Devayānī and Śarmishṭhā

Devayānī-Śarmishṭhā · devayānī śarmishṭhā, “Devayānī and Śarmishṭhā”

Devayānī, the daughter of Śukrācārya, the guru of the dānavas, and Śarmishṭhā, the daughter of Vṛshaparvā, king of the rākshasas, are the two wives of King Yayāti, son of Nahusha. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells their account when King Parīkshit asks Śuka Maharshi how Yayāti, a kshatriya, came to marry the daughter of a brahmarshi.

At a lake in the city garden, Śarmishṭhā put on Devayānī’s garment by mistake. Devayānī reviled her, and Śarmishṭhā, stung by her words, pushed her into a well. Yayāti, out hunting, came to the well by the will of Īśvara and drew her out by the hand, and Devayānī declared that no other man could now take her hand. When Śukrācārya left the city in sorrow, Vṛshaparvā bowed at his feet, and Śarmishṭhā with her thousand companions became Devayānī’s dāsī. Śukrācārya gave Devayānī to Yayāti and warned him never to unite with Śarmishṭhā. Yet Śarmishṭhā bore him three sons, Druhyu, Anu and Pūru, as Devayānī bore Yadu and Turvasu, and when Devayānī went back to her father in anger, Śukrācārya pronounced a śāpa of old age on Yayāti. Of the five sons only Pūru, the youngest, took his father’s old age and gave him his youth. In the end Yayāti returned the youth, crowned Pūru, and went to the forest, and Devayānī too gave up every attachment and merged in Īśvara.

The house of Nahusha

Śuka tells that Nahusha, the son of Āyu, had six sons, as embodied beings have six indriyas (senses): Yati, Yayāti, Saṃyāti, Āyati, Niyati and Kṛti. Nahusha gave the kingdom to the eldest, Yati, but Yati did not want it, for one who enters the affairs of a kingdom cannot know the true nature of the ātmā. When Nahusha, for desiring Śacī Devī, the wife of Indra, fell from the seat of Indra by the śāpa of Agastya and the other maharshis and became a python, Yayāti became king. He set his four younger brothers to rule the people in the four directions. He married the daughter of Śukrācārya and the daughter of Vṛshaparvā, the rākshasa-king, and ruled the kingdom.

Parīkshit asked: “The worshipful Śukrācārya is a brahmarshi, and Yayāti, son of Nahusha, is a kshatriya. What was the reason for this reversed marriage of a king with a brāhmaṇa maiden?” Śuka answered with this account.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 18

The quarrel at the lake

Vṛshaparvā had a young daughter famous as Śarmishṭhā. One day that beautiful girl, followed by a thousand companions, was sporting in the city garden with Devayānī, the daughter of Śukrācārya. The garden was thick with flowering trees; lotuses bloomed in its lakes, and the sandbanks echoed with the humming of the bees. The lotus-eyed maidens left their garments on the bank and played in the lake, splashing water on one another.

Just then Bhagavān Śiva, Kailāsapati, passing by with Devī Pārvatī on the divine vāhana Nandī, came into their sight. At once they came to the bank and covered themselves. In the hurry Śarmishṭhā did not recognise Devayānī’s sārī, and thinking it her own, she put it on.

Devayānī was very angry. “See the improper thing she has done!” she said. “As a she-dog touches the havis in a yajña, she has put on the garment that is ours to wear. The knowers of the Veda created this world by the power of their tapas; they are the mouth-form of Purushottama, they hold Parabrahma in their hearts, and they show the people the auspicious path of the Veda. The lokapālas, the best of the devas, bow to them and praise them, and so does Bhagavān Śrī Hari, the dwelling place of Lakshmī, who purifies the worlds. Even among such brāhmaṇas we are of the Bhṛgu line, and her father Vṛshaparvā is our disciple. This wicked one has put on our garment, as one unfit for the Veda would take up the Veda.”

Śarmishṭhā, insulted, bit her lower lip and sighed long like a snake. “O Devayānī! You are a beggar-woman,” she said. “Without knowing how you earn your living, you chatter too much. Are you not one who waits, like the crows and the dogs, for the food we throw out at our house?” Though Devayānī, as Śukrācārya’s daughter, was worthy of reverence, Śarmishṭhā reviled her with these harsh words, pulled away her garment and pushed her into a well. Then she went home.

Yayāti at the well

Meanwhile Yayāti, out hunting, by the will of Īśvara and by chance, came to that well to quench his thirst and saw Devayānī. The compassionate king gave her his upper cloth, for she had no garment, took her hand in his hand and drew her up.

Devayānī spoke to him with words full of love: “O king who conquers the cities of enemies! You have taken my hand. No other man may take the hand you have taken. This bond of ours is made by Īśvara, not by men, for it is by the will of Īśvara that I, lying in the well, had your darśana. O king of great arms! Kaca, the son of Bṛhaspati, once pronounced a śāpa on me that my marriage would not be with a brāhmaṇa, and I pronounced a śāpa on him in turn, that the vidyā he had learned would not bear fruit for him.” Yayāti understood that Īśvara himself had brought about this bond he had not sought, and that his own mind was fixed on her, and he accepted her word.

Śukrācārya leaves the city

After Yayāti left, Devayānī came weeping to her father and told him everything Śarmishṭhā had said and done. Śukrācārya‘s mind was troubled. He condemned the life of a purohita and praised as better the uñchavṛtti, living like the pigeons on grains fallen in the fields, and with his daughter he left the city.

King Vṛshaparvā thought that Śukrācārya meant to join the devas, his enemies, and give them counsel. At once, to win back his favour, he met him on the road and bowed his head at his feet. The anger of the worshipful Śukrācārya lasts only half a moment. He said: “O king! Fulfil the wish of this Devayānī. I have not the strength to leave this motherless girl uncared for.” Vṛshaparvā agreed and waited, and Devayānī spoke her mind: “When I go to the house of the one to whom my father gives me in marriage, Śarmishṭhā must come with me, together with her companions.” Śarmishṭhā saw that harm would come to her father if Śukrācārya left the kingdom, and that keeping him was a matter of great weight for its stability. With her thousand companions she served Devayānī like a dāsī.

The marriage and the sons

Śukrācārya gave Devayānī in marriage to Yayāti, son of Nahusha, and Śarmishṭhā went with her. Then Śukrācārya said to Yayāti: “O king! Never have union with Śarmishṭhā.”

In time Devayānī had children. Śarmishṭhā, seeing this, one day in a lonely place chose Yayāti, the husband of her friend, and asked him for a child. Yayāti weighed the dharma and remembered Śukrācārya’s warning, yet at that time he thought it the decree of daiva. To Devayānī were born Yadu and Turvasu; to Śarmishṭhā were born Druhyu, Anu and Pūru.

When Devayānī came to know that Śarmishṭhā had borne children by her husband, that proud woman, seized by anger, went away to her father’s house. Yayāti loved Devayānī and followed her, trying on the way to win her over with kind words, by touching her feet and by helping her on the road, but he failed.

Śukrācārya’s śāpa and Pūru’s youth

Śukrācārya said to Yayāti in anger: “O fool! Your greed for women is great, and you do not shrink from speaking untruth. May old age, which deforms men, enter you!” Yayāti said: “O Maharshi! I am not yet satisfied with the pleasures I have enjoyed with your daughter.” Śukrācārya answered: “Whoever agrees to exchange his youth with you, with him you may exchange your old age as you wish.”

Yayāti said to his eldest son Yadu: “O son! Take this old age that your grandfather has given me, and give me your youth, for I am not yet satisfied with the enjoyments of the senses.” Yadu answered: “I have no wish to take the old age that has come to you in middle age and live as an old man. Without enjoying the pleasures of the senses, a man does not gain vairāgya (detachment).” Turvasu, Druhyu and Anu also refused, for they did not know dharma and held youth, which does not last, to be lasting.

Pūru, the youngest, small in age but great in virtues, was told: “O son! It is not fitting for you to refuse me like your elder brothers.” Pūru answered: “O Mahārāja! Is there anyone in the world who can repay the debt of the father who gave him birth? By the father’s grace the son gains the highest good. The son who does what is in his father’s mind without its being said is the best; the one who does what the father says is middling; the one who does it without śraddhā is the lowest; and the one who does not do it at all is like the father’s dirt.” Saying this, Pūru joyfully took on his father’s old age, and Yayāti, with Pūru’s youth, enjoyed the pleasures he wished.

Yayāti was lord of seven dvīpas and ruled the people like a father. Devayānī, every day in private, gave him delight beyond all with her love, her sweet words and her service. He worshipped Śrī Hari, the Yajñeśvara, of whom all the devatās and the Vedas are forms, with kratus rich in dakshiṇā, holding in his heart Nārāyaṇa, who dwells in the secret place of the heart of all beings. Yet though he enjoyed the pleasures of desire for thousands of years, he did not reach contentment.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 18

The return of the youth

At last Yayāti saw that the true nature of the ātmā is covered by enjoyments, and he became free of attachment. He told Devayānī the gīti of the he-goat and the she-goat in the well, and his verses on desire, which grows with enjoyment as fire grows when ghee is poured on it. Then desires left him. He gave Pūru back his youth and took back his own old age. He made Druhyu lord of the south-east, Yadu of the south, Turvasu of the west and Anu of the north, consecrated Pūru as samrāṭ over them all, and went to the forest. There, as a bird whose wings have grown leaves its nest, he gave up all attachment, burned the liṅga-deha (the subtle body) with the fire of jñāna, and merged in Parabrahma.

Devayānī’s release

Hearing the gīti, Devayānī at first thought Yayāti was reproaching her; then she saw that he had told it as if in jest, to spare her the distress that comes when the love of husband and wife meets separation. She saw that the company of father and husband is like travellers meeting at a water-shed, and that this world is false like a dream. She gave up attachment to husband, sons, kingdom and all else, filled her mind wholly with Śrī Kṛshṇa, and merged in Īśvara. Her namaskāra was:

• “O Śrī Hari! You alone are the mass of consciousness who grants existence and light to the whole world.”
• “It is you who created the world and became the refuge of all beings.”
• “You are the tattva of peace beyond the stream of the guṇas.”
• “To you, beyond the limits of place and time, many namaskāras.”

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapter 19

Sources

• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 9, Chapters 18–19