Shloka 8
Dāyavibhāga (Inheritance Apportionment) and Household Precedence — Dialogue of Yudhiṣṭhira and Bhīṣma
हत्वा छित्त्वा च शीर्षाणि रुदतां रुदतीं गृहात् । प्रसहम हरणं तात राक्षसो विधिरुच्यते,तात! इसी प्रकार कन्याके रोते हुए अभिभावकोंको मारकर, उनके मस्तक काटकर रोती हुई कनन््याको उसके घरसे बलपूर्वक हर लाना राक्षसोंका काम (राक्षस विवाह) बताया जाता है
hatvā chittvā ca śīrṣāṇi rudatāṃ rudatīṃ gṛhāt | prasaham haraṇaṃ tāta rākṣaso vidhir ucyate ||
Bhishma said: “After killing and even severing the heads of her weeping protectors, and then forcibly carrying away the girl—herself in tears—from her home: this, dear one, is declared to be the ‘Rākṣasa’ mode (of marriage).” The verse frames the act as a named social category while simultaneously exposing its violent, adharma-leaning character through the imagery of grief, coercion, and bloodshed.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse defines the Rākṣasa form of marriage as a violent, coercive seizure of a girl after attacking her guardians. By naming it while describing its brutality, the text highlights how certain socially classified practices can still be ethically fraught and closely aligned with adharma due to force, grief, and lack of consent.
Bhīṣma is explaining to his listener the traditional categories (vidhi) of marriage. In this verse he describes the Rākṣasa mode: the bride is taken from her home by force, amid the killing of her weeping protectors, emphasizing the scene’s violence and sorrow.