Shloka 11
भीष्म उवाच यथैवात्मा तथा पुत्र: पुत्रेण दुहिता समा । तस्यामात्मनि तिष्ठन्त्यां कथमन्यो धनं हरेत्,भीष्मजीने कहा--बेटा! पुत्र अपने आत्माके समान है और कन्या भी पुत्रके ही तुल्य है, अत: आत्मस्वरूप पुत्रके रहते हुए दूसरा कोई उसका धन कैसे ले सकता है?
bhīṣma uvāca | yathaivātmā tathā putraḥ putreṇa duhitā samā | tasyām ātmani tiṣṭhantyāṃ katham anyo dhanaṃ haret |
Bhishma said: “As one’s own self is, so is one’s son; and a daughter is equal to a son. When that embodied ‘self’—in the form of one’s child—still stands present, how can anyone else rightfully take away that person’s wealth?”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhishma affirms an ethical-dharmic principle of inheritance: a daughter is equal to a son, and as long as one’s rightful offspring (the continuation of one’s own ‘self’) exists, outsiders have no legitimate claim to seize the person’s wealth.
In the Anushasana Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhishma is laying down a rule-like moral argument about rightful heirs and property: he equates daughter with son and uses that equality to deny the legitimacy of third-party appropriation of a family’s wealth.