Resumo de 5. The Marriage Of Devayani: Mahabharata

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The daughters of Vrishaparva, king of the demons, and

Devayani were good friends. Once, as they were together

enjoying a bath in a pool, a gust of wind ruffled their

discarded garments and left them in a heap. By mistake,

Devayani put on the clothes of princess Sarmishtha and

expressed her amusement at having done so.

But Sarmishtha was not amused. She took the incident in
the

wrong spirit and abused Devayani by calling her the

daughter of a beggar who lived on her father?s mercies.
Not

content with this, she slapped Devayani and pushed her
into

a dry well nearby. Vrishaparva?s daughters assumed that
she

was dead.

Devayani was really alive, but could not climb up the
well.

Emperor Yayati of the Bharata race, who was out hunting
in

the forest, saw her and helped her out of the well. A

flustered Devayani had no intentions of going back to
the

kingdom of the demons and appealed to Yayati to marry
her.

Yayati refused, arguing that marriage between a woman
from

a priestly caste and a man from the martial races was

forbidden as it meant lowering the woman?s status.
Devayani

was disappointed but was still bent on not returning
home.

Sukracharya, alarmed by her daughter?s long absence,

himself set out in search of her after other means had

failed. He located Devayani near the well and entreated
her

to return, explaining that a magnanimous person is
expected

to stay unperturbed by the vices of others. With
anguish,

Devayani described to Sukracharya the nasty treatment
meted

out to her by Sarmishtha and refused to listen to her

father?s advice.

This prompted Sukracharya to return to Vrishaparva. He

confronted the king and reminded him that he had
remained

patient in spite of the demons? multiple attempts at

killing his disciple Kacha, an innocent youth. Now that
her

humiliated daughter had taken a vow not to come back
home,

Sukracharya saw no other alternative but to follow
suit,

because he could not stay alive separated from her
beloved

daughter.

Vrishaparva, who knew right from wrong, begged pardon
of

his preceptor, took his retinue to where Devayani was
and

asked for her forgiveness. Devayani, however, insisted
that

she would relent only if Sarmishtha agreed to act as
her

housemaid. Sarmishtha, who had by now acknowledged her
high-

handed behaviour with Devayani, agreed and bowed in

submission. Finally satisfied, Devayani returned home.

As luck would have it, Devayani came across Yayati one
more

time and this time too requested him to marry her. But

since Yayati?s reservations were genuine, they agreed
to

approach Sukracharya for his consent. Sukracharya

solemnised their marriage.

The couple lived on happily, until one day Devayani
learnt

that Yayati had secretly also wed their housemaid,

Sarmishtha. Devayani, in her desolation, complained to

Sukracharya. Enraged, Sukracharya cast a curse on
Yayati

that the latter be shorn of his youth. Yayati was

crestfallen and fervently asked to be pardoned.
Sukracharya

was touched by Yayati?s repentance. He also remembered
that

Yayati had once rescued Devayani from a well. But then,
a

curse was destined to run its course. Therefore, the
best

that Sukracharya could do was to assure Yayati that his

youth would be restored if and when a young man
willingly

exchanged his youth for Yayati?s old age.

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