Verse 9.26 [Duty towards Children]

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

प्रजनार्थं महाभागाः पूजार्हा गृहदीप्तयः ।
स्त्रियः श्रियश्च गेहेषु न विशेषोऽस्ति कश्चन ॥ २६ ॥

prajanārthaṃ mahābhāgāḥ pūjārhā gṛhadīptayaḥ |
striyaḥ śriyaśca geheṣu na viśeṣo'sti kaścana || 26 ||

There is no difference whatever between the goddess of fortune and the women who secure many blessings for the sake of bearing children, who are worthy of worship and who form the glory of their household—(26)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Question.—“In what way is the duty towards children conducive to happiness, since children are dependent upon the man himself, and women, being beset with many defects, deserve to be abandoned? And who is there who would be willing to maintain all these in his house?”

It is with a view to set aside such notions that we have the present verse.

In as much as the defects of women are capable of rectification, they are ‘worthy of worship’. When the above-mentioned verses dilated upon the defects of women, it was not with a view to discredit them, or to make people avoid them; it was done with this view that they may be guarded against evil. Simply because there are beggars, people do not give up cooking their food; or because there are deer to graze them, people do not desist from sowing seeds.

‘Bearing children’—stands for the whole series of acts beginning with conception and ending with fostering and bringing them up: as is going to be said below (27)—‘Begetting of children and nourishing of those that are born’.

They are like effulgence in their home. It is well-known that there is no comfort at home, in the absence of the wife. Even when there is plenty of wealth, if the wife is absent, the household is not able to attend to the feeding and other needs of friends and relatives that may happen to come in as guests. In fact, they are as powerless as poor men.

For this reason there is no difference between the Goddess of Fortune and women in their homes.—(26)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 416);—in Madanapārijāta (p. 190);—and in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Saṃskāra, 66b).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 9.26-27)

Mahābhārata (13.40.11).—‘One who desires his own prosperity should always honour women; O Bhārata, when the woman is loved and also held in restraint, she becomes the Goddess of Prosperity herself.’