The fight between Sharmishtha and Devyani

Sharmishtha was the daughter of the Demon King Vrishparva and Devyani was the daughter of the priest of demons, Shukracharya. They were very good friends and spent most of their time together. One day, they were bathing in the lake and enjoying themselves playing with the water when Indra, the god of thunder and lightening saw them. In order to play a prank on them, he turned himself into a strong gust of wind and mixed all their clothes. He then disappeared from there. When the girls came out from the water, it was difficult for them to differentiate their clothes. Sharmishtha wore the clothes of Devyani by mistake. When Devyani saw her clothes on Shrmishtha, she lost her temper. She said that being the daughter of a demon she had no right to wear her clothes. At this Sharmishtha too lost her cool and retorted that she had every right to do as she pleased because she was the daughter of a king where Devyani's father was a mere employee.

Things went out of hand as the two women started scuffling and pulling at each other's clothes. The short-tempered Sharmishta lost all control over reason and pushed her friend in a well and thinking that Devyani must be dead went back to the palace. It so happened that King Yayati came along this way while hunting. He came to the well as he and his horse needed a drink. When he looked inside the well, he saw a beautiful woman instead of the water. The king was intrigued and asked who she was and how she fell into the well. Devyani introduced herself and narrated her unfortunate story. She then requested the king to pull her out holding her right hand as saving her life would be the duty of a king. Yayati, thinking she was a Brahmin's daughter pulled her out of the well. Devyani was hurt and angry and went to the kingdom of Vrishparva and sent a message to her father Shukracharya that after this insult she would not enter the city. Shukracharya came to meet his daughter and asked her whether she has said something which irked Sharmishtha enough to do what she did. Devyani then narrated the whole incident and asked her father if it was true that he was a mere employee of the King and lived on his charity.

On this Shukracharya said that he was no mere employee but the head priest of the king and did not live on charity. He said that he was a chaste Brahmin and was revered by all the kings and had within his power nature and the ability to breathe life into a dead person. Shukracharya then went to the court of Vrishparva and told him that arrogance and anger destroy the soul of a person and nothing good happens to them. He narrated the whole incident to the king and said that he will have to leave his kingdom as his daughter was not ready to stay. Vrishparva was contrite and apologised to the saint and pleaded with him not to leave his kingdom. Shukracharya than told him to placate his daughter and only then he would stay. Vrishparva went to Devyani and pleaded with her to stay.

Devyani said that she would stay only on the condition that Sharmishtha become her maid with one thousand other maids. Vrishparva then went to his daughter and told her that she will have to become the maid of Devyani as he could not afford to anger Shukracharya. He told her that she would have to make this sacrifice for the well being of her subjects for whose welfare she too was responsible. Sharmishtha then went to Devyani and told her that she would serve as her maid for as long as she wishes. Devyani asked her why she had agreed to serve as a maid to the daughter of a mere employee who lived on her father's charity. Sharmishtha replied that she had done so because if Shukracharya left, then her whole clan would be in trouble. So to safe her father's kingdom ad his subjects she had agreed to serve Devyani. This pleased Devyani and she agreed to enter the city and went to live with her father in his ashram.