Shloka 130
ज्येष्ठ-कनिष्ठ-धर्मः — Duties of Elders and Juniors
Anuśāsana-parva 108
वर्जयेद् व्यंगिनीं नारीं तथा कन्यां नरोत्तम | समार्षा व्यड्धितां चैव मातु: स्वकुलजां तथा
varjayed vyaṅginīṃ nārīṃ tathā kanyāṃ narottama | samārṣāṃ vyaḍḍhitāṃ caiva mātuḥ svakula-jāṃ tathā ||
Bhishma said: “O best of men, a man should avoid marrying a maiden who is physically defective, as well as one with excessive or abnormal bodily features; likewise he should not marry a girl whose gotra and pravara are the same as his own, nor one born in his mother’s own clan (i.e., from the maternal lineage).”
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse lays down traditional dharma-guidelines for marriage: avoid unions considered improper due to bodily abnormality/defect and, more centrally, avoid prohibited kinship matches—especially same gotra/pravara and marriage within the mother’s clan—framing marriage as a regulated social-sacral institution tied to lineage rules.
In Anushasana Parva, Bhishma instructs Yudhishthira on dharma. Here he is giving prescriptive counsel on whom one should not marry, emphasizing customary restrictions based on physical considerations and lineage (gotra/pravara and maternal kin).