Yayati was one of the ancestors of pandavas who had asur's guru shukrachrya's daughter devayani as his wife.The story of devayani goes as follows-There were frequent wars between asurs(devils) and devtas(gods) and since the devils had shukracharya as their teacher who knew the sanjivani mantra of healing the dead from death he gave the devils their lives back . Since the devtas were frustrated they asked kacha,the on of their guru vrihaspati to go and learn the mantra from him .They said that as he was young and smard he could be highly regarded by his daughter devyani and it would be easier for him than anyone else so he became desiple of shukra .But as the devils came to know about it they slew him for many times and devyani being impressed by him always lamented and asked his father to bring him back to life.The devils frustrated by this once killed him , burnt him to ashes and mixed it in the wine of shukra when he was out of his senses being drunk.When devyani kept lamenting shukra told the mantra ti kacha and asked him to make him alive once he is given life by shukra and hence coming out of his stomach tearing it and the same happened but when asked by devyani to marry her he said that as he came out of her fathers stomach she becomes his sister and hence he can't marry her.Angry on listening this she cursed him that everything he learned of her father would be of no use to him.Dejected by this he in return cursed her that she would not be married with a brahman .Some time passed by and once when she was taking bath by the river side her clothes got mingled with those of sharmishtha the daughter of devil king vrishparva and while fighting over the issue sharmishtha uttered some illicit language against shukra and pushed her into a well . King yayati while passing cured her from the well.Agitated by the behavior of sharmishtha she told her father that she would not live in such a kingdom . Vrishparva afraid of losing shukra asked devyani to ask for something to pacify her and she asked for her daughter and her 1000 maids to be her maid thereafter and so it happened . Once when yayati was passing by devyani proposed him but he said that he could not accept her until she was bestowed to him by her father. Shukra when asked happily arranged the marriage and said that shrmishtha shall although be taken care but should never be taken to bed by him. As the time passed devyani gave birth to 2 sons namely yadu and turvasu .Once when yayati was dwelling into the palace of shrmishtha , shrmishtha said to him that since he was the husband of her friend she also considers her as her husband as a friend's husband may be considered as one's own husband (????)and as it is my season to bear child please bestow upon me a child. Yayati having no answer did so and she gave birth to 3 sons viz. druhyu,aru and puru . When devyani came to know about it , dejected she went to her father who cursed the king to become old with wrinkles just then . When reasoned the sage felt pity and said that this old age could be exchanged for youth with any of your children. When he asked his children all of them refused and were cursed by him except puru.He was hence declared by king his heir and the king enjoyed the youth for 1000 years and then realised that the hunger for these worldly things doesn't end and gave puru back his youth and himself went to forest to live life of a sage.Puru hence remained the king for long time and the dynasty was named after him.Yayati was one of the ancestors of dushmanta the father of bharat.Kuruvansha is so called due to one of the kings of the bharat dynasty named kuru , the son of king samavarna and tapti."Daksha was father of Aditi, and Aditi the mother of Vivaswat, and Vivaswat the father of Manu, and Manu the father of Ha and Ha begat Pururavas. And Pururavas begat Ayus, and Ayus begat Nahusha, and Nahusha begat Yayati. And Yayati had two wives, viz., Devayani, the daughter of Usanas, and Sarmishtha the daughter of Vrishaparvan.Bharat had 9 sons of his 3 wives all not fit to be the kings and were slayed by their mothers . He then performed a yajna and got as a result a son named bhumanyu who was made the king.In this race was born the king shantanu whose story follows.
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