Shloka 4
अबुद्धिपूर्वकपापविमोचनप्रश्नः — Janamejaya’s Unintended Transgression and the Indrota Rebuke
अग्निसाक्षिकमित्येव भर्ता वै दैवतं परम् । दावाग्निनेव निर्दग्धा सपुष्पस्तबका लता
agnisākṣikam ity eva bhartā vai daivataṁ param | dāvāgnineva nirdagdhā sapuṣpastabakā latā ||
अग्निसाक्षिकमित्येव भर्ता वै दैवतं परम् । दावाग्निनेव निर्दग्धा सपुष्पस्तबका लता ॥
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
Bhīṣma underscores the sanctity of marriage as a vow made with Agni as witness, and frames the husband as the wife’s highest religious focus within that dharma-ideal; the simile of a blossoming creeper burned by wildfire conveys the total devastation that follows when that marital support is destroyed.
In Śānti Parva’s instruction on dharma, Bhīṣma is explaining norms and ideals connected with marriage and a wife’s conduct; he uses a vivid image—an ornamented, flowering vine consumed by a forest-fire—to describe a woman’s ruinous suffering or collapse when the marital bond (and its protector) is lost or violated.