| Damayanti | |
|---|---|
 Damayanti talking to the celestial swan about Nala. Painting by Raja Ravi Varma | |
| Information | |
| Family | Bhima of Vidarbha (father) |
| Spouse | Nala |
| Children | Indrasena (son) Indrasenā (daughter) |
| Home | Vidarbha kingdom |
Damayanti (Sanskrit: दमयन्ती, romanized: Damayantī) is a figure in a love story found in the Vana Parva book of the Mahabharata.[1] She is the daughter of Bhima (not the Pandava) and a princess of the Vidarbha Kingdom, who marries King Nala of the Nishadha kingdom. The figure is also found in other Hindu texts by many authors in numerous Indian languages.[2] She, along with Nala, are the central figures in the 12th century text Nishadha Charita, one of the five mahakavyas (great epic poems) in the canon of Sanskrit literature,[3][4]: 136 written by Sriharsha.
- ^ J. A. B. van Buitenen (1981). The Mahabharata, Volume 2. University of Chicago Press. pp. 318–322. ISBN 978-0-226-84664-4.
- ^ Roshen Dalal (2010). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books. pp. 109, 191, 282, 316. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6.
- ^ The Indian Encyclopaedia. Genesis Publishing. 2002. p. 5079. ISBN 9788177552577.
- ^ C.Kunhan Raja. Survey of Sanskrit Literature. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. pp. 136, 146–148.