Sumanā (Kekaya Princess)

Sumanā was the daughter of the king of the Kekayas. She appears in the Mahābhārata, in Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 123. There she meets the radiant pativratā (a wife devoted to her husband) Śāṇḍilī in devaloka (the world of the devas) and asks how Śāṇḍilī reached it. Her question draws out Śāṇḍilī’s teaching on strī-dharma (the duty of a woman). This teaching is called the Śāṇḍilī–Sumanā Saṃvāda, the dialogue of Śāṇḍilī and Sumanā. In this dialogue Sumanā appears only as the one who asks.

The question to Śāṇḍilī

The text calls Sumanā a Kekaya-rāja-tanayā (daughter of the Kekaya king). She saw Śāṇḍilī blazing with tejas (radiance) like a flame of fire (agni-jvālā). Śāṇḍilī was as bright as the child of the moon. She sat in a vimāna (celestial vehicle) that never decays. She was adorned with a thousand times more śubha-lakshaṇas (auspicious marks) than others.

Sumanā could not trace such a state to ordinary tapas (austerity), dāna (giving) or niyama (vows). She asked Śāṇḍilī directly by what conduct and what ācāra (way of life) she had cast off all pāpa (sin) and reached devaloka.

Śāṇḍilī answered that it was strī-dharma alone, and not asceticism. This answer is the whole substance of the Śāṇḍilī–Sumanā Saṃvāda. The Mahābhārata tells this in Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 123.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 123