She Chose the King: Sasikala and the Politics of Female Choice in the Devi Bhagavata Purana

A Raja's daughter awaits in a heavily guarded palace while war elephants as well as soldiers in full armor and a host of flags take over the courtyard below. Various kings, princes, and warlords visit Kashi, bringing with them maximum wealth, glorious ancestry, and political ambition. Soon, a marriage assembly, known as swayamvara, will start, and the princess will have to come to this tense meeting and make a marriage choice. As this situation makes reference to one of the greatest tropes of Sanskrit literature, the noble maiden in front of her nuptial choice, with the flower wreath in her hand, one has to ask what will happen if the princess has made up her mind well before the swayamvara. What if she chooses for herself without taking into consideration the political situation and importance of her choice?

Within the Devi Bhagavata Purana, we find an instance in which Sasikala, daughter of King Subahu of Kashi, is to attend her Swayamvara. However, long before she arrives, she has already selected Sudarsana, a prince in exile who dwells in the wilderness. This presents a dilemma, not for lack of options available to her but because her choice is contrary to the political circumstances of the wedding. Thus, Sasikala's story brings forth a question that is more complex than that concerning the status of women in choosing their husbands in any Sanskrit text: What are the implications of a woman's private choice as a political act?

Before we can begin to think about why Sasikala’s choice created so much institutional conflict, it is necessary to first look at the legal categorization of the swayamvara set forth in classical Sanskrit texts and dharmashastras. In the Devi Bhagavata Purana, there are three different types of swayamvara recognized: the Pana-bandha Swayamvara, which is a conditional set of games in which the bride is given to the winner of a certain task (such as Rāma lifting the bow of Shiv in the Ramayaṇa); the Shaurya-sulka Swayaṃvara in which the bride acts as the "bride-price of valor" (shaurya-sulka), being awarded to the winner of a duel; and the Iccha Swayamvara which is based solely on the wishes and desires of the bride (manoratha). King Subahu of Kashi announces an Iccha Swayamvara for his daughter and thereby creates a legal obligation to respect her will. Moreover, this tradition of law is found in texts such as Manusmṛti (9.90), which state that, if a family has failed to arrange a marriage, a girl has the right to choose a husband.

Choosing to utilize the Iccha framework does bring in past legal jurisprudence (dharma) by King Subahu. However, the announcement of Sasikala's choice in a clandestine manner creates a systemic crisis. By deciding before the ceremonial selection, she converts a public assembly from an event of active decision-making into a mere event of confirmation of her private choice. She does not simply resist passively; instead, she demonstrates effective foresightedness through words (manasa vrta) and stealth diplomatic actions (duta-sampresana). Thus, when she instructs one of her acquaintances to secretly notify her mother, she makes her decision final.

इदं मे मातरं ब्रूहि त्वमेकान्ते वचो मम । मया वृतः पतिश्चित्ते ध्रुवसन्धिसुतः शुभः

In private, convey my words to my mother: 'In my heart, I have chosen the auspicious son of Dhruvasandhi as my husband.' (Devi Bhagavata Purana 3.18.46)

Sudarsana holds a precarious political position. Following the passing of his father, King Dhruvasandhi, King Yudhajit of Ujjayini brought about the bloody civil war that resulted in Sudarsana being driven out. Without land, army and the rights of a king, Sudarsana is forced to live in the woods. Choosing him does not give Kashi the benefits of military might, security or riches. To ease parental discontent with her choice and shield her decision from realpolitik, Sasikala dresses her choice as a divine act (devata dharana), thereby raising a private desire to the level of the sacred duty. By making it divine, she elevates her decision beyond patriarchal bargaining. Instead of sitting and waiting idly in her quarters (antahpura), Sasikala dispatches a trusted family priest (kula-purohita) to Sudarsana urging him to get to Kashi without delay. When Sudarsana appears in Kashi without any arms, the gathered kings turn into two groups which start an argument on authority, might, and legal rights. The realists, who are headed by King Yudhajit, claim that a prince without land and in exile cannot own any kingdom's possessions or marry someone of high status, and they think about marriage merely as a type of dealing of military power and political alliances. The opposing neutral monarchs standing for the legality of the Iccha Swayamvara are silenced by the realist argument.

अकैतवकृतं नूनं सुखदं भवति स्त्रियाः । भगवत्या समादिष्टं स्वप्ने वरमनुत्तमम्

I have seen in my dream that the Goddess Bhagavatī has ordained him to be my husband; how can I now accept any other body as my husband than him? (Devi Bhagawata Purana 3.19.12)

तमृतेऽहं कथं चान्यं संश्रयामि नृपात्मजम् । मच्चित्तभित्तौ लिखितो भगवत्या सुदर्शनः

The Devī Bhuvaneśvarī has pictured his frame firmly in my heart; I will never be able to leave my dearest beautiful husband and to contract marriage with any other person. (Devi Bhagawata Purana 3.19.13)

This legal discussion highlights a major conflict in classical Indian statecraft: if scripture (shastra) recognizes female agency (kanya-adhikara), then the application of brute force to eliminate it destroys the moral justification for royal power (dharma). The story of Sasikala illustrates historical occurrences throughout pre-modern South Asia, where women of royal blood often wielded significant political power via marriage alliances, sovereign orders, and protection of religion. The copper plates of the Queen Prabhavatigupta (Vakataka dynasty, 5th century AD) sample royal women's exercise of sovereignty in land-granting usages of sovereign power and tracing lineage and religion to legitimize political power.

In the same vein, the Kashmir inscriptions of Queen Didda testify to royal women's combat over succession matters. In the Kadamba inscriptions of the 11th-12th centuries, we see royal women retaining full control over the management of estates. Inscriptions from the Kadamba dynasty dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries, and copper plates from the Sulki queens from Odisha in the 9th and 10th centuries illustrate how royal women had the means to manage properties, build temples, and function through formal documents without any male counterparts to vouch for them in these turbulent times. This historical evidence supports the fact that Sasikala’s story did not exist in a vacuum. The royal women operated without any hurdles in legal matters, managing estates and exercising political power.

King Subahu ultimately endorses the wishes of his daughter and marries her to Sudarsana despite the presence of the armies of opposing warriors. This sparks off instant conflict; King Yudhajit and others attack. However, Sudarsana wins the battle thanks to the blessings of Goddess Bhagavati and returns home to take his ancestral throne of Ayodhya. Sasikala’s decision  saw that there was a politically unsafe environment, that she could do something about it with her acknowledged power of Iccha Swayamvara (the right to choose a husband from different contenders), and she took advantage of the right she had to change the balance of power between several different kingdoms. It is true to say that Sasikala did not have an absolute power that can be called modern independence that is separate from norms of society. Moreover, Sasikala did not act like a passive puppet, but she used institutional agency, exploiting her legal rights, engaging in diplomatic dialogue, and using religion to impose her vision on powerful political players. The Devi Bhagavata Purana gives an excellent example of how the story of Sasikala raises a serious question about the legitimacy of royal power: when the princess has the right to choose, the men around her face the political implications of her choice. This is the beauty of the Sanatana Dharma which gives inner strength and will to a woman to stand for its rights along with following her duties.

REFERENCES:

Devi Bhagavata Purana, Book III. Vijnanananda, Swami, trans. The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam. Allahabad: The Panini Office, 1921.

Manusmriti 9.90.

Hazra, R. C. Studies in the Upapuranas. Vol. II. Calcutta: Sanskrit College, 1963.

Coburn, Thomas B. Devi- Mahatmya: The Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984.