Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 3.33.19

yatra praviṣṭam ātmānaḿ

vibudhānucarā jaguḥ

vāpyām utpala-gandhinyāḿ

kardamenopalālitam

SYNONYMS

yatra — where; praviṣṭam — entered; ātmānam — unto her; vibudha-anucarāḥ — the associates of the denizens of heaven; jaguḥ — sang; vāpyām — in the pond; utpala — of lotuses; gandhinyām — with the fragrance; kardamena — by Kardama; upalālitam — treated with great care.

TRANSLATION

When Devahūti would enter that lovely garden to take her bath in the pond filled with lotus flowers, the associates of the denizens of heaven, the Gandharvas, would sing about Kardama's glorious household life. Her great husband, Kardama, gave her all protection at all times.

PURPORT

The ideal husband-and-wife relationship is very nicely described in this statement. Kardama Muni gave Devahūti all sorts of comforts in his duty as a husband, but he was not at all attached to his wife. As soon as his son, Kapiladeva, was grown up, Kardama at once left all family connection. Similarly, Devahūti was the daughter of a great king, Svāyambhuva Manu, and was qualified and beautiful, but she was completely dependent on the protection of her husband. According to Manu, women, the fair sex, should not have independence at any stage of life. In childhood a woman must be under the protection of the parents, in youth she must be under the protection of the husband, and in old age she must be under the protection of the grown children. Devahūti demonstrated all these statements of the Manu-saḿhitā in her life: as a child she was dependent on her father, later she was dependent on her husband, in spite of her opulence, and she was later on dependent on her son, Kapiladeva.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness