A fter losing his youth due to a curse from sage Shukra, king Yayati is given the concession of being able to transfer his old-age to a willing son of his. His two sons from Devayani, Yadu and Turvasu, refused the offer immediately.
The first two sons from Sharmishtha too refused to give their youth to their father. It is only the last son from Sharmishta, Puru, who agrees. Yayati thus proclaims that Puru should be the inheritor of his kingdom and riches. The price Puru pays for this is 1,000 years of old age;
Yayati enjoys, in parallel, 1,000 years of youth. Later, when Yayati accepts his old-age again, Puru becomes the first king of what would be known as the Pourava dynasty, ancestors to kings such as Dushyanta, Bharata, and the later Kouravas and Pandavas.
Sharmishta was an asura princess, and it follows that Puru was half asura. But the Mahabharata never pauses to reflect on the fact of the asura half in the Pandavas’ ancestry.
This is consistent with the idea (appearing elsewhere in the text) which treats the mother as only the vessel through the father is reborn as the son. Sharmishtha’s asura origins are therefore of no consequence to the storyline after Puru is
made the king.
On the other hand, Devayani was born to a brahmin father, Shukra. Her marriage to the kshatriya king Yayati, is a step down according the caste hierarchy. At first, Yayati is himself apprehensive of Devayani’s proposal for marriage because he fears ‘the sin’ of bearing offspring of mixed-caste.
It thus demands conjecture, then, that destiny plays itself out in such a way that Devayani’s sons are effectively ‘punished’ and not given their share in Yayati’s kingdom because they are of mixed caste. The text doesn’t validate this hypothesis, and it is somewhat thwarted by the fact that the two sons, Yadu and Turvasu, do get dominion over other kingdoms, and are thus not denied their rights as rulers.
Yayati’s story continues. He plunges himself into austerities and elevates himself from the realm of men. At one point in the text, the old and super-knowledgeable Yayati gets into a conversation with a king, and answers some of the king’s questions about life and death.
Yayati’s words are sort of like a short version of what would happen much later in the Mahabharata: Krishna’s conversation with Arjuna, known as the Bhagvada Gita. Yayati gives us similar information about souls, reincarnation per karma, and the impending dissolution with the supreme spirit.
What is fascinating is just why Yayati gets so much importance? His lustful escapade with Sharmishtha lands him a curse of old-age, but it eventually turns out to be a boon with 1,000 years of youth. And in the end, he acquires knowledge equal to the supreme god itself. To the question of why Yayati is chosen, there is no answer provided.
(The writer’s first novel ‘Neon Noon’ is now available)