Bhima of Vidarbha Obtains a Boon from Damana
King Bhima of Vidarbha has everything a ruler could want — strength, virtue, wealth — but no children. When the brahmarshi Damana visits his court, Bhima and his wife serve him with such devotion that the sage grants them a boon: three sons and a daughter whose beauty will be spoken of among gods and men.
There was a king in Vidarbha named Bhima, whose valour was terrible. He was brave and possessed every good quality — except one. He had no offspring. And he desired children with a fixedness of purpose that drove every endeavour he undertook.
He made offerings. He performed rites. He did everything a king could do to obtain the one thing his kingdom could not give him.
Then a brahmarshi (a sage of the highest order) named Damana came to his court. Bhima, knowing dharma and desperate for the blessing only such a visitor could bestow, received him with his wife at his side. Together they offered homage to the greatly resplendent one. They served him. They satisfied him in every way.
Damana was gratified. He conferred a boon on Bhima and his wife.
The boon was fourfold: three sons — Dama, Danta, and another Damana — all of them generous, immensely resplendent, fearful and terrible in valour. And a gem among daughters.
Her name was Damayanti.
She was beautiful, energetic, famous and fortunate. The slender-waisted one obtained fame in the world because of her good fortune. When she came of age, hundreds of ornamented slave girls and friends waited on her, like Shachi — the wife of Indra — herself attended. Among them, Bhima's daughter, adorned in all the ornaments and flawless in her limbs, shone like a flash of lightning. Her large eyes were like those of Shri, the goddess of fortune.
Such a beautiful one had not been seen or heard of before — not among gods, not among yakshas (celestial beings), not among men, not among any other beings. The beautiful lady disturbed the minds of the gods themselves. Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 347