THE MARRIAGE OF DEVAYANI

Sukracharya went to Vrishaparva and fixing his eyes on him gravely said:

"O king, though one's sins may not bring immediate punishment they are sure, sooner or later, to destroy the very germ of prosperity. Kacha, the son of Brihaspati, was a brahmacharin who had conquered his senses and never committed any sin. He served me with fidelity and never strayed from the path of virtue. Your attendants tried to kill him. I bore it. My daughter, who holds her honour high, had to hear dishonouring words uttered 'by your daughter. Besides, she was pushed into a well by your daughter.

She cannot any more stay in yourkingdom. Without her I cannot live here either. So, I am going out of your kingdom."

At these words the king of the asuras was sorely troubled and said: "I am ignorant of the charges laid at my door. If youabandon me, I shall enter fire and die."

Sukracharya replied: "I care more for the happiness of my daughter than for the fate of you and your asuras, for she is the one thing I have and dearer to me than life itself.

If you can appease her, it is well and good. Otherwise I go."

Vrishaparva and his retinue went to the tree under which Devayani stood and they threw themselves at her feet in supplication.

Devayani was stubborn and said: "Sarmishtha who told me that I was the daughter of a beggar, should become my handmaiden and attend on me in the house into which my father gives me in marriage."

Vrishaparva consented and asked his attendants to fetch his daughter Sarmishtha.

Sarmishtha admitted her fault and bowed in submission. She said: "Let it be as my companion Devayani desires. My father shall riot lose his preceptor for a fault committed by me. I will be her attendant," Devayani was pacified and re turned to her house with her father.

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