PURURAVAS. pbTeriVra-vas. A legendary king of ancient India, renowned for his kingly virtue, and personal beauty, and still more fa mous on account of his love for the Apsaras, or celestial betzera Urvagi. Seeing Pururavas, and seen by him, their mutual love was sealed on condition that he would never suffer two ram-‘. which she always kept near her bedside, to be carried from her. and that she should never see him naked. The Gandharvas. chorister in Indra's heaven. and lover: of the Apsarases. being jealous of Pururavas, stole the rams (luring the night. At this Pururavas was enraged, and. trusting that Urvasfi would not see him. as it was dark. rose in pursuit of the robbers. At that moment. however. the Uandharvas caused a flash of lightning to irradiate the scene, and Urva,sd be held the King. The compact was violated. and Urva4i disappeared. Pururavas could find her nowhere. Like one insane. he wandered over the world until he saw her at Knrukshetra, sport in, with four other Apsarases in a lotus-pool. trvai, however. forbade him to approach until, at the end of the year, she should be delivered of the son with whom she was pregnant by him ; but after the child's birth she visited the King once each year. Urva4i succeeded in propitiating the
Oandharvas who had caused the separation, and eventually she and the King were enabled to pass to the sphere where Gandharvas and Ap,arases dwell together. This legend is as old as the Big Veda. It forms the subject of the celebrated drama of Kalidasa, the Vikramorva4i. where, however. Urva7,i's disappearance i- ascribed to a tit of jealousy. during which she trespassed on the proscribed bonds of a divine hermitage. The myth of Pururavas and UrvaZi has been inter preted in various way-. as sun and (lawn. or, perhaps the best explanation, as the thunder and the cloud which produces the fire of the lightning fla-h. Consult: Oeldner, redischr n, vol. i. (Stuttgart, ISS9) ; Macdonell, Vedic Mythology I Strassburg, 1897) ; 111o2mfield, "Tin. lyth of Purnravas. Urvaci, and Ayu," in .Journal of the A mei-ie./a Oriental Society, vol. xx. (New Ilaven. 1S99).