Women in Mahabharata - Sammata
She is the daughter of the Turvasu king Marutta of Vaishali. This king was known as an 'ayogava-raja'.
Ayogava is used to describe a child of a Shudra father and a Vaishya mother, similar to how Suta is used for a child with a Kshatriya father and a Brahmin mother (Karna/Adhiratha, Lomaharshana/Ugrasrava), or how Parashava is used for someone with a Shudra mother and a Brahmin father (Vidura).
This might or might not have been true, since Marutta is linked unambiguously with Devayani's younger son Turvasu's lineage, but it does indicate to the level of respect (or the lack thereof) that Marutta was able to command, which led him to a conflict with Vrihaspati and Sakra.
At a time when constant Yadava-Haihaya attacks had all but erased Puru's lineage off the map, Marutta performed a great yajna with Vrihaspati's younger brother Samvarta as the purohit as a way to get back at Vrihaspati for ghosting him in favour of Sakra.
At the end of this yajna Marutta 'donates' his daughter Sammata to Samvarta as a 'slave' as dakshina.
Samvarta takes pity on her and marries her off to a kingdom-less descendant of the Puru dynasty, who is sometimes identified as Ilina, although it is not confirmed if they are a man/women or the husband/father-in-law/mother-in-law of Sammata.
Dushyanta, the husband of Shakuntala, is the child of that marriage.
Marutta, upon finding out, does not accept Sammata back, but takes away Dushyanta to Vaishali to bring him up as his son.
When Dushyanta grows up, taking advantage of previous advances made by Madhavi's son Pratardana and Sumati's husband Sagara, he defeats the Yadavas and the Haihayas re-annexes Pratishthana and other surrounding areas. However, instead of his father's home-city he chooses a capital northward, closer to the area where his descendants would later find the city of Hastinapura.
Thus, Turvasu's lineage merges into Puru's, leaving the Pauravas and Yadavas as the only living descendants of Yayati, Druhyu and Anu's lines having been extinguished much earlier.
"Pauravaanaang Vanshakaro Dushyanto Naama Veeryavaan" - is how Vaishampayana describes Dushyanta- as the man who engineered the rebirth of Puru's line.
Dushyanta is proud enough of his unknown father's heritage, but does all he can to hide his mother's 'lowered' status from the wider society.
Hence, when he insults Shakuntala's mother Menaka by addressing her as the daughter of a 'wayward' woman, Shakuntala hits back by ever so gently bringing up Sammata (thankfully, not by name) until Dushyana back off, embarrassed.
It is truly unfortunate that the woman who was perhaps instrumental in the revolutionary comeback of the central family of Mahabharata is not even accorded the basic respect of a single mention within the main epic.
