Shloka 57
Adhyaya 69 — The King’s Neglect of His Wife and the Restoration of Dharma
ऋषिरुवाच किं विस्मृतं ते यत्पत्नी त्वया त्यक्ता च कानने ।
परित्यक्तस्तया सार्धं त्वया धर्मो नृपाखिलः ॥
ṛṣir uvāca kiṃ vismṛtaṃ te yat patnī tvayā tyaktā ca kānane | parityaktas tayā sārdhaṃ tvayā dharmo nṛpākhilaḥ ||
رِشی نے کہا—کیا تم بھول گئے کہ تم نے جنگل میں اپنی بیوی کو چھوڑ دیا تھا؟ اس کے ساتھ ہی، اے راجا، تم نے پورا دھرم بھی ترک کر دیا۔
FAQs
The wife is treated as a partner in dharma (not merely a dependent). Abandoning her is framed as abandoning dharma itself—because household life, ritual continuity, and ethical order are sustained through that covenant.
Dharma/ācāra teaching inside Manvantara narrative. While not a formal pancalakṣaṇa category, Purāṇas routinely embed such normative teaching within manvantara stories.
‘Forest’ can symbolize withdrawal from ordered life into unregulated impulse. Leaving the patnī (dharma-companion) signifies severing the inner principle of steadiness and sacred responsibility.