Shloka 86
Gṛdhra–Jambuka Saṃvāda (Dialogue of the Vulture and the Jackal) — On Grief, Kāla, and Resolve
पतिहीना तु का नारी सती जीवितुमुत्सहेत् । “नाथ! अब तुम्हारे बिना यहाँ इस जीवनसे भी क्या प्रयोजन है? ऐसी कौन सी पतिव्रता स्त्री होगी, जो पतिके बिना जीवित रह सकेगी?
patihīnā tu kā nārī satī jīvitum utsahet |
Disse Bhīṣma: “Que mulher virtuosa, privada do marido, ainda conseguiria obrigar-se a continuar vivendo? No ideal de pativratā, o esposo é o amparo e o propósito principal da esposa; por isso, a viuvez é apresentada como uma crise ética e emocional dentro desse sistema de valores.”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse voices a classical dharma-ideal in which a wife’s fidelity and life-orientation are centered on her husband; it portrays the loss of the husband as so decisive that a ‘satī’ is imagined as scarcely able to continue living, highlighting the intensity of conjugal devotion as a moral-emotional norm in the text’s discourse.
In Bhīṣma’s instruction within the Śānti Parva, he makes a pointed rhetorical statement about the condition of a husbandless woman, using the figure of the ‘satī’ to emphasize how grievous and destabilizing widowhood is considered under the prevailing social-ethical framework being discussed.