Shloka 29
Yayāti, Devayānī, Śarmiṣṭhā, and the Exchange of Youth: The Unsatisfied Nature of Desire
पित्रादत्तादेवयान्यै शर्मिष्ठासानुगातदा । स्वानां तत् सङ्कटं वीक्ष्य तदर्थस्य च गौरवम् । देवयानीं पर्यचरत् स्त्रीसहस्रेण दासवत् ॥ २९ ॥
pitrā dattā devayānyai śarmiṣṭhā sānugā tadā svānāṁ tat saṅkaṭaṁ vīkṣya tad-arthasya ca gauravam devayānīṁ paryacarat strī-sahasreṇa dāsavat
Vṛṣaparvā wisely understood that Śukrācārya’s displeasure would bring danger, and his pleasure would bring gain. Therefore he carried out the order: he gave his daughter Śarmiṣṭhā, with her companions, to Devayānī, and Śarmiṣṭhā served Devayānī like a slave, along with thousands of women.
In the beginning of these affairs concerning Śarmiṣṭhā and Devayānī, we saw that Śarmiṣṭhā had many friends. Now these friends became maidservants of Devayānī. When a girl married a kṣatriya king, it was customary for all her girlfriends to go with her to her husband’s house. For instance, when Vasudeva married Devakī, the mother of Kṛṣṇa, he married all six of her sisters, and she also had many friends who accompanied her. A king would maintain not only his wife but also the many friends and maidservants of his wife. Some of these maidservants would become pregnant and give birth to children. Such children were accepted as dāsī-putra, the sons of the maidservants, and the king would maintain them. The female population is always greater than the male, but since a woman needs to be protected by a man, the king would maintain many girls, who acted either as friends or as maidservants of the queen. In the history of Kṛṣṇa’s household life we find that Kṛṣṇa married 16,108 wives. These were not maidservants but direct queens, and Kṛṣṇa expanded Himself into 16,108 forms to maintain different establishments for each and every wife. This is not possible for ordinary men. Therefore although the kings had to maintain many, many servants and wives, not all of them had different establishments.
FAQs
It states that Śarmiṣṭhā became Devayānī’s attendant by her father’s grant, and that Yayāti, seeing the seriousness of the situation for his own side, served Devayānī humbly—like a servant—supported by many women attendants.
Because the conflict and its consequences had become grave remembered as a crisis for his own people; recognizing the weight of the matter, he adopted a posture of humility and service to restore order and address the situation’s seriousness.
When a situation becomes serious, humility and responsible service—rather than ego—helps resolve conflict and protect those depending on us.