Shloka 21
Strī-satkāra (On honoring women) — Mahābhārata 13.46
राजन! यदि स्त्रियाँ साथ्वी एवं पतिव्रता हों तो बड़ी सौभाग्यशालिनी होती हैं। संसारमें उनका आदर होता है और वे सम्पूर्ण जगत्की माता समझी जाती हैं। इतना ही नहीं, वे अपने पातित्रत्यके प्रभावसे वन और काननोंसहित इस सम्पूर्ण पृथ्वीको धारण करती हैं ।। असाध्व्यश्षापि दुर्वत्ता: कुलघ्ना: पापनिश्चया: । विज्ञेया लक्षणैर्दुष्टे: स्वगात्रसहजैर्नूप
rājan! yadi striyaḥ sādhvya evaṃ pativratāḥ syuḥ, tadā mahāsaubhāgyavatyo bhavanti. saṃsāre tāḥ pūjyante ca sarvajagato mātara iva manyante. na kevalam etat—tāḥ svapātivratyaprabhāvena vanakānanaiḥ saha imāṃ sarvāṃ pṛthivīṃ dhārayanti. asādhvyaś cāpi durvṛttāḥ kulaghnāḥ pāpaniścayāḥ; vijñeyā lakṣaṇair duṣṭaiḥ svagātrasahajair nṛpa.
Vipula said: “O King, when women are truly virtuous and devoted to their husbands, they become exceedingly fortunate. The world honors them and regards them as mothers of all beings. More than this, by the power of their chastity they uphold this entire earth together with its forests and groves. But women who are not virtuous—of corrupt conduct, destroyers of family welfare, and resolved upon sin—are to be recognized, O ruler, by the inborn marks of their own bodies and by the signs of their wickedness.”
विपुल उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse contrasts the social and spiritual power attributed to virtuous, faithful wives—who are honored as universal mothers and said to sustain the world through pātivratya—with the warning that immoral, family-destroying, sin-resolved conduct should be identified and avoided.
Vipula addresses a king in an instructive tone, offering a moral classification of women based on conduct: praising sādhvī-pativratā women and cautioning the ruler about recognizing and guarding against asādhvī, durvṛttā women who harm family and dharma.