One should sit facing either the east or the north while undergoing a shave at the hands of the barber. By so doing, O great king, one succeeds in acquiring a long life. One should never indulge in other people's calumny or self-reproach, for, O chief of the Bharatas, it is said that calumny is sinful, whether of others or of oneself. In wedding, one should avoid a woman that is deficient of any limb. A maiden too, if such, should also be avoided. A woman of the same Pravaras should also be avoided; as also one that has any malformation; as also one that has been born in the race to which one's mother belongs.[480] One possessed of wisdom should never have sexual congress with a woman that is old, or one that has abandoned the domestic mode of life for entering the forest mode, or one that is true to her lord, or one whose organs of generation are not healthy or well-formed.[481] It behoveth thee not to wed a woman that is of a yellow complexion, or one that is afflicted with leprosy, or one born in a family in which there has been epilepsy, or one that is low in birth and habits, or one that is born in a family in which the disease called Switra (leprosy) has appeared, or one belonging by birth to a race in which there are early deaths. Only that maiden who is endued with auspicious indications, and who is accomplished for qualifications of diverse kinds, who is agreeable and handsome, should be wedded. One should wed, O Yudhishthira, in a family that is higher or at least equal to one's own. One who is desirous of one's own prosperity, should never wed a woman that is of an inferior order or that has fallen away from the order of her birth. Carefully igniting the fire, one should accomplish all those acts which have been ordained and declared in the Vedas or by the Brahmanas.[482] One should never seek to injure women. Spouses should always be protected. Malice always shortens life. Hence, one should always abstain from cherishing malice.Mbh 13.104.2n · Mahabharata · ANUSASANA PARVA
Mbh 13.104.2n
Mahabharata · translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli
Themes in this passage
FamilyDharmaThe DivineHealingLeadershipLonelinessMarriageNature
Family in other traditions
The same theme, as Christianity, Islam, Hellenism and Taoism address it.
The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.Luke 12:53 · Bible · Luke
Unto the men (of a family) belongeth a share of that which parents and near kindred leave, and unto the women a share of that which parents and near kindred leave, whether it be little or much - a legal share.Quran 4:7 · Quran · Women
“O wretched husband of a wretched wife! Born with one fate, to one unhappy life! For sure one star its baneful beam display’d On Priam’s roof, and Hippoplacia’s shade. From different parents, different climes we came. At different periods, yet our fate the same! Why was my birth to great Aëtion owed, And why was all that tender care bestow’d? Would I had never been!—O thou, the ghost Of my dead husband! miserably lost! Thou to the dismal realms for ever gone! And I abandon’d, desolate, alone! An only child, once comfort of my pains, Sad product now of hapless love, remains! No more to smile upon his sire; no friend To help him now! no father to defend! For should he ’scape the sword, the common doom, What wrongs attend him, and what griefs to come! Even from his own paternal roof expell’d, Some stranger ploughs his patrimonial field. The day, that to the shades the father sends, Robs the sad orphan of his father’s friends: He, wretched outcast of mankind! appears For ever sad, for ever bathed in tears; Amongst the happy, unregarded, he Hangs on the robe, or trembles at the knee, While those his father’s former bounty fed Nor reach the goblet, nor divide the bread: The kindest but his present wants allay, To leave him wretched the succeeding day. Frugal compassion! Heedless, they who boast Both parents still, nor feel what he has lost, Shall cry, ‘Begone! thy father feasts not here:’ The wretch obeys, retiring with a tear. Thus wretched, thus retiring all in tears, To my sad soul Astyanax appears! Forced by repeated insults to return, And to his widow’d mother vainly mourn: He, who, with tender delicacy bred, With princes sported, and on dainties fed, And when still evening gave him up to rest, Sunk soft in down upon the nurse’s breast, Must—ah what must he not? Whom Ilion calls Astyanax, from her well-guarded walls,[279] Is now that name no more, unhappy boy! Since now no more thy father guards his Troy.Iliad 22.46a · Iliad · 22
When the mother is found, we know what her children should be. When one knows that he is his mother's child, and proceeds to guard (the qualities of) the mother that belong to him, to the end of his life he will be free from all peril.Tao Te Ching 52.2 · Tao Te Ching
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