In the previous episode, we had witnessed Sage Shukraachaarya’s daughter, Devayani getting into a verbal tussle with King Vrishaparva’s daughter, Sharmishta. Eventually, Sharmishta insults Devayani about her origins as a daughter of a Brahmana Rishi, and that, she is literally leading her life through begging. This irks Devayani beyond words and takes a pledge as to not enter into King Vrishaparva’s kingdom again. However, Sage Shukraachaarya and King Vrishaparva come to an agreement on this and with this, Sage Shukraachaarya convinces Devayani to relent from her stance. Ultimately, with Sharmishta too seeking forgiveness, Devayani relents and comes back to the kingdom. With this, Devayani and Sharmishta become friends again and their relationship continues on without any further hiccups.
As this was going on, one fine day, King Yayaati happens to pass by that way, and as King Yayaati sees Devayani, he falls in love with her immediately! He proposes to marry Devayani but she isn’t ready yet. She had a feeling that if she gets married to King Yayaati , it would become a problem in the future as she was a Brahmana Rishi’s daughter and he was a Kshatrya prince. However, King Yayaati was smart enough to approach Sage Shukraachaarya directly and convinced him straightaway. Sage Shukraachaarya too knew that King Yayaati was a very righteous person by nature and he accepted the marriage proposal. The marriage happens thus in a grand fashion and Sage Shukraachaarya gives Devayani in marriage to King Yayaati. As this happens, Devayani takes Sharmishta and some other women along with her to her husband’s place. Sharmishta too comes along as she was also very interested to stay along with Devayani. As Sharmishta leaves along with Devayani, Sage Shukraachaarya advices King Yayaati thus, “Oh King Yayaati! This Sharmishta is coming along with your wife just because Sharmishta has been enslaved by her. Also, Sharmishta and Devayani are good friends. But you should remember one thing always in life – Sharmishta is a daughter of King Vrishaparva and she is extremely royal by birth. You might have children with Devayani, but please be very careful not to have children with Sharmishta by any chance. Even if she approaches you, please be careful! Take care of both the women!”
Paying heed to Sage Shukraachaarya’s advice thus, King Yayaati returns back along with the two women. The first child that was born between King Yayaati and Devayani was none other than “Yadhu”. They subsequently had their second child by name “Durvasu”. However, as fate had its say, King Yayaati started losing interest on Devayani as time progressed. Instead, his interest was now starting to be focused on Sharmishta. Sharmishta too on her part started getting interested in King Yayaati. Thus, eventually King Yayaati ended up marrying Sharmishta also! We should remember here that this was against the advice of Sage Shukraachaarya! As this marriage happens, King Yayaati and Sharmishta had three children – “Drudhyu”, “Anu” and “Puru”. As all these happened, Devayani was not even aware that King Yayaati and Sharmishta got married and got together with each other!
However, after a few years when these three children were playing along, people started passing comments that these children were exactly looking like King Yayaati. Upon hearing this, Devayani was extremely angry with her husband! How can he get together with another woman outside of marriage, and that too, her own slave Sharmishta? With this anger as she confronts King Yayaati, he too did not have another option but to accept the fact. Angered thus, Devayani straightaway runs to Sage Shukraachaarya and confronts! With this, Sage Shukraachaarya becomes extremely angry that King Yayaati has cheated on his daughter. He rushes to King Yayaati’s place and inflicts a heavy curse on him thus, “Oh Yayaati! Since you’ve cheated my daughter for no fault of hers, from today, you would lose all your youth and would become old! Your body would start having all the features of an old man and with this, you would not be able to enjoy your youth with Sharmishta!”
Thus with this, King Yayaati became old overnight! He lost all his youthfulness and with this, he realizes his mistake! But it was too late! Now what is King Yayaati’s strategy going to be? Is he going to come out of this curse of Sage Shukraachaarya? Let us wait till the next episode to find out! Stay tuned! 🙂
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