Urvaśī and Raibhya

The apsarā Urvaśī was sent by Indra to break the tapas (austerity) of a ṛshi named Raibhya in the Himālaya. Raibhya cursed her, and she was freed from the curse at a tīrtha in Ayodhyā. That place is called Urvaśīkuṇḍa. This account is told in the Ayodhyā Māhātmya of the Skanda Mahā Purāṇa.

Raibhya’s tapas

A ṛshi named Raibhya did great tapas on the slopes of the Himālaya. He kept from food and held his senses under strict control. The Skanda Purāṇa says that he is a different person from the Raibhya of the Mahābhārata.

His tapas was so strong that Indra, the lord of the suras, became afraid. The power gathered by such tapas might let Raibhya challenge the realm of the devas, or win varas (boons) that could change the order of the world. As Indra does in such cases, he sent Urvaśī, the most beautiful of all the apsarās, to put an obstacle in the ṛshi’s tapas.

Urvaśī comes to the āśrama

Urvaśī came to the slopes of the Himālaya and settled near Raibhya’s fine āśrama (hermitage). She played in the lovely forest around it. There were bowers of creepers and bushes full of flowers. Birds sang sweetly, and deer stood still, listening to the playful songs of the Kinnarī women. The forest shone golden with the pollen and flowers of the Punnāga, Keśara and Aśoka trees. It looked like a second Mount Meru made by Brahmā.

The Māhātmya describes Urvaśī’s beauty at length. She shone like white pearls. She was full of the sweetness of youth. Her side-glances spread a white light. Her lips were like fresh shoots. Bunches of mango flowers hung from her ears, with bees humming round them. Her waist was slender, her hips broad and her skin fair. She seemed a Pārijāta creeper born from the nectar of the devas, and a spear in the hands of Kāmadeva, the deva of love. Her presence was as if Kāmadeva, who had been burned by the fire of Śiva’s third eye, had made a new body for himself to deceive the three-eyed Bhagavān Śiva.

The ṛshi’s anger

Raibhya saw the large-eyed woman near his āśrama. She had tucked a creeper of the āśrama into her girdle and put its flowers in her earrings, as if she belonged to the very place of his tapas. The sight stirred his senses. He became very angry. He blazed with rage and cursed her:

“Become very ugly, O woman, too proud of your beauty. You have come near me to cause obstacles in my tapas.”

Urvaśī’s plea

Struck by the curse, Urvaśī folded her hands and spoke to the ṛshi with respect:

“O holy master, be pleased with me. I was only a tool in the hands of others and wholly in their power. O ṛshi of firm vows, how can I be freed from your curse?”

Raibhya accepted that she had not come of her own will.

The cure at Ayodhyā

Raibhya softened and told her the way to be freed:

“In Ayodhyā there is a very great and holy tīrtha. Take your holy bath there and win back your great beauty. That tīrtha will surely become famous by your name.”

Urvaśī followed his word with great faith. She came to Ayodhyā and bathed at the tīrtha he had named. Her great beauty came back at once.

Urvaśīkuṇḍa

The holy place where Urvaśī’s beauty was restored became famous for ever as Urvaśīkuṇḍa. Any person, man or woman, who bathes here by the rules gains great charm and beauty. The yearly festival falls on the third day of the bright half of Bhādrapada.

Sources

• Skanda Mahā Purāṇa, Vaishṇava Khaṇḍa, Ayodhyā Māhātmya, chapter 7
• Mahābhārata (named only to say that this Raibhya is a different person from the Raibhya of the Mahābhārata)