Vedic Mythology c5.s8.t2.13

c5.s8.t2.13

The only one of these names occurring in the RV. is that of Urvaśī. That she was there regarded as an Apsaras, appears from the fact that Vasiṣṭha is said in one verse to have been born of Urvaśī and, in the next, of an Apsaras (7, 33¹¹. ¹²). She is once invoked with the streams (5, 41¹⁹). Her name is otherwise only mentioned⁸ twice in a late and obscure hymn (10, 95¹⁰. ¹⁷), which consists of a dialogue between her and her lover Purūravas, son of Iḷā. She is there described as aqueous (*apyā*), as filling the atmosphere, and traversing space (the latter expression is also applied to the celestial Gandharva in 10, 139⁵). She is said to have spent four autumns among mortals (v. ¹⁶) and is besought to return (v. ¹⁷). The request is apparently refused; but Purūravas receives the promise that his offspring shall worship the gods with the offering, while he himself shall enjoy bliss in heaven (*svarga*: v. ¹⁸). Several verses of this hymn find their setting in a continous story told in the ŚB. (11, 5, 1), which fills in details partly based on a misunderstanding of the text of RV. It is there related that the Apsaras Urvaśī joins herself with Purūravas, son of Iḷā, in an alliance, the permanence of which depends on the condition that she shall never see him naked. The Gandharvas by a stratagem produce a noise during the night. Purūravas springs up naked, when he is seen by Urvaśī illuminated by a flash of lightning. Urvaśī vanishes forthwith. Purūravas wanders about in search of her, till he at last observes her swimming in a lotus lake with other Apsarases in the form of an aquatic bird. Urvaśī discovers herself to him and, in response to his entreaties, consents to receive him for one night a year later⁹. He returns at the appointed time, and on the following day the Gandharvas grant him the boon of becoming one of themselves by producing fire in a particular way. Excepting 10, 95, the name of Purūravas, which means ‘calling aloud’, occurs only in one passage of the RV. (1, 31⁴), where Agni is said to have caused the sky to thunder (*vāśaya*) for the righteous man (*manave*) Purūravas. The word may here, however, have the adjectival sense. Purūravas and Urvaśī have by some scholars¹⁰ been interpreted as sun and dawn.