Shloka 20
Brāhmaṇa-vandana: Criteria for Veneration, Disciplined Speech, and Protective Kingship (अनुशासनपर्व, अध्याय ८)
यथा भार्त्राश्रियो धर्म: स्त्रीणां लोके युधिष्ठिर । स देव: सा गतिर्नन्या क्षत्रियस्य तथा द्विजा:
yathā bhartṛ-āśrayo dharmaḥ strīṇāṃ loke yudhiṣṭhira | sa devaḥ sā gatir nānyā kṣatriyasya tathā dvijāḥ ||
Bhīṣma said: “Just as, O Yudhiṣṭhira, in this world a woman’s dharma is understood to rest upon her husband—he alone being her deity and her highest refuge, with no other final resort—so too for a kṣatriya, service and reverence toward the brāhmaṇas is the supreme dharma. The brāhmaṇas are his deity and his highest refuge; there is no other.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma frames dharma as a relationship of acknowledged dependence and reverence: as a wife’s social-religious duty is portrayed as centered on her husband as ‘deva’ and ‘gati’, so a kṣatriya’s highest duty is to honor and serve brāhmaṇas, treating them as the primary spiritual authority and refuge.
In the Anuśāsana Parva’s instruction section, Bhīṣma continues advising Yudhiṣṭhira on proper conduct and social duties. Here he uses an analogy to emphasize the kṣatriya’s obligation to support and defer to brāhmaṇas as part of maintaining dharma in society.