HISTORY OF ance.

INDIA. PART III.

Devayání re

quests Yayati to espouse her.

himself.

The Raja replied that his name was Yayáti, that he was descended from a long line of Rajas, and that he had come into the forest to hunt deer, in like manner as she had come to gather the flowers; and he likewise said that whatsoever she commanded him to do, he would perform. So Devayání said:" All these damsels are my slaves, and this lady also, who is the daughter of a great Raja, is my slave; and my request to you is that you espouse me in due form." Ynyáti excuses Yayáti replied:-"I am a Kshatriya and you are a Bráhman: How then can I take you for my wife?" Devayání said: -"All the Kshatriyas were begotten by the Brahmans, and you yourself are descended from a Rishi." Yayáti replied that this was true, but that the rule of life had changed, and that it was not proper for him now to marry the daughter of a Bráhman. But Devayání rejoined that the her when he de- mode of espousal among the Kshatriyas was for the man to take the woman by the hand, and this he had already done with her; and she reminded him of his having delivered her from the well, when he had taken her by the hand and lifted her out; and she said:-"Since you have given me your hand and taken mine, I will never give my hand to any other Yayati's reply. husband." So the Raja was afraid of her, and said :—“ If your father will give you to me I will espouse you, but I cannot take you without the consent of your father."

Devayani urges

that he espoused

livered her from the well.

Yayati's interview with Sukra.

Then Raja Yayáti went his way to the house of Sukra, and respectfully saluted him. At that moment Devayání returned also from the forest, and entered the house, and said to her father :"This is the Raja who gave me his hand to deliver me from the well, and since he has given me his hand, I will never give mine to any other man." Then Sukra said:"O Raja, since you have first given your hand to my daughter, I now give my daughter to you: You are a mighty Raja, and I have an unbounded affection for my daughter, and I therefore pray you to use her kindly." Yayáti replied: "I too am very desirous for this marriage, but I am afraid lest I commit a crime in marrying a Bráhman." Sukra said:"Take no concern: I will absolve you from any yáti and Deva guilt in this respect, and pray the Almighty that true es

Marriage of Ya

yani.

INDIA. PART III.

teem and affection may subsist between my daughter and HISTORY OF you." Sukra then chose a fortunate moment, and performed the rites of marriage between Raja Yayáti and his daughter Devayání.

with Devayání

to his own city.

After many days Raja Yayáti took his leave of Sukra, Yayati departs and departed with his wife Devayání for his own city; and Sarmishtha and Devayání took Sarmishthá with her. In due course they reached the city of Yayáti, which was as resplendent as the city of Indra; and there the Raja placed Devayání in a splendid palace, according to her rank, and appointed a house for Sarmishthá in the garden. Then Raja Yayáti lived for a long while in great happiness with his wife Devayání, and she gave birth to two sons, Yadu and Turvasu.

5. Sarmishtha's revenge.

between Yayati

At length it so happened that one day Raja Yayáti went Love passage to walk in the garden wherein was the house of Sarmishthá, and Sarmishtha. and as he passed by she came out and made him a reverence. And the Raja was enamoured with her beauty and elegance, and he entered her apartment and sat down, and said to her:-" You are the daughter of a great Raja, and I am very desirous to espouse you, but when Sukra sent you along with Devayání to accompany me hither, he bade me take every care of you, but never to make you my wife, and I pledged myself to obey, and now I do not know how to escape from my promise." Sarmishthá replied:-"A friend is a friend's second self; Devayání and I are such friends: Therefore when you married her, you at the same time married me." Yayáti then said:"It is my rule of conduct never to refuse a request which any one may please to make; and therefore whatever you may ask of me I will assuredly grant." So Sarmishthá asked that she might become the mother of a son.

gives birth to a

Some months after this it was told to Devayání that Sarmishthá Sarmishtha had given birth to a son; and she was greatly son. afflicted, and went to Sarmishthá, and said :-" So you could Wrath of Devanot persevere any longer in the preservation of your chast

yání.

PART III. Sarmishtha's ex

cuse.

HISTORY OF ity: Who is the father of this child?" Sarmishthá replied: INDIA. -"A Rishi of the most holy life and conduct came to me, and I desired him to espouse me: He did espouse me, and this son is the fruit of our union: I have committed no crime in this!" Devayání said:-"If this be true you are innocent but do you not know who that Rishi was?" Sarmishthá replied:-" The light of that Bráhman was like that of the sun, and from the greatness of my awe I could not ask him his name." Devayání said:-"As this is the case you have done right, and I have not suffered by your wrong doing." So she returned to her own palace.

Devayání discovers that Ya

of Sarmishtha's children.

After some years Raja Yayáti was walking in the garyati is the father den with Devayání, when they came to the house occupied by Sarmishthá; and Devayání saw three boys at play, who appeared to be the most beautiful children in the world. She accordingly asked the Raja whose children they were, for their countenances greatly resembled his own. The Raja gave her no answer; so Devayání called the boys and asked them whose sons they were. The boys immediately pointed with their fingers to the Raja, and said :—“ We are his sons;" and then pointing to Sarmishthá, they said :— "That is our mother." They then ran to the Raja, and tried to put their arms round his neck; but he, in order to dissemble with Devayání, and keep her in good humour, thrust the children away, and they went crying to their mother. Devayání then turned to Sarmishthá, and said: "It is all a lie you told me about a Rishi coming to you: It is all my own fault, for not keeping you day and night in constant attendance upon me: But you are the daughter of a Daitya, Sarmishtha's de- and a lie is no offence in your eyes." Sarmishthá replied:"I told you no lie at all, for the Raja is a Rishi, inasmuch as he follows the same form of worship as the Rishis: Besides, I am no purchased slave that I may not look out for a husband without your leave." Devayání then told the father's house. Raja that she would never more enter his house to have a slave treat her as an equal in his presence. So she immediately went away to the house of her father.1

fence.

Devayání returns to her

1 Here the story virtually ends. Devayání declared that she would live no

INDIA.

foregoing le

yání.

tween the Devatás, or Aryans,

or aborigines.

the opposition

The foregoing legends of Devayání are valuable HISTORY OF relics of the early age of Brahmanism, and throw a PART III. new light upon one of the most obscure portions of Review of the Hindú history. The most important element in the gends of Devastory is perhaps the opposition which is exhibited Opposition bebetween the Devatás, or fair-complexioned Aryan and the Daityas, invaders, and the Daityas, or dark-complexioned aborigines of the country. In the Rig-Veda this Expression of opposition clearly appears as one between the in- in the Rig-Veda. vaders and the aboriginal inhabitants; and as the Vedic hymns are the expression of Aryan sentiments and ideas, the aborigines are naturally alluded to in terms of hatred and reproach as robbers and cattle-lifters. In the subsequent age to which the Subsequent conforegoing legends belong, the traditions of the old wars between the Aryans and the aborigines became converted into mythical legends of wars between mons. the Devatás, or gods, and the Daityas, or demons, which was carried on for the empire of the world. This circumstance has led to a strange confusion of Confusion in the ideas in many of the Brahmanical versions of the the terms Deold traditions. Sometimes the term Devatás refers to the Vedic pantheon, in which Indra appears as sovereign; sometimes, however, as in the present story, it seems to refer to the Aryan people, who were the worshippers of the Vedic deities. Then, again, the

longer with the Raja, and carried her complaint to her father Sukra, who thereupon pronounced a curse of old age upon Yayati. The curse is said to have taken effect, but Sukra offered to remove it by transferring it to any one of Yayati's sons, who would agree to accept the infliction. Yadu, his eldest son by Devayání, refused, and was cursed that his posterity should never enjoy dominion; and he ultimately became the ancestor of the Yadavas, or cowherds. Then all the other sons of the Raja refused, and were cursed in like manner, excepting the youngest son by Sarmishtha, who was named Puru, and who agreed to bear the burden of his father's old age for a period of a thousand years, and who ultimately became the ancestor of the Pandavas and the Kauravas.

version of the

traditionary

wars of Devatás and Daityas into

mythical wars of

gods and de

application of

vatás and Dait

yas.

HISTORY OF term Daityas was applied both to demons and to PART III. the aborigines, and having thus become current as

INDIA.

Friendship between the Bráh

of

a term of reproach, it was apparently applied in a still later age to the Buddhists. Thus the question occasionally arises as to whether the term Daityas applies to the aborigines who preceded the Aryans, or to the demons who fought against the gods, or to the Buddhists who fought against the worshippers of the Linga. In the present instance the term undoubtedly applies to the aborigines.

at war.

Another point for consideration is the curious man preceptors friendship which existed between the Brahman were at enmity. priests of rival tribes, even when those tribes were Thus the son of the priest of the Devatás is entertained as a pupil in the house of the priest of the Daityas; a circumstance which naturally excited the jealousy of the Daityas, and led to that animosity of the Daityas towards the pupil, which, but for the interposition of Sukra, would have led to his destruction.

Mythical detail representing the Yadavas as descendants of

vayání.

The legend of the marriage of Devayání and Yayáti seems to be cumbered with some mythical Yayati and De- detail for the purpose of ennobling the tribe of Yádavas, to which Krishna belonged, by representing them to have been descended from one of the ancient Rajas of Bhárata and the daughter of a Brahman. In the genealogical lists Yayáti appears as the great-grandfather of Raja Bhárata; a circumstance which may well be doubted, if the theory be accepted that the Bráhmans held but a subordinate rank in the Vedic age. The story of Sarmishthá is very suggestive, but scarcely calls for comment. may, however, be observed that the explanation of Sarmishthá, that a Rishi was the father of her chil

It