Chapter 31 — Code of Woman's Behavior

Literal. The young wife asks the sannyasi for guidance. He explains, at length, the code of female behavior drawn from the Kashi Khand of the Skanda Purana — Lopamudra and Brihaspati's discourse. The code is detailed: when to bathe, when to apply halad-kunkum, what foods are forbidden, how to behave in monthly course, etc. The discourse is presented in the chapter without metacommentary; it is what was held to be the right code in the source tradition.

Symbolic. Codification of normative behavior is itself an act of pastoral teaching — though much of the content is by modern standards archaic and exclusionary. The book preserves it; this treatise notes it without endorsing it.

Honest scope note. The content of this chapter (and parts of 32, 36, 37) reflects 15th-century normative codes around caste and gender that are not endorsed by this treatise. Their inclusion here is to faithfully describe the source. A reader writing from this material in 2026 or later should engage critically with this content rather than reproducing it.