Sukanya Marries and Serves Chyavana
Having married the ancient rishi she blinded, Sukanya becomes his wife. She tends to him lovingly, observes the rules of austerities, serves the fire and guests, and worships her husband without a trace of discontentment — transforming a forced marriage into genuine devotion.
After the marriage, Chyavana became pacified. The curse on the soldiers lifted. King Sharyati, having obtained the rishi's favour, returned to his kingdom with his army.
Sukanya stayed.
She had been given to an ancient ascetic — a man so old his body had been consumed by the anthill he lived in, a man whose eyes she herself had pierced with a thorn. Nothing about this marriage had been chosen. It was a transaction: her father's soldiers for her freedom.
But Sukanya did not resist. The unblemished girl obtained the ascetic as her husband, and she began to tend to him.
She served him lovingly. She observed the rules of austerities as if she had been born to them. She tended the sacred fire, received guests, and worshipped Chyavana — all without discontentment, without complaint, without the slightest sign that she wished to be anywhere else.
She had been a princess, surrounded by friends and ornaments, roaming through forests in a single garment. Now she was the wife of a blind rishi in a hermitage. And she performed her duties as though she had always belonged there. Aranyaka Parva, Chapter 419