Shloka 37
पापात्म-धर्मात्म-लक्षणम् तथा निर्वेदेन मोक्षमार्गः | Marks of the Sinful and the Righteous; Dispassion (Nirveda) as a Path to Liberation
भरणाद्धि स्त्रियों भर्ता पालनाद्धि पतिस्तथा । गुणस्यास्य निवृत्ती तु न भर्ता न पुन: पति:
bharaṇād dhi striyo bhartā pālanād dhi patis tathā | guṇasyāsya nivṛttī tu na bhartā na punaḥ patiḥ ||
Bhishma said: A man is called a ‘supporter’ (bhartā) because he maintains his wife, and he is called a ‘husband/lord’ (pati) because he protects and cares for her. But when this defining virtue is absent—when he neither maintains nor protects—he deserves neither title: he is truly neither bhartā nor pati.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Titles like bhartā (maintainer) and pati (protector) are earned through conduct—providing and safeguarding—not granted merely by marriage or social convention. Without these duties, the moral basis for the titles collapses.
In the Shanti Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhishma is teaching norms of household and social ethics, defining a husband’s legitimacy by his responsibility to maintain and protect his wife.