Shloka 29

Prāyaścitta and Contextual Non-Culpability (प्रायश्चित्त-निमित्त-अदोषवाद)

Devanagari script

भोजन हान्तराशुद्ध॑ चातुर्मास्ये विधीयते । स्त्रियस्तेन प्रशुध्यन्ति इति धर्मविदो विदु:,चौमासेमें एक दिनका अन्तर देकर भोजन करनेका विधान है। उसके पालनसे स्त्रियाँ शुद्ध हो जाती हैं, ऐसा धर्मज्ञ पुरुषोंका कथन है

Transliteration

bhojanāntarāśuddhaṃ cāturmāsye vidhīyate | striyastena praśudhyanti iti dharmavido viduḥ ||

Translation

Vyāsa said: During the Cāturmāsya observance, a rule is prescribed concerning purity through spacing one’s meals—eating with an interval. The learned in dharma state that, by following this discipline, women become ritually purified.

Word by Word

भोजनम्eating/meal (as a practice)

अह्न्तराशुद्धम्purified by an interval of a day (i.e., with a day’s gap)

चातुर्मास्येin the four-month period (cāturmāsya observance)

विधीयतेis prescribed/ordained

स्त्रियःwomen

तेनby that/thereby

प्रशुध्यन्तिbecome purified

इतिthus/so (quotative)

धर्मविदःknowers of dharma

विदुःknow/declare

Speaker

व्यास उवाच

Characters & Entities

Vyāsa

women (striyaḥ)

Cāturmāsya (four-month observance)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Cross References

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse teaches that during Cāturmāsya, dharma prescribes a disciplined pattern of eating—taking meals with an interval—as a means of maintaining or restoring ritual purity, specifically noting its purificatory effect for women according to dharma authorities.

What is happening in the narrative?

Within the didactic discourse of the Śānti Parva, Vyāsa states a rule of religious observance: in the Cāturmāsya period, one should follow a regulated practice of eating with a gap between meals, and tradition holds that this observance brings about purification.