Skandapurana 4.4.16.2

4.4.16.2

the prescribed water, sacrificial grass, leaves, flowers, unbroken grains, and the like. // Awaiting the right occasion, whatever is suited to each time, / all that she presents without agitation, like one overjoyed. // She partakes of her husband's leftovers, the favoured food, fruits, and the like; / saying, ‘It is a great grace,’ she receives whatever is handed over. // And she would not eat without having distributed [shares] to the gods, ancestors, and guests, / to the household servants, to cows, and to the mendicants. // Restrained with utensils, capable, cheerful, averse to wasteful expense, / she would not observe fasting, vows, and the like unless permitted by you. // From afar she would avoid witnessing gatherings and festivities; / she would not go on pilgrimages to sacred fords, to witness marriages, or the like. // When her husband is sleeping comfortably, sitting comfortably, or amusing himself at will, / she would never awaken him, even for intimate matters. // While in her monthly course, for three nights she should not show her face at all, / nor let her voice be heard, until she is purified by bathing. // Well bathed, she gazes upon her husband's face and never upon another's; / or, meditating on her husband in her mind, she may look at the sun. // Turmeric, vermilion, red lead, kohl, / bodice, betel, auspicious ornaments, / arranging the hair in a braid, ornaments for hands and ears, and the like— / desiring longevity for her husband, a devoted wife should not discard these. // Neither with a washerwoman, nor with a logician, nor with an ascetic woman, / nor ever with an unfortunate woman does a virtuous wife make friendship. // She never converses with a woman who hates her husband; / she should never be alone, nor does she ever bathe naked. // Neither upon a mortar, nor a pestle, nor a broom, nor a grinding stone, / nor by an oil mill, nor upon the threshold should a virtuous wife ever sit. // Except at the time of intercourse, she should never display bold audacity; / wherever her husband takes delight, therein she is always loving. // This alone is the vow of women; this alone is their supreme virtue.”