Birth , ca. 5th century CE In Hindu mythology, Urvashi sprang from the divine-sage
Narayana's thigh as a fully fledged maiden. According to the
Devi-Bhagavata Purana, the sage-brothers
Nara and Narayana perform penance to please the creator god
Brahma, but this makes
Indra (the king of the
devas) insecure about his throne and he does not want the sages to acquire divine powers. As a result, he creates multiple illusions to break their penance, but all of his tricks fail. Finally, he orders the apsaras of his court, including
Rambha,
Menaka, and
Tilottama, to go to Nara-Narayana and distract them through seduction. Accompanied by the god of love,
Kama, and his consort,
Rati, the apsaras go to Nara-Narayana, and start to dance seductively in front of them. However, the sages remain unaffected by this and decide to break the pride of the apsaras. Narayana slaps his thigh, from which Urvashi emerges. Her beauty leaves Indra's apsaras matchless, and they become ashamed of their evil act. Nara and Narayana assure Indra that they would not take his throne, and gift Urvashi to him. She occupied the place of pride in
Indra’s court.
Birth of Vasishtha and Agastya Urvashi plays a significant role in the birth of the
sages—
Vasishtha and
Agastya—due to which she is sometimes referred to as their mother. The legend is narrated in many scriptures. In the
Rigveda, the gods
Varuna and
Mitra once perform a
yajna (fire-sacrifice), when Urvashi arrives in front of them. After seeing her, they become sexually aroused and ejaculate their semen into a pitcher from which Vasishtha and Agastya are born. Similar accounts of this story appear in the
Brihaddevata and some
Puranic scriptures. In later Hindu texts, unlike the
Vedas, Vashishtha is described as a
Manasputra (mind-created son) of the god
Brahma. After his death from the king
Nimi's curse, he takes rebirth through Urvashi and Mitra-Varuna. According to the legend attested in the
Uttara Kanda of the
Ramayana, Vashishtha's spirit is consoled by Brahma after his death by telling him that he won't be born again in a womb. So Vashishtha is told to enter the body of
Mitra-Varuna. Following their encounter, Varuna approaches Urvashi and expresses his wish to have a union with her. She declines it, nevertheless, as she had already promised Mitra that she would court him. To satisfy his desire, Varuna ejaculates inside a celestial jar that Brahma had made; Urvashi gets passionate, and tells him that though her body belonged to Mitra, her mind was fixed on him. As a result of her infidelity, Mitra curses Urvashi to become the wife of a mortal man, which eventually causes Mitra's seed to fall from her womb. It is subsequently put into the same jar containing Varuna's seed. In addition to Vashishtha's rebirth, Agastya is also born from the pitcher.
Wife of Pururavas The most prominent myth featuring Urvashi is about her marriage to
Pururavas, a mortal king who is credited as the founder of
Chandravamsha (lit. 'lunar dynasty'), a legendary dynasty in ancient India. The myth is first narrated in the
Rigveda, where it is presented in the form of dialogue between them. The Vedic hymn suggest that she has left her husband Pururavas after living for four years with him. The king beseeches her to return, but she harshly refuses, complaining that he made too much love with her. She advises him to do good deeds to ascend to heaven and reunite with her. The context for this scene is provided in subsequent texts. The Post-Vedic texts attest that Urvashi falls in love with handsome and heroic Pururavas and the latter also reciprocates his feelings for her. After Urvashi is cursed to descend on the Earth and become the wife of a mortal, she marries Pururavas on some conditions, with the most important being that he would never appear naked before her apart from during coitus. In the
Shatapatha Brahmana, Urvashi lays down two conditions that Pururavas would make love with her regularly, but only when she consented, and he would never appear naked in front of her. == See also ==