34 Srimad-Bhagavatam [Canto 9, Ch. 18

Therefore he carried out Sukracarya’ s order and served him like a
slave. He gave his daughter Sarmistha to Devayani, and Sarmistha
served Devayani like a slave, along with thousands of other
women.

PURPORT

In the beginning of these affairs concerning Sarmistha and Devayani,
we saw that Sarmistha had many friends. Now these friends became
maidservants of Devayani. When a girl married a ksatriya king, it was
customary for all her girl friends to go with her to her husband’s house.
For instance, when Vasudeva married Devaki, the mother of Krsna, he
married all six of her sisters, and she also had many friends who ac-
companied her. A king would maintain not only his wife but also the
many friends and maidservants of his wife. Some of these maidservants
would become pregnant and give birth to children. Such children were
accepted as dasi-putra, the sons of the maidservants, and the king would
maintain them. The female population is always greater than the male,
but since a woman needs to be protected by a man, the king would main-
tain many girls, who acted either as friends or as maidservants of the
queen. In the history of Krsna’s household life we find that Krsna mar-
ried 16,108 wives. These were not maidservants but direct queens, and
Krsna expanded Himself into 16,108 forms to maintain different
establishments for each and every wife. This is not possible for ordinary
men. Therefore although the kings had to maintain many, many servants
and wives, not all of them had different establishments.

TEXT 30
TET Gat Tea aE Alisa |
THe UsPoMerarAeY 4 BAT oll
nahusdya sutam dattva
saha Sarmisthayosana

tam aha rajan charmistham

adhas talpe na karhicit

ndhusdya—unto King Yayati, the descendant of Nahusa; suta@m—his
daughter; dattva—giving in marriage; saha—with; sarmisthaya—
