Shloka 20
Aṣṭāvakra and the Woman: Disclosure, Permission, and Marital Resolution (अनुशासन पर्व, अध्याय २२)
सअद्टावक्र उवाच स्वतन्त्रा त्वं कथं भद्रे ब्रूहि कारणमत्र वै नास्ति त्रिलोके स्त्री काचिद् या वै स्वातन्त्रयमहति
aṣṭāvakra uvāca | svatantrā tvaṁ kathaṁ bhadre brūhi kāraṇam atra vai | nāsti triloke strī kācid yā vai svātantryam arhati ||
Aṣṭāvakra dijo: «Oh noble dama, ¿cómo es que eres independiente? Dime aquí la razón. Pues en los tres mundos no hay mujer alguna que sea verdaderamente apta para vivir en completa independencia.»
सअद्टावक्र उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames a normative claim about social dependence and propriety: Aṣṭāvakra challenges the woman’s assertion of autonomy and asks her to justify it, asserting that, as a general rule in the three worlds, women are not regarded as suited for complete independence. The ethical thrust is the interrogation of social order (dharma as convention) and the grounds on which one claims freedom within it.
Within the Aṣṭāvakra–(female interlocutor) dialogue in the Anuśāsana Parva, Aṣṭāvakra addresses a woman respectfully as “bhadre” and questions how she can be ‘svatantrā’ (independent). He demands the specific reason for her situation and then states his sweeping premise that no woman in the three worlds is fit for independence, setting up the next exchange where her response would defend or explain her status.