Purūravas and Urvaśī (Vishṇu Purāṇa)
Purūravas was a king of the Lunar dynasty. Urvaśī was the foremost of the apsarās. This account of their love is told in the Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, in the Chaturthāṃśa, Chapter 6. It has twenty-one years of life together, a parting brought about by the Gandharvas, a meeting again at Kurukshetra, the gift of a fire vessel, and the setting up of the Tretāgni, the three sacred fires of Vedic ritual.
Purūravas and Urvaśī meet
Purūravas was the son of Ilā and Budha, the son of Candra. Ilā had become Sudyumna and then returned to the form of Ilā. Purūravas was the first king of the Lunar dynasty. He was a man of rare beauty, great learning and wide generosity.
Urvaśī had been placed under a śāpa (curse) by Mitra and Varuṇa to live in the human world. She saw Purūravas and was at once charmed by him. He too was fully drawn to her. Each was ready to give up every other concern for the other.
Purūravas asked her to be his wife, and Urvaśī agreed, on three conditions:
- The two young rams (meke) that she kept as dear companions must never be taken from her.
- He must never appear before her without his clothes. She must not see him undressed.
- Her food must be only ājya, ghee (clarified butter).
Purūravas agreed.
Twenty-one years together
The two lived together for twenty-one years. They lived in Alakā, in the gardens of Caitraratha, at Mānasa Sarovara and in many lovely forest places. Each day their love grew stronger. Urvaśī forgot all wish to return to the celestial worlds. Purūravas was lost in her saundarya (beauty), her gati (graceful movement), her vilāsa (playfulness), her hāva and bhāva (the fine arts of her looks and feeling).
The Gandharvas step in
The Gandharvas of the celestial worlds were troubled by Urvaśī’s long absence. One night, while the couple slept, some Gandharvas crept to their bed and stole one of the rams. The lamb’s cry reached Urvaśī’s sleeping ears. She cried out in the dark: “Who has taken my child? I have no protector! My husband is useless!”
Purūravas heard her but held back. The conditions of their union did not let him appear before her without clothes in the dark. He did not get up.
The Gandharvas came back and stole the second ram. Again Urvaśī cried out. This time Purūravas felt his pride stung and his anger rise. He seized his sword and ran out naked into the night, shouting: “You villains, you will die today!”
At that moment the Gandharvas made a burst of bright lightning. In the flash Urvaśī saw the king clearly, naked and running. The condition of their union was broken. At that moment she vanished and was gone. The Gandharvas had done what they planned. They left the rams behind and went back to their own world.
The search and the meeting at Kurukshetra
Purūravas came back and found Urvaśī gone. He wandered in deep grief, his hair and clothes in disorder, like a madman. He searched for her in many regions, calling to her and crying over his fate.
At Kurukshetra, beside a lake of lotuses, he found Urvaśī sitting among four other apsarās. He went up to her in his bewildered state, still calling her name.
Urvaśī spoke calmly: “Great king, stop these wild movements. I am now with child. Come back after one year. I will spend one night with you. Your son will be born and given to you.” Purūravas was comforted and thankful, and he went back to his kingdom.
After a year he came back. Urvaśī gave him a son and spent one night with him. In that night she became pregnant with five more sons. The Gandharvas were pleased with Purūravas for his patience and his wish to be near Urvaśī, and they offered him a vara (boon).
Purūravas said: “I do not want a kingdom, wealth or any special power. I want only to live in the same world as Urvaśī: Urvaśī-sālokya.” The Gandharvas gave him an agni-sthālī (fire vessel). They told him: “Perform a yajña with three forms of fire, according to the Veda. Offer it for the winning of Urvaśī-sālokya. You will surely gain what you wish.”
The lost fire and the Aśvattha tree
Purūravas took the agni-sthālī and set out. Part of the way, a moment of carelessness came over him. He was thinking about Urvaśī and the gift, and not about the vessel itself. Without noticing, he left the vessel in the forest and went on to his city.
At midnight he woke and understood what he had done. He went back to the forest at once. But the vessel could not be seen. In its place stood an Aśvattha tree growing out of a Śamī tree (aśvattha-śamī-garbha). It had formed from the agni-sthālī, which had taken root and changed.
Purūravas understood that the fire had taken the form of a tree, and that he must make fire from it by rubbing, with an araṇi (fire-drill). He went back to his city and made an araṇi of the right measure, set by the syllables of the Gāyatrī mantra. He chanted the mantra the whole time. He drew fire from it. With that fire he performed the yajña with three fires as the Gandharvas had told him, offering it for Urvaśī-sālokya.
When the yajña was done, he reached the world of the Gandharvas and was joined to Urvaśī, never to be parted again.
The Tretāgni
The Vishṇu Purāṇa records an important result. At first, in this manvantara, there was only ekāgni, a single fire used in all rituals. Purūravas needed three fires for his yajña for Urvaśī-sālokya. Through this, he set up in this manvantara the Tretāgni, the three sacred fires that are the base of all later Vedic yajña. They are Gārhapatya, Āhavanīya and Dakshiṇa. The word tretā means “three”.
Sources
- Vishṇu Mahā Purāṇa, Chaturthāṃśa, Chapter 6