Chandravamsha or Lunar dynasty starts from King Pururavas. He is the son of Ila and Budh.

Chandravamsha kings are driven by their love and unstable mind. It starts from him too.

He saw an apsara – the celestial dancer – Urvashi on earth once. Immediately he fell in love with her. No need to explain, because Urvashi is considered to be the most beautiful among all. Even the cattle, flowers, men, women like to see her and touch her if possible. She rarely comes to earth. Mostly she stays with Indra in Amravati. Indra can not live without her.

Pururavas propose to Urvashi and beg her to marry him. Urvashi agreed based on her conditions. She wanted him to take care of her pet goats. She does not want him to expose his nudity to anyone else other than her.

Pururavas agreed immediately. We could see same behavior in rest of the chandravamshi-s too. They were married and lived a loveable life.

There comes the twist. Indra can not live without her. Not sure, if Indrani – Indra’s wife – knows him very well! He wanted to bring Urvashi back to Amravati. He conspires and ordered celestial musicians Gandharvas to steal Urvashi’s pet goats first.

When Urvashi was making love with Pururavas, Gandharva-s stole her goats (or make sounds like goats being as if they were being stolen) . She shouted at Pururavas that her goats are screaming and they are being stolen. Poor Pururavas realized about his promise and ran behind the goats. Alas, he did not realize that he is nude. The spoofy Devendra flashed a lightening using his vajrayutha, so that Pururavas’ nudity is exposed to outer world.

Both promises of Pururavas were broken. The contract is breached. Urvashi flies back to Swarga – the heaven – again. Pururavas tries hard to convince her. He even beg her to be with him. Nothing worked out.

After she left, Pururavas was into depression. He did not do his responsibilities as a king or father. His thrown is given to his son. He roamed around forest in search of Urvashi. A beautiful love story came to a tragic end.

Ho there, my consort! Stay, thou fierce-souled lady, and let us reason for a while together.
Such thoughts as these of ours, while yet unspoken in days gone by have never brought us comfort.

What am I now to do with this thy saying? I have gone from thee like the first of Mornings.
Pururavas, return thou to thy dwelling: I, like the wind, am difficult to capture.

Tamil Translation:
என் துணைவியே! சற்று இரு, கடுமையான ஆன்மா கொண்ட பெண்ணே, சிறிது நேரம் நாம் ஒன்றாகப் பேசுவோம்.
கடந்த நாட்களில் இன்னும் சொல்லப்படாத நம்முடைய இந்த எண்ணங்கள் நமக்கு ஆறுதலைத் தந்ததில்லையே.

உமது இந்த சொற்களை வைத்து நான் இப்போது என்ன செய்ய முடியும்? நான் உன்னை விட்டு விடியற்காலை போல் சென்றுவிட்டேன்.
புரூரவஸ், நீ உன் இருப்பிடத்திற்குத் திரும்பு: நான், காற்றைப் போல, பிடிப்பது கடினம்!

The Rig Veda Mandala 10, Hymn 95

The painting by Raja Ravi Varma painfully portrays the break-up. The agony and grief of Pururavas and the painful farewell in Urvashi mesmerize us.

References / Gratitude:

• The illustrated Mahabharata, Dorling Kindersley India, Penguin Random House, 1st Ed. 2017
• wikipedia.org

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