Duties of the Chaste wife – Shiva Purana

In chapter 54 of Parvati Khanda in shiva Purana, description of the duties of the chaste wife have been narrated.
Duties of the chaste wife:

1. A chaste lady sanctifies the worlds, destroys sins, and is blessed. No one else is so worthy of respect.
2. She who serves her husband with love and enjoys all pleasures here and obtains salvation hereafter along with her husband.
3. A chaste lady shall take food only after her husband has taken it.
4. When he sleeps, she can also sleep. But she must intelligently wake up before him. She shall do what is beneficial to him. She shall love him without any sort of deception.
5. She shall never show herself unembellished to him.
6. If for any important work, he is on exile she shall never adorn herself.
7. A chaste lady shall never mention her husband’s name. If the husband scolds or rebukes her she shall not abuse him in return.
8. When called by him she shall leave the work she is engaged in and approach him immediately.
9. She shall not stand near the entrance for a long time. She shall not go to other people’s house. She shall not take his money, even though it be a little, and give it to others.
10. Without being told she shall arrange the necessary requisites for his daily worship. She shall wait for the opportunity to do him a timely service.
11. Without the permission of her husband, she shall not go even on pilgrimage. She shall eschew the desire to attend social festivities.
12. She shall partake of the leavings of her husband’s food or whatever is given by him saying “This is thy great grace.”
13. She shall never take food without first offering due share to the gods, the Pitṛs, the guests, the servants, cows, and saintly mendicants.
14. A gentle lady of chaste rites shall always be clever to manage the household with limited requisites. She shall be averse to spend unnecessarily.
15. Without being permitted by her husband she shall not observe fast and other rites.
16. While the husband is sportively engaged or seated comfortably, she shall not worry him to get up under the pretext of attending to some household work.
17. Whether he is impotent, distressed, sick or senile, happy, or unhappy, the husband shall never be transgressed.
18. If a chaste lady wishes for the longevity of her husband, she shall not forsake turmeric, vermilion, saffron, collyrium, a blouse, the betel, the necklace, ornaments, brushing and plaiting the hair bangles and earrings.
19. A chaste woman shall never associate intimately with a washerwoman, a harlot, a female ascetic, or a fallen woman.
20. She shall not talk to any woman who disparages or hates her husband. She shall not stand alone anywhere, nor shall she take bath in the nude.
21. A chaste lady shall never sleep on a mortar threshing rod, a broom, a grinding stone, a machine or on the threshold.
22. A chaste lady shall be delighted when her husband is delighted and dejected when he is dejected. She shall always wish for his benefit.
23. She shall be virtuous and equanimous in affluence and adversity. She shall have fortitude and shall never go astray.
24. Even when ghee, salt, oil or other things are exhausted she shall not tell her husband openly about it lest he should be subjected to undue strain.
25. She should avoid slanderous words, shun quarrels, and shall not speak aloud or laugh in the presence of elders.
26. She who delights her husband delights all the worlds. When she sees her husband coming home, she shall hasten to serve him food and water, hand him betel and change of garments, and serve him by massaging his feet. By pleasing words, she shall fascinate him and dispel his gloom.
27. What father gives is limited, what brother gives is limited and what the son gives is also limited. A chaste lady shall worship her husband who gives what has no limit.
28. To a wife the husband is God, preceptor, virtue, holy centre and sacred rite. She should cast off everything and adore him alone.
29. The mother, the father and the husband are blessed if there is a chaste lady in the house.
30. The three families—that of the father, that of the mother and that of the husband—enjoy the pleasures of heaven due to the merit of the chaste woman.
31. Disloyal women cause the downfall of the three families, that of the father, mother and husband and become distressed here and hereafter.
32. Wife is the root of the household, and of its happiness; she is the source of the fruit of virtue and for the flourishing of the family.
33. In every house there are women proud of their exquisite beauty and comely appearance. But it is only due to the devotion of Shiva that a chaste lady is obtained.
34. The present and the next world can be won through her. A wifeless man is not authorized to perform the rites of gods, Pitṛs guests and sacrifices.
35. He alone is the true householder in whose house there is a chaste lady. The others are devoured by an ogress or old age.
36. Just as the body is purified by a plunge in the Ganga, so everything is sanctified on seeing a chaste woman.
37. The husband is austerity, and the woman is forbearance. The husband is the fruit, and the wife is a sacred rite.

The chaste ladies can be divided into four classes - superior, middling, inferior, and very inferior. Their characteristics are:

1. She whose mind is not aware of anyone else and who is conscious of her husband even in her dreams is the noblest of all.
2. She who sees another man as her father, brother or son with a clean conscience is the middling among chaste ladies.
3. She who ponders over her duty mentally and desists from going astray is inferior among the chaste. Of course, she is pure in conduct.
4. She who remains chaste for fear of her husband, or the family is very inferior among the chaste ladies.

These four types of chaste ladies dispel sins. They sanctify all the worlds. They are delighted here and hereafter.
 
Spiritual Significance:

1. The chastity of a wife has strong power to get the things done which are not possible otherwise. A brahmin who died due to the curse of Varaha (Boar), was at the request of the three deities, resuscitated by Atri’s wife (Anasuya), thanks to the power of chastity.
2. The instructions are not static, but are always dynamic to the situation and time.