A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s7.102

v1.c8.s7.102

The very old myth, already known to the singers of the Ṛgveda, of Purūravas and Urvaśī, narrated in the Śatapatha-Brāhmaṇa,¹ is such an oasis in the desert. It is there related how the nymph (Apsaras) Urvaśī loved the king Purūravas, how she stated her conditions when she became his wife, and how the Gandharvas caused him to violate one of these conditions. Then she eluded him, and Purūravas, wailing and lamenting, wandered throughout the whole of Kurukṣetra until he came to a lotus-pond, where nymphs were swimming about in the form of swans. Among them was Urvaśī and there ensued the dialogue which is already known to us from the dialogue verses of the Ṛgveda.