Shloka 9
Śukra’s Ultimatum and Devayānī’s Demand (शुक्र-प्रतिज्ञा तथा देवयानी-वर-याचना)
ददौ दश स धर्माय कश्यपाय त्रयोदश । कालस्य नय:ने युक्ता: सप्तविंशतिमिन्दवे,धन्यं यशस्यमायुष्यं कीर्तयिष्यामि तेडनघ । वैशम्पायनजी कहते हैं--निष्पाप जनमेजय! अब मैं दक्ष प्रजापति, वैवस्वत मनु, भरत, कुरु, पूर, अजमीढ, यादव, कौरव तथा भरतवंशियोंकी कुल-परम्पराका तुमसे वर्णन करूँगा। उनका कुल परम पवित्र, महान् मंगलकारी तथा धन, यश और आयुकी प्राप्ति करानेवाला है उन्होंने दस कन्याएँ धर्मको, तेरह कश्यपको और कालका संचालन करनेमें नियुक्त नक्षत्रस्वरूपा सत्ताईस कन्याएँ चन्द्रमाको ब्याह दीं
vaiśampāyana uvāca | dadau daśa sa dharmāya kaśyapāya trayodaśa | kālasya nayane yuktāḥ saptaviṃśatim indave | dhanyaṃ yaśasyam āyuṣyaṃ kīrtayiṣyāmi te 'nagha |
Vaiśampāyana said: O sinless Janamejaya, I shall recount to you the lineage—holy, auspicious, and bestowing wealth, fame, and long life—of Dakṣa Prajāpati and the royal succession beginning with Vaivasvata Manu, including Bharata, Kuru, Pūru, Ajāmīḍha, the Yādavas, the Kauravas, and the descendants of Bharata. Dakṣa gave ten daughters to Dharma, thirteen to Kaśyapa, and twenty-seven daughters—embodiments of the lunar mansions appointed for the regulation of time—to the Moon (Indu).
वैशम्पायन उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse frames genealogy as ethically meaningful: remembering righteous lineages and cosmic arrangements (Dharma, the Moon, the nakṣatras) is presented as auspicious and supportive of prosperity, fame, and longevity, linking social order (dynasties) with cosmic order (time regulated by lunar mansions).
Vaiśampāyana addresses King Janamejaya and announces that he will narrate the sacred dynastic succession connected with Bharata and related lines. As part of that account, he notes Dakṣa’s giving of daughters in marriage—ten to Dharma, thirteen to Kaśyapa, and twenty-seven nakṣatra-formed daughters to the Moon—explaining the mythic basis for the Moon’s association with the lunar mansions and the reckoning of time.