Shloka 8
Devaśarmā–Vipula Dialogue on Ahorātra–Ṛtu as Moral Witnesses (अनुशासन पर्व, अध्याय ४३)
पूर्वसर्गे तु कौन्तेय साध्व्यो नार्य इहाभवन्
pūrvasarge tu kaunteya sādhvyo nārya ihābhavan | kuntīnandana! sṛṣṭike prārambhameṃ yahāṃ sab striyāṃ pativratā hī thīṃ | kṛtyārūpa duṣṭa striyāṃ to prajāpati kī is nūtana sṛṣṭise hī utpanna huī haiṃ | prajāpatine unheṃ unakī icchāke anusāra kāmabhāva pradāna kiyā |
Bhīṣma dit : «Dans la création la plus ancienne, ô fils de Kuntī, les femmes qui vivaient ici étaient vertueuses et dévouées à leurs époux. Mais les femmes mauvaises—au naturel nuisible, semblable à celui d’une “kṛtyā”—ne surgirent que dans cette création ultérieure de Prajāpati. Prajāpati, selon leur propre désir, leur accorda une nature mue par la passion.»
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames an ethical contrast between an idealized primordial order—where marital fidelity and virtuous conduct prevail—and a later emergence of morally harmful tendencies attributed to a subsequent phase of creation. It links certain behaviors to kāma (desire) and presents self-restraint and pativratā-dharma as the earlier normative ideal.
Bhīṣma, instructing Yudhiṣṭhira in Anuśāsana Parva, explains a cosmological-moral account: in the first creation women were virtuous, while in a later creation Prajāpati produced women of harmful disposition and granted them a passion-driven nature according to their own desire.