Kaca and Devayānī (Mahābhārata)

The Kaca and Devayānī upākhyāna (a narrative inside a larger narrative) is told in the Yayāti section of the Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva. Kaca, son of Bṛhaspati, the guru of the devas, was sent to the āśrama of Śukrācārya to learn the mṛtasañjīvanī vidyā, the knowledge that brings the dead back to life. The dānavas killed Kaca three times. Each time Śukra brought him back. The third time, the dānavas ground his body, mixed it into surā (wine) and gave it to Śukra to drink. Śukra then taught Kaca the vidyā from inside his own belly, and Kaca came out by splitting Śukra’s side and healed his guru.

At the end, Devayānī asked Kaca to marry her. He refused, because she was his guru’s daughter and so like a sister to him. They parted with a śāpa (a curse) from each side.

The mission of Kaca

The devas and the dānavas were always at war. When a deva warrior fell in battle, Śukrācārya, the guru of the asuras, revived him with the mṛtasañjīvanī, a secret vidyā that can give life back to the dead. The devas had no such knowledge. Bṛhaspati, their guru, did not have this vidyā. So the dānavas had a clear advantage.

Bṛhaspati sent his son Kaca to Śukrācārya’s āśrama. He told Kaca to go to the great guru with humility and learn the mṛtasañjīvanī. Bṛhaspati knew it would be dangerous, but there was no other way.

Kaca reached the āśrama and bowed before Śukrācārya. He was accepted as a student with the proper formalities. He did his duties faithfully. He tended the sacred fire, gathered fuel and flowers, and served his teacher.

The three deaths of Kaca

Devayānī, Śukra’s daughter, noticed Kaca and grew very fond of him. She knew he was Bṛhaspati’s son, a young man of radiance and charm. Her affection grew as she watched him give himself to his studies and his service.

The dānavas saw the danger. If the devas gained the mṛtasañjīvanī, the asuras would lose their advantage in war. They decided that Kaca must die.

First death. The dānavas caught Kaca alone in the forest and killed him. They hid his body. Devayānī was distressed by his absence and asked her father to find him. Śukra used his vidyā and brought Kaca back to life. Kaca returned to the āśrama.

Second death. The dānavas killed Kaca again and fed his flesh to wolves and jackals. Devayānī begged her father once more. Śukra was moved by his daughter’s grief and used the vidyā again. This time he drew Kaca’s life together out of the animals that had eaten him. Kaca returned.

Third death, inside Śukra’s belly. The dānavas grew desperate. This time they ground Kaca’s body to powder, mixed the powder into surā, and brought it to Śukrācārya himself as an offering. Śukra drank it. Kaca was now inside his guru’s stomach.

Devayānī again went looking for Kaca, and Śukra again searched for him. Then Kaca’s voice came from inside Śukra’s belly: “I am here, inside you, O guru.”

Teaching from within the belly

Śukra could not see a way out. To bring Kaca out, Kaca would have to tear through Śukra’s body, and that would kill Śukra. The only answer was to give Kaca the mṛtasañjīvanī vidyā before he came out, so that Kaca could use it to revive Śukra at once.

So Śukra taught Kaca the whole mṛtasañjīvanī vidyā from inside his own belly. Nothing like this had been done before. Kaca, now holding the vidyā, came out by splitting Śukra’s side. Then he used the mṛtasañjīvanī to bring Śukra back to life and healed his guru completely.

Kaca’s mission was done and the dānavas had failed. Through Kaca, the devas would now have this knowledge.

Śukra’s śāpa on brāhmaṇas who drink surā

Śukrācārya understood that he had been tricked into drinking Kaca’s body mixed in wine. He was filled with righteous anger. He declared that from then on any brāhmaṇa who drinks surā (alcohol), knowingly or unknowingly, would be guilty of a grave pāpa (sin) equal to brahmahatyā, the killing of a brāhmaṇa. For this reason drinking surā is counted as one of the five mahāpātakas (great pāpas) for a brāhmaṇa, and its beginning lies in this episode.

Devayānī’s proposal and Kaca’s refusal

Kaca got ready to leave for svarga with the precious vidyā. Devayānī came to him with an open heart. She told him that she loved him and had loved him from the day he came. His beauty, his steadiness and his devotion to learning had won her completely. She asked him to stay, or at least to take her as his wife.

Kaca refused, gently but firmly. He said that he had lived in Śukra’s āśrama as a student, and so he was bound by āśrama dharma. Śukra was his guru, and therefore Devayānī, Śukra’s daughter, stood to him as a sister. To marry her would break the bond between guru and śishya (student), which is sacred above all. He could not accept her proposal.

Devayānī was hurt and angry. She gave Kaca a śāpa: his knowledge of the mṛtasañjīvanī would never bear fruit, and he would not be able to use the vidyā to revive anyone.

Kaca took the śāpa without anger. He gave Devayānī his good wish that she would find a worthy husband. He also gave her a śāpa in return: she would not be married to a brāhmaṇa.

What came of the two śāpas

Both śāpas came true. Kaca carried the vidyā but could never use it himself to revive anyone. Devayānī did not marry a brāhmaṇa. She married the kshatriya king Yayāti.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Ādi Parva, Yayāti Upākhyāna, Chapters 77–80