Yayati meets Devayani and Sharmishtha in the forest
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.
Yayati came to the forest hunting deer, his throat parched with thirst. He found the same clearing where, not long before, a quarrel over a dress had ended with two women in a well. Now it was filled with the sound of laughter. Devayani was there with Sharmishtha and a thousand maid servants, all of them drinking from madhavi creepers, eating fruit, adorned in celestial ornaments. Among them, Devayani shone. She sat languidly while Sharmishtha, the daughter of the Danava king, massaged her feet.
Yayati, a king and the son of a king, approached and asked their names and clans.
Devayani answered plainly. "I am the daughter of Shukra, preceptor of the asuras. This friend is my slave. She goes wherever I go. She is Sharmishtha, the daughter of Vrishaparva, the king of the danavas."
Yayati was curious. How could a princess be a slave? Devayani dismissed his surprise. "Everything follows what has been destined. Do not be surprised at what seems to be out of the ordinary." Then she turned the question back on him. His form was that of a king, but his speech was like one who knew the Vedas. Who was he?
He told her: Yayati, son of Nahusha, a king. He had come hunting and was searching for water. He asked to leave.
Devayani stopped him. "With the slave Sharmishtha, the two of us and a thousand maid servants are at your command to serve you." Then she made her demand. "O fortunate one! Please be my friend and husband."
Yayati refused immediately. "I am not worthy of you. You are the daughter of Ushanas. Your father cannot marry you to a king."
Devayani argued back. Unions between brahmanas and kshatriyas (the priestly and warrior classes) had happened before. He was a rishi (sage) and the son of a rishi. Therefore, he should marry her.
Yayati held his ground. The four varnas (social orders) may have sprung from a single body, but their purity and their dharma varied. "The Brahmana is superior to the others."
Devayani shifted tactics. "Earlier, no man except you has ever touched my hand. Therefore, in accordance with the dharma of accepting the hand, I accept you as my husband." Her hand had been touched by a rishi. How could she, proud as she was, allow any other man to touch it now?
Yayati's refusal became more urgent. "The learned men know that a Brahmana is more to be avoided than a virulently poisonous and angry snake or a blazing fire that spreads in all directions."
Why? Devayani asked.
"A snake kills only one. The sharpest weapon kills only one. But if angry, a Brahmana can destroy many cities and kingdoms." The danger was not personal; it was cosmic. A brahmana's curse could erase lineages. "Therefore, I think that it is harder to fend off a Brahmana." His final word was absolute: "I cannot marry you unless your father bestows you on me."