Shloka 33
Cyavana’s Water-Vow and the Ethics of Cohabitation (स्नेह-सम्वास-धर्मः)
न तस्यां जातु तिष्ठन्त्यामन्या तत् कर्तुमहति । ब्राह्मणी त्वेव कुर्याद् वा ब्राह्मणस्य युधिष्ठिर
na tasyāṃ jātu tiṣṭhantyām anyā tat kartum arhati | brāhmaṇī tv eva kuryād vā brāhmaṇasya yudhiṣṭhira ||
भीष्म म्हणाले—हे युधिष्ठिर! ब्राह्मणी (पत्नी) उपस्थित असताना दुसऱ्या कोणत्याही स्त्रीला ती कर्तव्ये करण्याचा अधिकार नाही. ब्राह्मण पतीसाठी शास्त्रोक्त सेवा—स्नान घालणे, शृंगार-सामग्री देणे, दंतधावनासाठी दातवण-मंजन देणे, डोळ्यांत अंजन लावणे, नित्य हवन-पूजेसाठी हव्य-कव्याची सामग्री जमवणे आणि घरातील इतर धर्मकृत्यांत सहाय्य करणे—हे सर्व ब्राह्मणीनेच करावे.
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse asserts an exclusivity of household-religious service within the Brahmin household: when the Brahmin wife is present, she alone is considered entitled to perform the prescribed domestic and ritual services for her Brahmin husband, reflecting the text’s varṇāśrama-based norms of duty and propriety.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs Yudhiṣṭhira on dharma. Here he specifies a rule about who may perform certain household and ritual duties in a Brahmin home, emphasizing that these are to be done by the brāhmaṇī herself and not by another woman while she is present.