वणि दानधर्मपर्वणि अष्टावक्रदिक्संवादे विंशो5ध्याय:
aṣṭāvakra uvāca | svatantrā tvaṁ kathaṁ bhadre brūhi kāraṇam atra vai | nāsti triloke strī kācid yā vai svātantryam arhati ||
Aṣṭāvakra said: “O noble lady, how is it that you are independent? Tell me the reason for it here. For in the three worlds there is no woman who is truly fit to live in complete independence.”
सअद्टावक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a normative claim about social dependence and propriety: Aṣṭāvakra challenges the woman’s assertion of autonomy and asks her to justify it, asserting that, as a general rule in the three worlds, women are not regarded as suited for complete independence. The ethical thrust is the interrogation of social order (dharma as convention) and the grounds on which one claims freedom within it.
Within the Aṣṭāvakra–(female interlocutor) dialogue in the Anuśāsana Parva, Aṣṭāvakra addresses a woman respectfully as “bhadre” and questions how she can be ‘svatantrā’ (independent). He demands the specific reason for her situation and then states his sweeping premise that no woman in the three worlds is fit for independence, setting up the next exchange where her response would defend or explain her status.