Shloka 22
Chatra–Upānah Dāna: Origin Narrative
Jamadagni–Reṇukā–Sūrya Saṃvāda
प्ूरुर्वाच चिकित्सायां प्रचरतु भार्यया चैव पुष्यतु । श्वशुरात्तस्य वृत्ति: स्थाद् यस्ते हरति पुष्करम्
pūrur uvāca cikitsāyāṃ pracaratu bhāryayā caiva puṣyatu | śvaśurāt tasya vṛttiḥ syād yas te harati puṣkaram ||
पूरु बोले—जिसने तुम्हारा कमल चुराया है, वह चिकित्सा का व्यवसाय करे; पत्नी की कमाई पर पले; और उसकी जीविका ससुराल पर निर्भर रहे।
धुन्धुमार उवाच
Educational Q&A
Wrongdoing (here, theft) is met with a corrective social-ethical consequence: the offender is assigned a life of dependence and diminished status, emphasizing deterrence and moral reform rather than violent retribution.
Within Dhundhumāra’s discourse, a cited statement attributed to Pūru prescribes how the person who stole a lotus should live—by practicing medicine and subsisting on his wife’s earnings and his father-in-law’s support—framing the response as a socially humiliating penalty.