Shloka 20
उपवासविधि-प्रश्नः
Inquiry into the Discipline of Fasting
भ्रातुर्भार्या च तद्धत् स्थाद् यस्या बाल्ये स्तनं पिबेत्
bhrātur bhāryā ca taddhat syād yasyā bālye stanaṃ pibet
Bhīṣma dit : «Et l’épouse du frère doit être tenue pour sa propre mère, surtout si, dans l’enfance, on a bu le lait de son sein.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches a rule of dharma: a brother’s wife is to be treated with the reverence due to a mother, with an added emphasis when she has acted as a wet-nurse in one’s childhood—thereby strengthening the ethical boundary against impropriety and affirming kinship-respect.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma is instructing Yudhiṣṭhira on norms of righteous conduct. Here he states a specific familial ethic: the brother’s wife is to be regarded as mother-like, particularly if she nursed the person as a child.