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34
Appointment with Kalidasa
night, made a religious offering to her king-husband, on the terrace of the Maạibarmya palace, promising that she would be friendly to any woman who had won her husband's affections. After the queen's departure Urvasi arrives. It is clear that their union is in sight.
The interlude of the fourth act gives us the reason for the separation of the lovers. Pur üravas and Urvasi after their marriage had gone to the celestial Gandha. mādana-vana to enjoy their married love. There Purūravas happened to notice a vidyadhara girl playing in the sands building hills. The beauty and the self-absorotion of the child took his attention from Urvaśī. Urvasi resented this. She was very short-tempered, and her love was deep, demanding and possessive. She walked away from Purūravas in anger and by mistake stepped into the sacred grove of Kartikeya which was forbidden to women. She was immediately turned into a creeper, though she retained her powers of mind and knowledge. Urvasi's disappearance proved to be a mental shock to Purūravas. He lost his sanity. The main scene of the fourth act is a scene of Purüravas' mad search for his lost beloved.
I think the treatment of this scene is deliberate and carefully worked out. There are a number of Apabhramśa verses which describe by symbol the condition of the love-lost Purūravas. There is music and dance; the stage-directions show that even Purūravas takes dance steps. In other words, the scene is constructed like a ballet. To my mind, this is the only way prolonged pathos could be offectively presented on the stage. Purüravas is present on the stage continuously for nearly half an hour; and his inquiry with different objects about his lost Urvašī is bound to be monotonous and tiresome in a stage representation. So, the dance and music technique. The objects are not a part of stage scenery, which did not exist much on the ancient Indian stage. They are represented by a dancer or a group of dancers doing the swan or peacock dance as the case my be; and Pururavas too approaches the objects with dance steps to put his inquiry. This is how the scene is designed for stage play.
In the course of his mad search Pururavas comes across a precious stone. He is about to throw it away. But he is warned by a heavenly voice that it is a "gem of reunion' (sangamaniya-mani) issued from the lac-dye applied to the foot of Gauri. Purūravas picks it up; and when he embraces a creeper that draws his attention with the gem in his hand, the creeper is changed into Urvaśī. The separated lovers are united. Urvasi has witnessed in her inner mind the agony and sorrow of Pur üravas and obtained the proof of his deep and sincere love. The couple returns to the Capital from the heavenly gardens, and Urvasi commands a cloud to carry them back like an aerial car by her celestial powers.
Happiness now reigns in the house of Purūravas, except that he is still not blessed with a child. Then an incident takes place. Pururavas and Urvasi have come to the confluence of Ganga and Yamunā. Pur Oravas has been guarding the 'gem of reunion'
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