कुत एव परित्यक्तुं सुतां शक्ष्याम्य् अहं स्वयम् ॥
बालाम् अप्राप्तवयसम् अजातव्यञ्जनाकृतिम् ॥
भर्तुर् अर्थाय निक्षिप्तां न्यासं धात्रा महात्मना ॥
यस्यां दौहित्रजांल् लोकान् आशंसे पितृभिः सह ॥
स्वयम् उत्पाद्य तां बालां कथम् उत्स्रष्टुम् उत्सहे ॥
kuta eva parityaktuṃ sutāṃ śakṣyāmy ahaṃ svayam ||
bālām aprāptavayasam ajātavyañjanākṛtim ||
bhartur arthāya nikṣiptāṃ nyāsaṃ dhātrā mahātmanā ||
yasyāṃ dauhitrajāṃl lokān āśaṃse pitṛbhiḥ saha ||
svayam utpādya tāṃ bālāṃ katham utsraṣṭum utsahe ||
How then shall I myself be able to abandon my daughter -- young, not yet of age, not yet showing the signs of womanhood, placed in trust for a future husband, as a pledge from the great Creator, in whom I hope to obtain, together with my ancestors, the worlds granted by a daughter's son? Having myself begotten that little girl, how shall I dare to cast her off?
c5f7a67e69be · published Jul 12, 2026, 5:09:57 PM UTC
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Here the daughter appears as a sacred trust placed in the father's keeping. Telling is the word "pledge [of the Creator]" (nyāsa): a child is not the parent's possession but a treasure entrusted for safekeeping, to be guarded and not destroyed. Telling too is the hope placed in a "daughter's son" (dauhitra): through her offspring the brahmin hopes for benefit to his ancestors -- a daughter is a link in the chain of lineage and remembrance. Here it is revealed that parenthood is service and duty, not power: the father guards what has been entrusted to him, answerable for it before God and the ancestors. Thus the scripture shows how sacred a child is in a father's eyes; and the impossibility of betraying a daughter places her protection on equal footing with the protection of a wife.