Yayati and Devayani

While hunting, King Yayati comes to a dry well, seeking water for himself and his horses. Instead, he finds a radiant, grieving maiden inside. He learns she is the daughter of the powerful priest Shukra and pulls her to safety.

Devayani sends for her father Shukra, declaring she has chosen Yayati. When the powerful brahmana arrives, Yayati consents to the marriage but first extracts a crucial boon: freedom from the sin of mixed-caste offspring. Shukra grants it, but lays down one absolute, non-negotiable rule.

Exhausted from the hunt, King Yayati stumbles upon Devayani and Sharmishtha sporting with their attendants. When he asks who they are, Devayani reveals her lineage and her companion's status as her slave. Then, without preamble, she commands the king to be her husband.

King Yayati returns home with his new wife, Devayani, and her maid, the princess Sharmishtha. He establishes them in separate residences—one in the royal palace, the other in a nearby grove—creating the physical arrangement for a hidden family.

While walking in the forest with her husband Yayati, Devayani sees three magnificent boys playing. When they point to Yayati as their father and Sharmishtha as their mother, Devayani’s world shatters, and she flees to her father for justice.

Devayani tells her father, the sage Shukra, that King Yayati has fathered sons with her servant. Shukra curses Yayati with instant old age for his deception. In a partial reprieve, Yayati is told he may transfer his decrepitude to a willing son.