Damayanti

Damayanti
Damayanti talking to the celestial swan about Nala. Painting by Raja Ravi Varma
Information
FamilyBhima of Vidarbha (father)
SpouseNala
ChildrenIndrasena (son)
Indrasenā (daughter)
HomeVidarbha kingdom

Damayanti (Sanskrit: दमयन्ती, romanizedDamayantī) 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.

  1. ^ J. A. B. van Buitenen (1981). The Mahabharata, Volume 2. University of Chicago Press. pp. 318–322. ISBN 978-0-226-84664-4.
  2. ^ Roshen Dalal (2010). Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide. Penguin Books. pp. 109, 191, 282, 316. ISBN 978-0-14-341421-6.
  3. ^ The Indian Encyclopaedia. Genesis Publishing. 2002. p. 5079. ISBN 9788177552577.
  4. ^ C.Kunhan Raja. Survey of Sanskrit Literature. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. pp. 136, 146–148.