Urvaśī and Purūravas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa)
Urvaśī was an apsaras (a celestial dancer) of Indra’s court. King Purūrava belonged to the Lunar dynasty. Their story is told in the 9th Skanda of the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa. It tells of their union, the conditions Urvaśī set for their life together, the plot of the gandharvas to part them, their sad meeting again at Kurukshetra, and how Purūrava, through his longing for her, found the three Vedic fires.
The coming together
Urvaśī was under a śāpa (a curse) from Mitra and Varuṇa. She had to live for a time in the human world. Nārada Devarshi came to Indra’s court and spoke of Purūrava, the king of the Lunar dynasty. He told of his fine form, his noble qualities, his generosity, his wealth and his strength. When Urvaśī heard this, she was already struck by the arrows of Manmatha, and she went to Purūrava of her own accord.
Purūrava saw her and was filled with joy. He asked her to stay and enjoy life with him for many years. Urvaśī agreed on three conditions:
- Two rams that she would leave in his care must never be stolen.
- He must never appear naked before her, except in their private time together.
- She would eat only ghee.
Purūrava accepted all three with joy.
They lived together for many months and years. They enjoyed the gardens of the devas, Caitraratha, Nandana and others. The scent of her face made him dizzy with delight. Then Indra noticed that she was gone, and he sent gandharvas to bring her back. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skanda, Chapter 14)
The parting
At midnight, in deep darkness, the gandharvas stole the two rams. Urvaśī heard them cry out. She spoke harshly to Purūrava: “You call yourself a hero, yet you sleep like a woman at night. A thief is carrying off my children, and you do nothing.”
Purūrava jumped up, took his sword and ran after the thieves. He was naked, because the hour was dark. The gandharvas had done what they came to do. They let the rams go and lit the sky with flashes of lightning. In that light Urvaśī saw him without clothes. The second condition was broken, and she vanished.
Purūrava came back and found her gone. He wandered the earth like a madman, thinking only of her and searching everywhere. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skanda, Chapter 14)
The meeting at Kurukshetra
On the bank of the river Sarasvatī at Kurukshetra, Purūrava found Urvaśī with five companions, all with joyful faces. In the words of an ancient Vedic sūkta (hymn), he begged her to stay. He said that if she left him, his body would fall and wolves would eat it.
Urvaśī spoke plainly about the hearts of women. She said they do not fix themselves for ever on one man, and that they are like wolves. Yet she did not send him away with nothing. She told him she was carrying his child. She promised him one night together after a full year.
When the year had passed, Purūrava went to her city. She had given birth to a son. They spent the night happily. In the morning she saw his grief at parting and told him to please the gandharvas, who could give her back to him. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skanda, Chapter 14)
The three Vedic fires
Purūrava praised the gandharvas with devotion. They were pleased and gave him a vessel of fire. They meant that by worship with fire he might reach their world. But in his longing Purūrava took the vessel for Urvaśī herself and wandered in the forest with it. Only later did he see that it was only fire. He put the vessel down and went home, thinking of Urvaśī alone.
At that moment Tretāyuga began. With it, knowledge of the three Vedas, Ṛk, Yajus and Sāman, rose in Purūrava. (In Kṛtayuga there had been only one Veda in the form of the praṇava, one deva, Nārāyaṇa, one fire, and one varṇa, Haṃsa.)
Purūrava went back to the forest where he had left the vessel of fire. There he found an aśvattha tree growing from the root of a śamī tree. He made two araṇī sticks from its wood. Then he meditated with Vedic mantras and churned the fire. The lower stick stood for Urvaśī, the upper for himself, and the stick that rubs between them for their son. From this churning fire was born.
He divided it into three fires: āhavanīya, gārhapatya and anvāhāryapacana. He took this threefold fire as his son. Through these three fires he offered yajña to Śrī Hari. He had several sons from Urvaśī, and in the end he reached the world of the Gandharvas. (Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skanda, Chapter 14)
What this account marks
Purūrava’s acts at the dawn of Tretāyuga gave rise to the threefold Vedic fire that shaped the yajña life of that age. Through his longing for Urvaśī he found not only fire but its three sacred forms and the three Vedas.
Sources
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 9th Skanda, Chapter 14