Shloka 7
Bhīṣma’s Counsel on Reconciliation and Partition (भीष्मोपदेशः—संधि-राज्यविभागविचारः)
दुपद उवाच अधर्मो5यं मम मतो विरुद्धो लोकवेदयो: । न होका विद्यते पत्नी बहूनां द्विजसत्तम,द्रपद बोले--द्विजश्रेष्ठ! मेरी रायमें तो यह अधर्म ही है; क्योंकि यह लोक और वेद दोनोंके विरुद्ध है। बहुत-से पुरुषोंकी एक ही पत्नी हो, ऐसा व्यवहार कहीं भी नहीं है
dupada uvāca: adharmo ’yaṃ mama mato viruddho lokavedayoḥ | na hy ekā vidyate patnī bahūnāṃ dvijasattama ||
Dupada said: “In my judgment this is adharma, for it stands opposed to both common worldly practice and Vedic norm. Nowhere is it accepted, O best of Brahmins, that many men should share a single wife.”
दुपद उवाच
Educational Q&A
Dupada frames dharma as accountable to both śāstra (Veda) and accepted social practice (loka), rejecting a marital arrangement that, in his view, violates both normative authorities.
In the discussion surrounding Draupadī’s marriage, Dupada objects to the idea of one woman being wife to multiple men, calling it adharma and appealing to worldly custom and Vedic sanction.