Sanskrit
अधर्माभिभवात्कृष्ण प्रदुष्यन्ति कुलस्त्रियः । स्त्रीषु दुष्टासु वार्ष्णेय जायते वर्णसङ्करः ॥
adharmābhibhavāt kṛṣṇa praduṣyanti kulastriyaḥ strīṣu duṣṭāsu vārṣṇeya jāyate varṇasaṅkaraḥ
Translation
Owing to predominance of lawlessness, O Krishna, the women of the family become corrupt; women corrupted, O Vârshneya, there ariseth caste confusion;
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This step in Arjuna’s argument rests on the patriarchal, caste-based social theory of its time and place, treating women’s conduct as the mechanism by which lineage purity is preserved or lost. It’s presented here exactly as the source text has it, as part of Arjuna’s own reasoning — worth flagging honestly as a product of its historical context, and worth noting that it plays no role in Krishna’s actual teaching, which in Chapter 2 addresses the metaphysics of the self and the discipline of action, not caste or gender purity.
Concepts