Urvasi's Love

Sridharan Kidambi

Love - Sringara Rasa

Love, the elementary meaning of the word Sringara, is not adequate. There is no gainsaying that Sanskrit terms are richer. Finding equivalent is really hard.

‘Vikramorvaseeyam’ is a drama written by Kalidasa where Urvasi plays a leading role. The name of the king, Purooravas, has been changed and the codes of drama, ‘Naataka Saasthra' allows it.

"A heavenly damsel, Urvasi was to play

The role of the consort of Hari on a day,

All the celestials came to witness the act,

Designed by sage Bharat of great tact,

But damsel Urvasi made her role a hash,

Inviting the wrath of the old sage to lash,

A pleasant curse of a short life on earth,

As a loved one of a king soaked in mirth,

Urvasi was glad for the wish of the sage

And vanished from there without rage,

Only to appear in the greenest of woods,

On the bank of a river in happy moods,

With feet in water for tiny fish to caress,

By nibbling her toes to relieve her stress,

Thought Urvasi, “Is earth a better place?”

Just then the king to wash his tired face,

Dismounted his horse and was curious,

To see the person of a dame gorgeous,

He rose and looked up and was stunned

To see form and beauty admirable blend

In human shape and greeted her affably

And the celestial dame reacted feebly,

But her eyes shed sweetness profusely,

The sun looked like a large disc of gold,

The twilight time was not likely to hold,

The king longed to propose a durable,

Relationship, but inexplicably not able,

It was time to leave and he took leave,

But he felt and was unable to believe,

For not proposing a blissful wedding,

He spent a night awake and thinking,

He rose with thought of the charming,

Dame he met yesterday while hunting,

On reaching the river he was relieved,

To see her at the place he perceived,

She greeted him expectantly smiling

They bonded well before the evening,

She even accepted his royal invitation,

To his palace with a fitting celebration.

Urvasi was received well and was liked,

By all the subjects, and as days passed

She bore a cute son, and he grew well,

But, vanished, no one was able to tell,

Where she might have gone like that,

The king had no clue where to look at,

He thought of the forest and the river,

Where they first met, and stay forever,

As eternal partners and live together,

Finding her not there, he went further,

And spied a blooming lily, and asked her

“Have you seen my lovely Urvasi dear?”

The futility of his inquiry became clear

When he felt the lily was still blooming

And thought, “Won’t you be shrinking,

After seeing the charm of my Urvasi!

Walking on sands of the river he saw,

Light foot prints and it looked a jigsaw,

The prominent impression of the heel

Tempered the king to go down and kneel

To note the meaning of the foot print,

“It’s Urvasi's. I see more than one hint"

He searched and searched in utter vain

And gave up as it became far too plain."

Sridharan Kidambi, born in 1938 at Chittoor (Now in Andhra Pradesh), took his M. A. Degree in Economics from Vivekananda College in 1962. He was a research scholar of the Madras University for two years. He is interested in a wide range of subjects like astronomy, poetry, comparative religion, philosophy, classical music, lyrics etc. Besides Tamil, his mother tongue and English, the academic language, he is familiar with Telugu, Sanskrit, and Russian.