Damayanti

Five men stood in a row in the great hall at Kundina, and every one of them was Nala. Same face, same shoulders, same way of standing. The princess of Vidarbha had a garland in her hands and a hall full of kings watching her, and she had to hang it on the right neck.

Damayanti had been asked for before she was born. Her father Bhima, king of Vidarbha, had no children until a wandering sage named Damana stayed at his court and was treated well. The sage’s thanks came as a daughter and three sons. The girl grew up among a hundred handmaids and outshone the lot. The epic lingers over her slim waist and wide eyes, and mentions, almost in passing, a small mole between her brows shaped like a lotus. That mole matters later.

She fell in love by rumor. Nala, king of the Nishadhas, was a master of horses, a fine cook and a man much too fond of dice. People praised each of them in the hearing of the other until both were half in love with a name. Then Nala caught a swan with golden wings in his garden. The bird bargained for its life by promising to plead his case, flew to Vidarbha, let Damayanti chase it away from her maids, and told her that she and Nala were made for each other. She stopped eating. Her father, alarmed, announced that she would choose her own husband in public.

Four gods set out for the ceremony: Indra, Agni, Varuna and Yama. On the road they met Nala and, having got his promise of help before saying what the help was, sent him as their messenger. He was to tell Damayanti to pick one of them. He did it honestly, slipping unseen into her rooms and arguing their case. She told him that she would choose him in front of the gods themselves, so no blame could fall on him.

So the gods came to the hall wearing Nala’s shape, and that is where she stood with the garland, the scent of the flowers rising in the heat. She did not guess. She joined her hands and asked the gods, by the truth of her love, to show themselves. They did. Four of the figures had dry skin and unblinking eyes. Their garlands were fresh, no dust lay on them, they cast no shadow, and their feet did not touch the floor. The fifth was sweating, dusty and blinking, with a wilting garland and a shadow behind him. She chose the one who looked tired. The gods took it well and left gifts.

Not everyone took it well. Kali, the spirit of quarrel and of the losing throw, arrived late with his companion Dvapara and was furious that a mortal had been chosen over gods. He waited twelve years for a gap. One evening Nala said his prayers without washing his feet, and Kali slipped in. Dvapara went into the dice. Nala’s brother Pushkara then challenged him to a game, and Nala played for months, deaf to everyone, losing gold, chariots, robes and at last the kingdom.

Damayanti saw the end coming. She called the charioteer, put her son and daughter in the chariot and sent them to her father while there were still horses to send. Then she walked out of the city behind her husband with one piece of cloth to her name. In the forest Nala lost even his garment to a flock of birds, and the two of them shared hers. One night, in a traveler’s shelter, he cut the cloth in two while she slept and walked away. He told himself she would go home to her father and be safe.

She woke on the cold ground, alone. A great snake caught her, and a hunter killed the snake and then wanted his payment. She cursed him by her faithfulness and he fell dead where he stood. She walked on, joined a merchant caravan, and lived through the night when wild elephants came down to the water and trampled the camp. In half a torn cloth, with dust in her hair, she reached the city of the Chedis, where the queen mother took her in as a companion without knowing who she was. A Brahmin sent out by her father finally knew her by the mole between her brows, which showed through the dirt when it was washed.

Home again, she went to work. Nala meanwhile had saved the serpent king Karkotaka from a forest fire and been bitten for his trouble. The venom twisted him into a short, ugly man called Bahuka and burned the spirit hiding inside him, and in that shape he drove horses for King Rituparna of Ayodhya. Damayanti sent Brahmins through the kingdoms with a riddle about a gambler who cut his wife’s cloth and left her. Only one man answered it. Then she sent word to Rituparna alone that she would choose a second husband the very next day. It was a lie, and a precise one. Only Nala could drive that distance in a single day.

He did. On the way Rituparna taught him the secret of the dice, and Kali came out of him and fled. Damayanti heard the chariot and knew its sound. She tested the driver through her maid. Water filled his jars at a glance, fire lit itself for him, and his cooking tasted the way she remembered. When he reproached her for the second ceremony, she swore her innocence by the sun, the moon and the wind, and the Wind answered from the sky that she spoke the truth. Nala put on the garment the serpent had given him and stood in his own shape. They had been apart three years. He won the kingdom back in one throw.

Her strength is truth, spoken aloud, and patience. Her limits are plain. She could not stop the game, she could not keep her husband beside her in the dark, and she could not see through a changed body without proof. She was right about nearly everything, and it did not spare her the walk.

Later poets returned to her often. Shriharsha’s long Sanskrit poem on the Nishadha king, written in the twelfth century, spends most of its length on the courtship, and the painter Raja Ravi Varma made the girl listening to the swan one of the best-known images in Indian art.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Damayanti in Hindu mythology?

Damayanti is a princess of Vidarbha and the wife of King Nala of the Nishadhas. She is the heroine of the story of Nala and Damayanti, which is told in the Mahabharata. She is remembered as a faithful and clever wife who finds her lost husband after he abandons her in the forest.

How did Damayanti recognize Nala among the gods?

At her bridegroom choice, the gods Indra, Agni, Varuna and Yama all took the form of Nala. Damayanti prayed to the gods, by the truth of her love, to show themselves. The gods then appeared without sweat, dust or shadows, with unblinking eyes, fresh garlands and feet that did not touch the ground, while the real Nala was sweating and dusty and cast a shadow.

Why did Nala leave Damayanti?

Nala left Damayanti after he lost his kingdom at dice to his brother Pushkara while possessed by the spirit Kali. Ashamed and ruined, he cut her single cloth in half while she slept in the forest and walked away. He believed she would return to her father and be safer without him.

How did Damayanti find Nala again?

Damayanti sent Brahmins across the kingdoms with a riddle that only Nala could answer, and one of them found a charioteer named Bahuka in Ayodhya who replied to it. She then sent a false message that she would choose a new husband the next day, knowing only Nala could drive there in time. When Bahuka arrived, she tested him and proved that he was Nala in a changed body.

Where does the story of Damayanti come from?

The story of Damayanti comes from the Mahabharata, in the book of the forest, where a sage tells it to the exiled king Yudhishthira. It was later retold by many poets, including Shriharsha in a twelfth-century Sanskrit poem. The painter Raja Ravi Varma made her scene with the swan famous in Indian art.

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