Yayati (?????) was a Puranic king and the son of king Nahusha. He was a great scholar of Vedas. He had two wives, Devyani and Sharmishtha. Devyani was the daughter of Shukracharya, the priest of Asuras. Sharmishtha was the daughter of the Demon King Vrishparva. Sharmishtha was a friend and servant of Devyani.
One day as Devyani and Sharmishtha along with the hoard of servants were amusing themselves in a park, King Yayati happened to pass by. Devyani had been secretly in love with Yayati as he had once rescued her from a dry well. Devyani and Sharmishtha introduced themselves to him and Devyani confessed to being in love with him and asked him to marry her. Yayati said, "Unless your father gives you to me in marriage I will not accept you as my wife." Shukracharya gave in to his daughter's request and agreed to give her away in marriage to King Yayati. As dowry he gave away Sharmishtha. He however warned Yayati that he should never let Sharmishtha share his bed.
Sharmishtha was given a place to live in a shaded glade called Ashok Vatika. One day Yayati happened to pass by Ashok Vatika where Sharmishtha lived. Seeing him, Sharmishtha confessed that she too was in love with the king and wanted him to marry her. She told him that she belonged to a royal family and Yayati could marry her. Yayti agreed and they wed in secret. They continued to meet and hid the fact from Devyani that they were married.
When Devyani came to know about the relationship of Yayati and Sharmishtha and their three sons she felt shocked and betrayed. Devyani went away to her father's house. Shukracharya was displeased with the king, and cursed that he would lose his youth and become an old man immediately.
As soon as Shukracharya uttered his curse Yayati became an old man. Shukracharya also said that his curse once uttered could not be taken back and added that the only concession he could give was that if Yayati wanted he could give his old age to someone and take their youth from them. Yayati was relieved at the reprieve he was given and confident that his sons would willingly exchange their youth with him. Yayati went back to his kingdom. Yayati requested all his five sons one by one to give their youth to him to enjoy the worldly happiness. All the sons except Puru rejected his demand. So Yayati took the youth of Puru and enjoyed all the subjects. Puru became the successor King of Yayati.
Yayati got two sons from Devyani – 1. Yadu and 2. Turvasu. He also got three sons from Sharmishtha – 1. Druhyu 2. Anu and 3. Puru. [1]The descendants of Yadu are called Yadavvanshi in which was born Krishna, the founder of Jat sangha.
Genealogical tables of Yayati dynasty are reproduced below from “Todd’s Rajasthan based on Agni Puran.
YAYATI DYNASTY Yayati
| | | | |
Yadu Turvasu Puru Druhyu Anu
The prince of King Yayati, Yadu was a self-respecting and a very established ruler. He had four sons. They were: Prince Sashtrajeet, Kroshta, Nal and Ripu. The kings between Rishi Buddh and Yayati were known as Somvanshi. As mentioned before, Yadu had officially lost the title to govern by his father's command since he had refused to exchange his youth with his father. Thereby, he could not have carried on the same dynasty, called Somvanshi. Notably, the only remaining dynasty of King Puru was entitled to be known as Somvanshi. Thereby King Yadu ordered that the future generations of his would be known as "Yadu" or "Yadav" and the dynasty would be known as "Yaduvanshi". The generations of Yadu had an unprecedented growth and got divided into two branches. King Sashtrajeet's generation came to be known as "Haihai Yadav" occupying the northern regions whereas the King Kroshta's generation became to be known as "Kroshta Yadav' occupying southern regions. King Haihai was Satajeet's son and Sashtrajeet's grandson. King Sashtrajeet instituted a new state and a new dynasty and offered the same, by his own will and against his birth right, to be taken care of by his younger brother Kroshta. Thereby, Kroshta officially became the heer of King Yadu. Consequently, the generations of King Puru, Paurav or Puruvanshi were the only ones to be known as Somvanshi . More
No comments:
Post a Comment