Mahabharata – 115

by 

Sankar Mukherjee

&

Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                   Aadivamsavatarana Parva

Vaisampayana continued--Oh king Janamejaya! After this, the maid reported to Sukracharya everything as it had happened. And as soon as he had heard all, Sukracharya came and saw Yayati. And seeing Sukracharya Yayati worshipped and adored him,& stood with joined palms in expectation of his commands.

And Devayani then said, Oh Father! He is the king Yayati & he took hold of my hand,& lifted me up when I was in the well.I bow to you. Bestow me upon him. I shall not wed any other person in the world.

Sukracharya said Oh Devyani ! Ethics is something else & lust is something different. Therefore you had already accepted Yayati as your husband before my knowledge & because of the curse of Kacha,no son of a sage will ever marry you.

Sukracharya then said to Yayati --you have, indeed, been accepted by my dearest daughter as her lord.I bestow her upon you.Accept her as your principal wife.

Yayati then said, 'I solicit the boon, Oh great sage! That by so doing, the sin of begetting a Brahmin woman for a wife might not touch me. The scriptures opined that marriage of a kshatrya with a Brahimin woman shatters the social ethos by creating sankara society where caste system & its objects are flung into the four winds. Sukrachrya,however,assured him by saying,that will not happen in this case.Yayati need not to be sad.Here is a legitamation.Firstly many kings in those days could not let passions having upper handover dharma.This is why allthough Yayati was eloquent in appreciating the beauty of Sarmishta,he did not talk much as to the beauty of Devyani.Caste system was a structure internalised in the minds of the kings like Yayati.The kings in this way was law biding & no wonder that their subjects should be law abiding in self same way. Just we say like father like son similarly in those days may be like king like subjects was possible. Besides the legitimation of the above episode is that the great souls like Sukracharya can undo any law decreed by divinity.In other words while on a level certain laws are inviolable on another level no law is absolute. It all depends on whether we belong to the level to Sukrachyarya or to the level of Yayati.

Sukracharya said --- I  shall rescue you  from the sin.I give you  the boon that you desire.Fear not to wed her.

 Maintain your wife the beautiful Devayani virtuously. Enjoy the divine happiness in her company.Sukracharya asked Yayati to maintain Sarmishta the daughter of Vrishaparva with respect. But Yayati must not share the bed with Sarmishta.This is a warning & ironical.

'Thus addressed by Sukracharya,Yayati  circumambulated the great Sukracharya & went through the auspicious ceremony of marriage in accordance with the rites of the scriptures.And having received from Sukracharya the excellent Devayani with Sarmishtha and those two thousand maidens, & duly honoured also by Sukrachrya himself and the Asuras,the  best of the kings commanded by Sukracharya returned to his capital with a joyous heart.