The story of Urvashi and Pururava is an eye-opener for those who ignore dharma and give preference to physical beauty. King Pururava was a very pious king, envied even by gods, but failed for the celestial nymph, Urvashi, and forgot his duties toward his family and people. But in the end, he got his lesson.
The story of Urvashi and Pururava can be found in the Rig Veda, Shathapatha Brahmanas, Harivamsha Purana, Vishnu Purana, Mahabharata, Vayu Purana, Matsya Purana, and Devi Bhagavata Purana. There are about eight versions of this story.
However, the original story is in the Rig Veda, which consists of 18 verses. Most probably, Sage Vashishta is the author of this hymn.
The Story of Urvashi and Pururava from the Rig Veda (10.95):
1. Ho there, my consort! Stay, you fierce-souled lady, and let us a reason for a while together. Such thoughts as these of ours, while yet unspoken in days gone by, have never brought us comfort.
2. What am I now to do with this your saying? I have gone from you like the first of Mornings. Pururavas, return you to your dwelling: I, like the wind, being difficult to capture.
3. Like a shaft sent for glory from the quiver, or swift-steed winning cattle winning hundreds. The lightning seemed to flash, as cowards planned it. The minstrels bleated like a lamb in trouble.
4. Giving her husband’s father life and riches, from the near dwelling, when her lover craved her, she sought the home wherein she found her pleasure, accepting day and night her lord’s embraces.
5. Thrice in the day did you embrace your consort, though coldly she received your fond caresses. To your desires, Pururavas, I yielded: so was you king, O hero, of my body.
6. The maids Sujirni, Sreni, Sumne-api, Charanyu, Granthini, and Hradecaksus, – these like red kine have hastened forth, the bright ones, and like milch-cows have lowed in emulation.
7. While he was born, the Dames sat down together, the Rivers with free kindness gave him nurture; And then, Pururavas, the Gods increased you for mighty battle, to destroy the Dasyus.
8. When I, a mortal, wooed to mine embraces these heavenly nymphs who laid aside their raiment, like a scared snake, they fled from me in terror, like chariot horses when the car has touched them.
9. When loving these Immortal Ones, the mortal hath converse with the nymphs as they allow him. Like swans, they show the beauty of their bodies like horses in their play, they bite and nibble.
10. She who flashed brilliantly as the falling lightning brought me delicious presents from the waters. Now from the flood, be born a strong young hero, May Urvashi prolong her life forever.
11. Your birth has made me drink from earthly milch-kine: this power, Pururavas, have you vouchsafed me. I knew and warned you on that day. You would not hear me. What sayest you when naught avails you?
12. When will the son be born and seek his father? Mourner-like, will he weep when first he knows him? Who shall divide the accordant wife and husband while fire is shining with your consort’s parents?
13. I will console him when his tears are falling: he shall not weep and cry for care that blesses. That which is yours, between us, will I send you. Go home again, you fool; you have not won me.
14. Your lover shall flee forth this day forever to seek, without return, the farthest distance. Then let his bed be in destruction’s bosom, and there let fierce rapacious wolves devour him.
15. Nay, do not die, Pururavas, nor vanish: let not the evil-omened wolves devour you. With women, there can be no lasting friendship: the hearts of hyenas are the hearts of women.
16. When amid men in altered shape I sojourned, and through four autumns spent the nights among them, I tasted once a day a drop of butter; and even now with that am I am contented.
17. I, her best love, call Urvashi to meet me, her who fills air and measures out the region. Let the gift brought by piety approach you. Turn you to me again: my heart is troubled.
18. Thus speak these Gods to you, O son of Iḷā: As death has verily got you for his subject, your sons shall serve the Gods with their oblation, and you, moreover, shall rejoice in Svarga.
The Story of Urvashi and Pururava from Devi Bhagavat Purana:
When the king Sudyumna had gone up to the heavens, the religious king Pururava, endowed with great beauty and many qualities, and able to please the minds of his subjects began to govern his kingdom well, according to Dharma, with his heart intent on governing his people. Nobody knew what his counsel was, but he was very clever in knowing otherś counsels. He was always highly energetic, and his lordly power was great. The four methods of warfare, Viz. conciliation, giving gifts, sowing dissensions, and war, were fully under his control. He saw that his subjects practiced religion according to Varnashrama dharma, and thus he began to govern his kingdom. Pururava, the lord of men, performed various sacrifices with the abundance of Dakshinas (sacrificial fees) and also gave away much in various charities, causing great wonder and astonishment.
His extraordinary beauty and qualities, liberality and good nature, his unbounded wealth and prowess made the Apsara Urvashi think of him often. She wanted him to satisfy her. Some time passed when Urvashi had to descend on this earth, due to a curse pronounced on her by a Brahmin; and she chose king Pururava as her husband, thinking him to be a perfect man.
She then addressed the king and made the following contract:
“O, king, giving honor due to everybody! I keep these two young sheep in trust and deposit with you; kindly look after these and, then, my honor will be preserved by you. O, king! I will take ghee daily and nothing else for my food, and there is one word more; O king! Let me not see you naked, except when you hold sexual intercourse. O, king, I say this truly, that, in case there be any breach in this contract, I will instantly leave you and go away.”
The king accepted this contract of her. Urvashi too remained there according to the above contract and also to pass away the period of her curse. During this time, the king was fascinated with the love of Urvashi and became so very much attached to her, that he left all his duties and dharma and remained long for many, many years in enjoying her. The king’s mind was so deeply absorbed in her that he could not remain alone without her, even for a moment.
Thus many years passed away, when, once on a time, Indra, the lord of the gods, not seeing Urvashi, asked the Gandharvas and said, “O, Gandharvas! Better go and steal away the two young sheep in a proper time from the palace of Pururava, and then bring Urvashi here. My Nandana garden is now void of all beauty without her; so bring the lady here anyhow or other.” Thus spoken by Indra, Vishvavasu and other gods went to Pururava’s palace. When it was dark in the night and when Pururava was holding sexual intercourse with Urvashi, stole away the two young sheep.
They, when being carried away in the sky, cried out so piteously that Urvashi came to hear that as if of her two sons, and angrily spoke to the king, “O king! Now the contract that I made with you is verily fulfilled! It is that I placed my implicit confidence on you that my misfortune has befallen on me; See! The thieves are stealing away the two sheep, my sons as they were! How then are you sleeping here like a woman? Alas! I am ruined in having an impotent husband who vainly boasts of his prowess! Where are my two young sheep today that are dearer to me than my life?”
Thus seeing Urvashi wailing, the king Pururava, the lord of the Universe, ran after the Gandharvas instantly without any sense as it were, left in him, naked. The Gandharvas, then, cast rays of lightning in that room, and Urvashi, willing to leave, saw the king naked when the Gandharvas left the two young sheep there and went away. The tired king brought the two sheep back to his house in that naked state. Then Urvashi, too, seeing the husband naked, went away immediately to heaven. Seeing Urvashi going away, the king wailed very much with a very grievous heart. Then, being very much bewildered by the bereavement of Urvashi, with his senses beyond control and deluded by passion, wandered about in various countries, crying and giving vent to sorrow.
Thus, wandering all over the globe, he came once to Kurukṣettra and saw Urvashi; then, with a gladdened face said, “O beloved! Wait, wait for a moment. My mind is all absorbed in you. It is quite innocent and submissive to you. So you ought not to forsake me in such a dire difficult time. O, Devi! For the sake of you, I have traveled very far. O Beautiful One! The body that you embraced before, will now, forsaken by you, fall here and will be devoured by crows and wolves, and other carnivorous animals.”
Seeing the king, tired and passion struck, greatly distressed, and with a very sorrowful heart and wailing, Urvashi spoke out, “O king! You are certainly a quite senseless man. Whither has gone your extraordinary knowledge now? O, king! Do you not know that the pure unalloyed love of women cannot take place with any other as the love of a wolf cannot fall on any man. Therefore, the earthly men ought never to trust a bit to women and thieves. So go back to your palace and enjoy the pleasures of the kingdom. Do not drown your mind further in sorrows.” The king Pururava, though thus brought to senses by Urvashi, was so much fascinated by her love that his heart did not feel any consolation; rather he felt indescribable pain, being held up in bondage by her love.
The Story of Urvashi and Pururava from Vishnu Purana (Book 4, Chapter 4):
The story in the Vishnu Purana is nearly the same as mentioned in the Devi Bhagavata Purana except for the end part. Therefore, I am giving here only the end part of this version. This version of the story is happy-ending and not tragic like the above.
When the year had expired, Urvashi and the monarch met at Kurukṣetra, and she consigned to him his first-born Ayus; and they repeated their annual interviews until she had borne to him five sons. She then said to Pururavas, “Through regard for me, all the Gandharvas have expressed their joint purpose to bestow upon my lord their benediction: let him, therefore, demand a boon.” The king replied, “My enemies are all destroyed, my faculties are all entire; I have friends and kindred, armies and treasures: there is nothing which I may not obtain except living in the same region with my Urvashi. My only desire therefore is, to pass my life with her.”
When he had thus spoken, the Gandharvas brought to Pururavas a vessel with fire, and said to him, “Take this fire, and, according to the precepts of the Vedas, divide it into three fires; then fixing your mind upon the idea of living with Urvashi, offer oblations, and you shall assuredly obtain your wishes.” The Rājā took the brasier, and departed, and came to a forest. Then he began to reflect that he had committed a great folly in bringing away the vessel of fire instead of his bride; and leaving the vessel in the wood, he went disconsolate to his palace. In the middle of the night, he awoke and considered that the Gandharvas had given him the brasier to enable him to obtain the felicity of living with Urvashi and that it was absurd in him to have left it by the way.
Resolving therefore to recover it, he arose, and went to the place where he had deposited the vessel; but it was not there. In its stead, he saw a young Ashvattha tree growing out of a Shami plant, and he reasoned with himself, and said, “I left in this spot a vessel of fire, and now behold a young Ashvattha tree growing out of a Shami plant. Verily I will take these types of fire to my capital, and there, having engendered fire by their attrition, I will worship it.”
Having thus determined, he took the plants to his city, and prepared their wood for attrition, with pieces of as many inches long as there are syllables in the Gayatri: he recited that holy verse and rubbed together sticks of as many inches as he recited syllables in the Gayatri. Having thence elicited fire, he made it threefold, according to the injunctions of the Vedas, and offered oblations with it, proposing as the end of the ceremony reunion with Urvashi.
In this way, celebrating many sacrifices agreeably to the form in which offerings are presented with fire, Pururavas obtained a seat in the sphere of the Gandharvas and was no more separated from his beloved. Thus fire, that was at first but one was made threefold in the present Manvantara by the son of Ila.
Conclusion:
Although the story in the Vishnu Purana ends happily, generally this the story of Urvashi and Pururava is considered a tragic love story. This story teaches us that we should never divulge from the path of Dharma. Otherwise, suffering is inevitable.
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