Appointment with Kalidasa

Author(s): G K Bhatt
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 46

Literary Works
33
Urvasi is in no better position. But being a denizen of heaven she has greater freedom. She decides to go down to the earth to meet the king taking Citralekhā with her, They find Purüravas in the garden of his palace musing with himself and his compa. nion the Viduşaka. The nymhs keep themselves invisible by their 'lore of concealment' and listen to the conversation. The king is talking of his love for a woman and how it has affected him. Urvasi decides to reveal her own love. She snatches a birch-leaf, writes a poetic letter of love, and drops it near the king. The fool of the Vidūşaka, prover bially afraid of snakes, mistakes it for the slough of a serpent; but as the leaf is turned over by the breeze the letters become visible. The king picks up the leaf, reads the letter and confesses his own love for Urvasi. He asks the Viduşaka to hold the letter for him, because his sweating fingers might spoil the letters written on it. Citralekha and Urvasi discard their concealment and come into the presence of the king. But before they could talk much, Urvasi is called back to heaven for the dramatic performance in which she is playing a major role. The lovers' meeting is abruptly ended; but they are both fired by love and mutual responese.
The king wishes to turn back to the letter as some kind of consolation. The fool, however, has lost it. The wind carries the birch-leaf away; and, as if by a dramatic coincidence, it gets stuck at the anklet on the foot of queen Ausinarl who is coming in the garden. The queen has noticed the listlessness and paleness of her husband and suspects a love-affair. The letter now confirms it. She confronts the king with the letter, to which the king has no convincing answer. He apologises to his wife; but she leaves him in anger.
The antagonism of the queen is not the only obstacle for the fulfilment of the love. The real difficulty is bringing heaven and earth together in a wedlock. How could a heavenly being like Urvasi leave heaven and come to live on the earth with a mortal king as his wife? The difficulty is solved rather unexpectedly and in a curious way. The dramatic performance in which Urvasi was playing a part was a drama, Lakşmisvayamvara, composed by Sarasvati and directed by Bharatamuni; Urvasi was acting the heroine's part. In a scene she was asked by her companion about whoin she loved most; and she was to reply that her heart was set on Puruşottama, Visnu. But her heart being with Purūravas now and the love engulfing her emotional life, Urvasi made the natural psychological blunder in saying her line and took name of Purüravas in place of Puruşottama's. Bharata was angry; he banished her from the world of heaven. Indra took mercy on her and permitted her to live on earth with the king till a son was born to her. In a way, some good came out of the blunder and the curse; Urvasi's way to the fulfilment of her love was cleared. The king's way was also cleared for him; because queen Auśīnarī realised, in spite of her hurt and resentment, that it was no use going against the wishes of her lord and master; she undertook the 'priyaprasadana' vow and on its completion, on a full-moon