[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879) › c5.473 # A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.473 A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.473 - **Language:** English ### [c5.473](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.473) DEVAYĀNĪ. Daughter of Sukra, priest of the Daityas. She fell in love with her father’s pupil Kacha, son of Brihaspati, but he rejected her advances. She cursed him, and in return he cursed her, that she, a Brāhman’s daughter, should marry a Kshatriya. Devayānī was companion to Sarmishṭhā, daughter of the king of the Daityas. One day they went to bathe, and the god Vāyu changed their clothes. When they were dressed, they began to quarrel about the change, and Devayānī spoke “with a scowl so bitter that Sarmishṭhā slapped her face, and pushed her into a dry well.” She was rescued by King Yayāti, who took her home to her father. Sukra, at his daughter’s vehement persuasion, demanded satisfaction from Sarmishṭhā’s father, the Daitya king. He conceded Devayānī’s demand, that upon her marriage Sarmishṭhā should be given to her for a servant. Devayānī married King Yayāti, a Kshatriya, and Sarmishṭhā became her servant. Subsequently Yayāti became enamoured of Sarmishṭhā, and she bore him a son, the discovery of which so enraged Devayānī that she parted from her husband, and went home to her father, having borne two sons, Yadu and Turvasa or Turvasu. Her father, Śukra, cursed Yayāti with the infirmity of old age, but afterwards offered to transfer it to any one of Yayāti’s sons who would submit to receive it. Yadu, the eldest, and progenitor of the Yādavas, refused, and so did all the other sons, with the exception of Sarmishṭhā’s youngest son, Puru. Those who refused were cursed by their father, that their posterity should never possess dominion; but Puru, who bore his father’s curse for a thousand years, succeeded his father as monarch, and was the ancestor of the Pāṇḍavas and Kauravas. - [Previous: c5.472](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.472) - [Next: c5.474](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.474) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.473](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.dowson-1879.c5.473) · Pramāṇa