What are the attributes of pativrata stree?

Question

What are the attributes of patrivrata stree? How can we identify a pativrata stree?

Answer 1

As per vAlmiki rAmAyaNa ayodhyakhanda ch. 117 & ch. 118 :

"Highly fortunate worlds await those women, await those women, to whom their husband is dear no matter whether he lives in a city or in a forest; whether he is sinful or virtuous." २-११७-२२

"O, venerable woman! Even if my husband be without fortune, he should unhesitatingly be obeyed by me." २-११८-३

"To women of noble nature, the husband is the highest deity no mater whether he is ill-behaved or licentious or devoid of riches." २-११७-२३

"Those evil women, whose hearts follow their passions and conduct themselves dominating their husband, having no understanding of virtue and vice, do not follow him in the aforesaid manner." २-११७-२५

As per mahAbhArata vanaparva CCXXXI

• But the wife should never do the least injury to her lord.
• Keeping aside vanity, and controlling desire and wrath, I always serve with devotion the sons of Pandu with their wives.
• Restraining jealousy, with deep devotion of heart, without a sense of degradation at the services I perform, I wait upon my husbands.
• Ever fearing to utter what is evil or false, or to look or sit or walk with impropriety, or cast glances indicative of the feelings of the heart, do I serve the sons of Pritha--those mighty warriors blazing like the sun or fire, and handsome as the moon, those endued with fierce energy and prowess, and capable of slaying their foes by a glance of the eye.
• I never bathe or eat or sleep till he that is my husband hath bathed or eaten or slept,--till, in fact, our attendants have bathed, eaten, or slept.
• Whether returning from the field, the forest, or the town, hastily rising up I always salute my husband with water and a seat.
• I always keep the house and all household articles and the food that is to be taken well-ordered and clean.
• Carefully do I keep the rice, and serve the food at the proper time.
• I never indulge in angry and fretful speech, and never imitate women that are wicked.
• I never laugh except at a jest, and never stay for any length of time at the house-gate.
• I never stay long in places for answering calls of nature, nor in pleasure-gardens attached to the house.
• I always refrain from laughing loudly and indulging in high passion, and from everything that may give offence.
• When my husband leaveth home for the sake of any relative, then renouncing flowers and fragrant paste of every kind, I begin to undergo penances.
• Whatever my husband drinketh not, whatever my husband eateth not, whatever my husband enjoyeth not, I ever renounce.
• O beautiful lady, decked in ornaments and ever controlled by the instruction imparted to me, I always devotedly seek the good of my lord.
• I never, in sleeping or eating or adorning any person, act against the wishes of my lord, and always guided by my husbands, I never speak ill of my mother-in-law.
• Never do I show any preference for myself over her in matters of food and attire, and never do I reprove in words that princess equal unto the Earth herself in forgiveness.
• And those bulls among the Bharatas, throwing upon me the burden of looking after all those that were to be fed by them, would, O thou of handsome face, pay their court to me. And this load, so heavy and incapable of being borne by persons of evil heart, I used to bear day and night, sacrificing my ease, and all the while affectionately devoted to them.
• And while my husbands were engaged in the pursuit of virtue, I only supervised their treasury inexhaustible like the ever-filled receptacle of Varuna.

padmapurANa bhumIkhanDa ch. 47

Both the parents get the (fruit of the) sin which a daughter, living in her father’s house, commits. Therefore an able (i.e. a grown up) daughter is not kept in his house (by the father). She should get nourishment in the house of him to whom she is given. She, living there, should devoutly win over her virtuous husband. The family becomes famous; the father lives happily.

shivapurANa rudrasamhita pArvatIkhanda ch. 54

72. O gentle lady, the chaste ladies can be divided into four classes. Even when they are remembered they dispel sins. The divisions comprise of the superior etc.

73. They are superior, middling, inferior and very inferior. I shall explain their characteristics. Listen with attention.

74. O gentle lady, she whose mind is not aware of any one else and who is conscious of her husband even in her dreams is the noblest of all.

75. O daughter of the mountain, she who sees another man as her father, brother or son with a clean conscience is the middling among chaste ladies.

76. O Pārvatī, she who ponders over her duty mentally and desists from going astray is inferior among the chaste. Of course she is pure in conduct.

77. She who remains chaste for fear of her husband or the family is very inferior among the chaste ladies, so say the ancient poets.

78. O Pārvatī, these four types of chaste ladies dispel sins. They sanctify all the worlds. They are delighted here and hereafter.