Shloka 21

Devanagari script

भद्रोवाच नारी परमधर्मज्ञ सर्वा भर्तृविनाकृता । पतिं विना जीवति या न सा जीवति दुःखिता,भद्रा बोली--परमधर्मज्ञ महाराज! जो कोई भी विधवा स्त्री पतिके बिना जीवन धारण करती है, वह निरन्तर दु:खमें डूबी रहनेके कारण वास्तवमें जीती नहीं, अपितु मृततुल्या है

Transliteration

bhadro'vāca nārī paramadharmajña sarvā bhartṛvinākṛtā | patiṁ vinā jīvati yā na sā jīvati duḥkhitā ||

Translation

भद्रा बोली—हे परमधर्मज्ञ राजन्! स्त्री पति से वंचित होते ही सर्वथा निराधार हो जाती है। जो पति के बिना जीती है, वह दुःख में डूबी होने से वास्तव में जीती नहीं; वह तो मृततुल्य ही है।

Word by Word

भद्राBhadra

उवाचsaid/spoke

नारीO woman

परमधर्मज्ञO knower of the highest dharma

सर्वाevery (woman)

भर्तृविनाकृताmade without a husband; bereft of husband

पतिम्husband

विनाwithout

जीवतिlives

याwho (she who)

नnot

साshe

जीवतिlives

दुःखिताafflicted/sorrowful

Speaker

वैशम्पायन उवाच

Characters & Entities

Bhadrā

King (addressed as paramadharmajña)

Woman (nārī)

Husband (bhartṛ/pati)

Character Dynamics

Dharma Sankata (Moral Dilemma)

Verse Rasa (Emotional Essence)

Philosophical Teaching

Political Layer

Meter (Chandas)

Sandhi Notes

Educational Q&A

What is the core teaching?

The verse voices a traditional dharma-based view that a woman’s life is socially and emotionally bound to her husband; without him, her existence is portrayed as overwhelmed by grief and lacking fullness. It reflects the epic’s exploration of duty, dependence, and the human cost of loss.

What is happening in the narrative?

Bhadra addresses a king praised as a knower of dharma and makes a pointed statement about the condition of a woman bereft of her husband, emphasizing the depth of sorrow and the perceived incompleteness of life after widowhood.