[1207] The husband, because he supports the wife, is called
Bhartri, and, because he protects her, he is on that account called Pati.
When these two functions disappear from him, he ceases to be both Bhartri
and Pati.[1208] Then again woman can commit no fault. It is man only that
commits faults. By perpetrating an act of adultery, the man only becomes
stained with guilt.[1209] It has been said that the husband is the
highest object with the wife and the highest deity to her. My mother gave
up her sacred person to one that came to her in the form and guise of her
husband. Women can commit no fault. It is man who becomes stained with
fault. Indeed, in consequence of the natural weakness of the sex as
displayed in every act, and their liability to solicitation, women cannot
be regarded as offenders. Then again the sinfulness (in this case) is
evident of Indra himself who (by acting in the way he did) caused the
recollection of the request that had been made to him in days of yore by
woman (when a third part of the sin of Brahmanicide of which Indra
himself was guilty was cast upon her sex). There is no doubt that my
mother is innocent. She whom I have been commanded to slay is a woman.
That woman is again my mother. She occupies, therefore, a place of
greater reverence. The very beasts that are irrational know that the
mother is unslayable. The sire must be known to be a combination of all
the deities together. To the mother, however, attaches a combination of
all mortal creatures and all the deities.
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