Verse 5.154

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

पाणिग्राहस्य साध्वी स्त्री जीवतो वा मृतस्य वा ।
पतिलोकमभीप्सन्ती नाचरेत् किं चिदप्रियम् ॥ १५४ ॥

pāṇigrāhasya sādhvī strī jīvato vā mṛtasya vā |
patilokamabhīpsantī nācaret kiṃ cidapriyam || 154 ||

The good wife, desirous of reaching her husband’s regions, should never do anything that m ay be disagreeable to her husband, alive or dead.—(154).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Her husband’s regions’—The regions to which she has become entitled by the performance of religions acts in the company of her husband.

‘Being desirous’ of reaching those regions,—‘she should never do anything that might be disagreeable’; i.e., such acts as intercourse with other men and so forth, which have been forbidden by the Scriptures. It is not possible for anyone to ascertain what is agreeable or disagreeable to the dead person; it is not necessary that what was agreeable to the living would be agreeable to the dead also; because notions of pleasure and displeasure vary with the varying conditions of men. From all this it follows that what is meant by ‘disagreeable’ here is that ‘freedom of life’ which has been forbidden for women and this the good wife should avoid.—(154).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

(Verse 156 of others.)

Cf. 9.64 et seq; 9.29.

This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 193).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 5.154-163)

Yājñavalkya (l.75).—(See under 149).

Viṣṇu (25.17).—(Sec under 149).

Parāśara (4.29).—‘If, on the death of her husband, a woman remains firm in her chastity, she obtains heaven, on death, in the manner of the Religious Students.’

Āpastamba (2.23.4).—‘Those eighty thousand sages who desired offspring passed to the South by Aryaman’s road and obtained cremation. Those eighty thousand sages who desired no offspring passed to the North by Aryaman’s road and obtained immortality. Thus are praised those who keep the vow of chastity.’

Nāradīya (Parāśaramādhava, Prāyaścitta, p. 30).—‘If, through longing for pleasure, she cheats her husband, she is born as an insect for hundred births, and then as a Cāṇḍālī.’

Śukranīti (4.4.9).—‘The woman (or Śūdra) should never practise the following, without her husband (or master):—recital of hymns, penances, pilgrimages, foreign travel, reciting of mantras and worship of gods. Woman has no separate right to employ the means for attaining spiritual merit, wealth and pleasure.’

Do. (4.4.57-59).—‘On the death of her husband, the chaste woman should either accompany him or observe the vows; she should not go to other houses; she should maintain chastity, control her passions and give up personal adornment.’