Original dramatic works and works of prose fiction. Plays include 'The Viziers of Bassora', 'Rodogune', 'Perseus the Deliverer', 'Eric', 'Vasavadutta' and others.
Original dramatic works and works of prose fiction. Plays include 'The Viziers of Bassora', 'Rodogune', 'Perseus the Deliverer', 'Eric', 'Vasavadutta' and others. The volume also contains incomplete or fragmentary plays and fictional stories.
Translated from the Sanskrit Play of Kalidasa
PURURAVAS - Son of Budha and Ila, grandson of the Moon, King of the world, reigning at Pratisthana.
MANAVAKA - A Brahmin, the King's jester and companion.
LATAVYA - Chamberlain of the King's seraglio.
CHITRARATH - King of the Gandharvas, musicians of Heaven.
GALAVA, PELAVA - Disciples of Bharat, Preceptor of the Arts in Heaven.
AYUS - Son of Pururavas.
CHARIOTEER OF PURURAVAS.
THE QUEEN AUSHINARIE - Wife of Pururavas and daughter of the King of Kashi.
URVASIE - An Apsara or Nymph of Heaven, born from the thigh of Narayan.
NIPUNIKA - The Queen's handmaid.
CHITRALEKHA, SAHAJANYA, RAMBHA, MENAKA - Nymphs of Heaven, companions of Urvasie.
SATYAVATIE - A hermitess.
A HUNTRESS.
GIRLS, ATTENDANT ON THE KING; AMAZONS.
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He in Vedanta by the Wise pronounced Sole Being, who the upper and under world Pervading overpasses, whom alone The name of God describes, here applicable And pregnant—crippled else of force, to others Perverted—and the Yogins who aspire To rise above the human death, break in Breath, soul and senses passionately seeking The Immutable, and in their own hearts find— He, easily by work and faith and love Attainable, ordain your heavenly weal.
After the invocation the Actor-Manager speaks.
MANAGER No need of many words.
He speaks into the greenroom.
Hither good friend.
The Assistant-Manager enters.
ASSISTANT Behold me.
MANAGER Often has the audience seen Old dramas by our earlier poets staged; Therefore today a piece as yet unknown I will present them, Vikram and the Nymph. Remind our actors then most heedfully To con their parts, as if on each success Depended.
ASSISTANT I shall do so.
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He goes.
MANAGER And now to you, O noble audience, I bow down and pray, If not from kindliness to us your friends And caterers, yet from pride in the high name That graces this our plot, heedful attention, Gentles, to Vikramorvasie, the work Of Kalidasa.
VOICES Help! O help, help, help! Whoever is on the side of Heaven, whoever Has passage through the paths of level air.
MANAGER What cry is this that breaks upon our prologue From upper worlds, most like the wail distressed Of ospreys, sad but sweet as moan of bees Drunken with honey in deep summer bloom, Or the low cry of distant cuckoo? or hear I Women who move on Heaven's azure stage Splendid with rows of seated Gods, and chant In airy syllables a liquid sweetness? (After some thought) Ah, now I have it. She who from the thigh Of the great tempted sage Narayan sprang Radiant, Heaven's nymph, divinest Urvasie, In middle air from great Coilasa's lord Returning, to the enemies of Heaven Is prisoner; therefore the sweet multitude Of Apsaras send forth melodious cry Of pathos and complaint.
He goes. The Nymphs of Heaven eṇter, Rambha, Menaka,
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Sahajanya and many others.
NYMPHS Help, help, O help! Whoever is on the side of Heaven, whoever Has passage through the paths of level air.
Pururavas enters suddenly and with speed in a chariot with his charioteer.
PURURAVAS Enough of lamentation! I am here, Ilian Pururavas, from grandiose worship In Surya's brilliant house returned. To me, O women! say 'gainst what ye cry for rescue.
RAMBHA Rescue from Titan violence, O King.
PURURAVAS And what has Titan violence to you Immortal done of fault, O Heaven's women?
MENAKA King, hear us.
PURURAVAS Speak.
MENAKA Our sister, our dear sister! The ornament of Eden and its joy! Whom Indra by asceticism alarmed Made use of like a lovely sword to kill Spiritual longings, the eternal refutation Of Luxmie's pride of beauty, Urvasie! Returning from Cubera's halls, O she
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Was met, was taken. Cayshy, that dire Titan, Who in Hiranyapoor exalts his house, Beheld her and in great captiving hands Ravished, Chitralekha and Urvasie. We saw them captive haled.
PURURAVAS Say, if you know, What region of the air received that traitor?
SAHAJANYA North-east he fled.
PURURAVAS Therefore expel dismay. I go to bring you back your loved one, if Attempt can do it.
RAMBHA O worthy this of thee! O from the Lunar splendour truly sprung!
PURURAVAS Where will you wait my advent, nymphs of Heaven?
NYMPHS Upon this summit called the Peak of Gold, O King, we shall expect thee.
PURURAVAS Charioteer, Urge on my horses to the far north-east; Gallop through Heaven like the wind.
CHARIOTEER 'Tis done.
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PURURAVAS O nobly driven! With speed like this I could O'ertake Heaven's eagle though he fled before me With tempest in his vans. How much more then This proud transgressor against Heaven's King! Look, charioteer, beneath my sudden car The crumbling thunder-clouds fly up like dust, And the wheel's desperate rotation seems To make another set of whirling spokes. The plumes upon the horses' heads rise tall, Motionless like a picture, and the wind Of our tremendous speed has made the flag From staff to airborne end straight as if pointing.
They go out in their chariot.
RAMBHA Sisters, the King is gone. Direct we then Our steps to the appointed summit.
MENAKA Hasten, O hasten.
ALL Hasten, O hasten, come, come, come.
They ascend the hill.
RAMBHA And O, will he indeed avail to draw This stab out of our hearts?
MENAKA Doubt it not, Rambha.
RAMBHA No, Menaka, for not so easily Are Titans overthrown, my sister.
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MENAKA Rambha, Remember this is he whom Heaven's King, When battle raised its dreadful face, has called With honour from the middle world of men, Set in his armèd van, and conquered.
RAMBHA Here too I hope that he will conquer.
SAHAJANYA Joy, sisters, joy! Look where the chariot of the moon appears, The Ilian's great deer-banner rushing up From the horizon. He would not return With empty hands, sisters. We can rejoice.
All gaze upwards. Pururavas enters in his chariot with his charioteer; Urvasie, her eyes closed in terror, supported on the right arm of Chitralekha.
CHITRALEKHA Courage, sweet sister, courage.
PURURAVAS O thou too lovely! Recall thy soul. The enemies of Heaven Can injure thee no more; that danger's over. The Thunderer's puissance still pervades the worlds. O then uplift these long and lustrous eyes. Like sapphire lilies in a pool where dawn Comes smiling.
CHITRALEKHA Why does she not yet, alas! Recover her sweet reason? Only her sighs Remind us she is living.
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PURURAVAS Too rudely, lady, Has thy sweet sister been alarmed. For look! What tremblings of the heart are here revealed. Watch the quick rise and fall incessantly That lift between these large magnificent breasts The flowers of Eden.
CHITRALEKHA Sister, O put by This panic. Fie! thou art no Apsara.
PURURAVAS Terror will not give up his envied seat On her luxurious bosom soft as flowers, The tremors in her raiment's edge and little Heavings and flutterings between her two breasts Confess him.
Urvasie begins to recover. (with joy) Thou art fortunate, Chitralekha! Thy sister to her own bright nature comes Once more. So have I seen a glorious night Delivered out of darkness by the moon, Nocturnal fire break through with crests of brightness Its prison of dim smoke. Her beauty, wakening From swoon and almost rescued, to my thoughts Brings Ganges as I saw her once o'erwhelmed With roar and ruin of her banks, race wild, Thickening, then gradually from that turmoil Grow clear, emerging into golden calm.
CHITRALEKHA Be glad, my sister, O my Urvasie. For vanquished are the accursed Titans, foes Of the divine, antagonists of Heaven.
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URVASIE (opening her eyes) Vanquished? By Indra then whose soul can see Across the world.
CHITRALEKHA Not Indra, but this King Whose puissance equals Indra.
URVASIE (looking at Pururavas) O Titans, You did me kindness!
PURURAVAS (gazing at Urvasie) And reason if the nymphs Tempting Narayan Sage drew back ashamed When they beheld this wonder from his thigh Starting. And yet I cannot think of her Created by a withered hermit cold: But rather in the process beautiful Of her creation Heaven's enchanting moon Took the Creator's place, or very Love Grown all one amorousness, or else the month Of honey and its days deep-mined with bloom. How could an aged anchoret, dull and stale With poring over scripture and oblivious To all this rapture of the senses, build A thing so lovely?
URVASIE O my Chitralekha, Our sisters?
CHITRALEKHA This great prince who slew our fear Can tell us.
PURURAVAS Sad of heart they wait, O beauty!
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For with thy sweet ineffugable eyes Who only once was blessed, even he without thee Cannot abstain from pining. How then these Original affections sister-sweet Rooted in thee?
URVASIE How courteous is his tongue And full of noble kindness! Yet what wonder? Nectar is natural to the moon. O prince, My heart's in haste to see once more my loved ones.
PURURAVAS Lo, where upon the Peak of Gold they stand Gazing towards thy face, and with such eyes Of rapture as when men behold the moon Emerging from eclipse.
CHITRALEKHA O sister, see!
URVASIE (looking longingly at the King) I do and drink in with my eyes my partner Of grief and pleasure.
CHITRALEKHA (with a smile; significantly) Sister, who is he?
URVASIE He? Oh! Rambha I meant and all our friends.
RAMBHA He comes with victory. Urvasie's beside him And Chitralekha. Now indeed this King Looks glorious like the moon, when near the twin Bright asterisms that frame best his light.
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MENAKA In both ways are we blest, our lost dear one Brought back to us, this noble King returned Unwounded.
SAHAJANYA Sister, true. Not easily Are Titans conquered.
PURURAVAS Charioteer, descend. We have arrived the summit.
CHARIOTEER As the King Commands.
PURURAVAS O I am blest in this descent Upon unevenness. O happy shock That threw her great hips towards me. All her sweet shoulder Pressed mine that thrilled and passioned to the touch.
URVASIE (abashed) Move yet a little farther to your side, Sister.
CHITRALEKHA (smiling) I cannot; there's no room.
RAMBHA Sisters, This prince has helped us all. 'Twere only grateful Should we descend and greet him.
ALL Let us do it.
They all approach.
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PURURAVAS Stay, charioteer, the rush of hooves that she Marrying her sweet-browed eagerness with these May, mingling with their passionate bosoms, clasp Her dearest, like the glory and bloom of spring Hastening into the open arms of trees.
NYMPHS Hail to the King felicitous who comes With conquest in his wheels.
PURURAVAS To you, O nymphs, As fortunate in your sister's rescued arms.
Urvasie descends from the chariot supported on Chitralekha's arm.
URVASIE O sisters, sisters, take me to your bosoms.
All rush upon her and embrace her.
Closer, O closer! hurt me with your breasts! I never hoped to see again your sweet Familiar faces.
RAMBHA Protect a million ages, Monarch, all continents and every sea!
Noise within.
CHARIOTEER My lord, I hear a rumour in the east And mighty speed of chariots. Lo, one bright With golden armlet, looming down from Heaven Like a huge cloud with lightning on its wrist, Streams towards us.
NYMPHS Chitrarath! 'tis Chitrarath.
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CHITRARATH (approaches the King with great respect) Hail to the Indra-helper! Fortunate Pururavas, whose prowess is so ample, Heaven's King has grown its debtor.
PURURAVAS The Gandharva! Welcome, my bosom's friend.
They clasp each other's hands.
What happy cause Of coming?
CHITRARATH Indra had heard from Narad's lips Of Urvasie by Titan Cayshy haled. He bade us to her rescue. We midway Heard heavenly bards chanting thy victory, And hitherward have turned our march. On, friend, With us to Maghavan and bear before thee This lovely offering. Great thy service done To Heaven's high King; for she who was of old Narayan's chief munificence to Indra, Is now thy gift, Pururavas. Thy arm Has torn her from a Titan's grasp.
PURURAVAS Comrade, Never repeat it; for if we who are On Heaven's side, o'erpower the foes of Heaven, 'Tis Indra's puissance, not our own. Does not The echo of the lion's dangerous roar Reverberating through the mountain glens Scatter with sound the elephants? We, O friend, Are even such echoes.
CHITRARATH This fits with thy great nature,
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For modesty was ever valour's crown.
PURURAVAS Not now nor hence is't seasonable for me, Comrade, to meet the King of Sacrifice. Thou, therefore, to the mighty presence lead This beauty.
CHITRARATH As thou wilt. With me to Heaven!
URVASIE (aside to Chitralekha) I have no courage to address my saviour. Sister, wilt be my voice to him?
CHITRALEKHA (approaching Pururavas) My lord, Urvasie thus petitions—
PURURAVAS What commands The lady?
CHITRALEKHA She would have thy gracious leave To bear into her far immortal Heavens The glory of the great Pururavas And dwell with it as with a sister.
PURURAVAS (sorrowfully) Go then; But go for longer meeting.
The Gandharvas and the nymphs soar up into the sky.
URVASIE Sister, stay! My chain is in this creeper caught. Release it.
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CHITRALEKHA (looking at the King with a smile) Oh, yes, indeed, a sad entanglement! I fear you will not easily be loosed.
URVASIE Do not mock me, sister. Pray you, untwine it.
CHITRALEKHA Come, let me try. I'll do my possible To help you.
She busies herself with the chain.
URVASIE (smiling) Sister, think what thou hast promised Even afterwards.
PURURAVAS (aside) Creeper, thou dost me friendship; Thou for one moment holdest from the skies Her feet desirable. O lids of beauty! O vision of her half-averted face!
Urvasie, released, looks at the King, then with a sigh at her sisters soaring up into the sky.
CHARIOTEER O King, thy shaft with the wild voice of storm Has hurled the Titans in the salt far sea, Avenging injured Heaven, and now creeps back Into the quiver, like a mighty snake Seeking its lair.
PURURAVAS Therefore bring near the chariot, While I ascend.
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The King mounts the chariot.
PURURAVAS Shake loose the reins.
URVASIE (gazing at the King, with a sigh, aside) My benefactor! my deliverer! Shall I not see thee more?
She goes out with Chitralekha.
PURURAVAS (looking after Urvasie) O Love! O Love! Thou mak'st men hot for things impossible And mad for dreams. She soars up to the Heavens, Her father's middle stride, and draws my heart By force out of my bosom. It goes with her, Bleeding; as when a wild swan through the sky Wings far her flight, there dangles in her beak A dripping fibre from the lotus torn.
They go.
Curtain
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Park of the King's palace in Pratisthana.—In the background the wings of a great building, near it the gates of the park, near the bounds of the park an arbour and a small artificial hill to the side.
Manavaka enters.
MANAVAKA Houp! Houp! I feel like a Brahmin who has had an invitation to dinner; he thinks dinner, talks dinner, looks dinner, his very sneeze has the music of the dinner-bell in it. I am simply bursting with the King's secret. I shall never manage to hold my tongue in that crowd. Solitude's my only safety. So until my friend gets up from the session of affairs, I will wait for him in this precinct of the House of Terraces.
Nipunika enters.
NIPUNIKA I am bidden by my lady the King's daughter of Kashi, "Nipunika, since my lord came back from doing homage to the Sun, he has had no heart for anything. So just go and learn from his dear friend, the noble Manavaka, what is disturbing his mind." Well and good! but how shall I overreach that rogue—a Brahmin he calls himself, with the murrain to him! But there! thank Heaven, he can't keep a secret long; 'tis like a dewdrop on a rare blade of grass. Well, I must hunt him out. O! there stands the noble Manavaka, silent and sad like a monkey in a picture. I will accost him. (approaching) Salutation to the noble Manavaka!
MANAVAKA Blessing to your ladyship! (aside) Ugh, the very sight of this little rogue of a tiring-woman makes the secret jump at my
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throat. I shall burst! I shall split! Nipunika, why have you left the singing lesson and where are you off to?
NIPUNIKA To see my lord the King, by my lady's orders.
MANAVAKA What are her orders?
NIPUNIKA Noble sir, this is the Queen's message. "My lord has always been kind and indulgent to me, so that I have become a stranger to grief. He never before disregarded my sorrow"—
MANAVAKA How? how? has my friend offended her in any way?
NIPUNIKA Offended? Why, he addressed my lady by the name of a girl for whom he is pining.
MANAVAKA (aside) What, he has let out his own secret? Then why am I agonizing here in vain? (aloud) He called her Urvasie?
NIPUNIKA Yes. Noble Manavaka, who is that Urvasie?
MANAVAKA Urvasie is the name of a certain Apsara. The sight of her has sent the King mad. He is not only tormenting the life out of my lady, but out of me too with his aversion to everything but moaning.
NIPUNIKA (aside) So! I have stormed the citadel of my master's secret. (Aloud) What am I to say to the Queen?
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MANAVAKA Nipunika, tell my lady with my humble regards that I am endeavouring my best to divert my friend from this mirage and I will not see her ladyship till it is done.
NIPUNIKA As your honour commands.
She goes.
BARDS (within) Victory, victory to the King! The Sun in Heaven for ever labours; wide His beams dispel the darkness to the verge Of all this brilliant world. The King too toils, Rescuing from night and misery and crime His people. Equal power to these is given And labour, the King on earth, the Sun in Heaven. The brilliant Sun in Heaven rests not from toil; Only at high noon in the middle cusp And azure vault the great wheels slacken speed A moment, then resume their way; thou too In the mid-moment of daylight lay down Thy care, put by the burden of a crown.
MANAVAKA Here's my dear friend risen from the session. I will join him.
He goes out, then re-enters with Pururavas.
PURURAVAS (sighing) No sooner seen than in my heart she leaped. O easy entrance! since the bannered Love With his unerring shaft had made the breach Where she came burning in.
MANAVAKA (aside) Alas the poor King's daughter of Kashi!
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PURURAVAS (looking steadfastly at him) Hast thou kept thy trust— My secret?
MANAVAKA (depressed) Ah! that daughter of a slave Has overreached me. Else he would not ask In just that manner.
PURURAVAS (alarmed) What now? Silence?
MANAVAKA Why, sir, It's this, I've padlocked so my tongue that even To you I could not give a sudden answer.
PURURAVAS 'Tis well. O how shall I beguile desire?
MANAVAKA Let's to the kitchen.
PURURAVAS Why, what's there?
MANAVAKA What's there? The question! From all quarters gathered in Succulent sweets and fivefold eatableness, Music from saucepan and from frying-pan, The beauty of dinner getting ready. There's A sweet beguiler to your emptiness!
PURURAVAS (smiling) For you whose heart is in your stomach. I Am not so readily eased who fixed my soul
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Upon what I shall hardly win.
MANAVAKA Not win? Why, tell me, came you not within her sight?
PURURAVAS What comfort is in that?
MANAVAKA When she has seen you, How is she hard to win?
PURURAVAS O your affection Utters mere partiality.
MANAVAKA You make me Desperate to see her. Why, sir, she must be A nonpareil of grace. Like me perhaps?
PURURAVAS Who could with words describe each perfect limb Of that celestial whole? Take her in brief, O friend, for she is ornament's ornament, And jewels cannot make her beautiful. They from her body get their grace. And when You search the universe for similes, Her greater beauty drives you to express Fair things by her, not her by lesser fairness: So she is perfection's model.
MANAVAKA No wonder then, With such a shower of beauty, that you play The rainbird open-mouthed to let drops glide
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Graciously down his own particular gullet. But whither now?
PURURAVAS When love grows large with yearning, He has no sanctuary but solitude. I pray you, go before me to the park.
MANAVAKA (aside) Oh God, my dinner! There's no help. (aloud) This way. Lo, here the park's green limit. See, my lord, How this fair garden sends his wooing breeze To meet his royal guest.
PURURAVAS O epithet Most apt. Indeed this zephyr in fond arms Impregnating with honey spring-creeper And flattering with his kiss the white May-bloom, Seems to me like a lover-girl divided Between affection smooth and eager passion.
MANAVAKA May like division bless your yearning, sir. We reach the garden's gate. Enter, my lord.
PURURAVAS Enter thou first. O! I was blindly sanguine, By refuge in this flowery solitude Who thought to heal my pain. As well might swimmer Hurled onward in a river's violent hands Oppose that roaring tide, as I make speed Hither for my relief.
MANAVAKA And wherefore so?
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PURURAVAS Was passion not enough to torture me, Still racking the resistless mind with thoughts Of unattainable delight? But I Must add the mango-trees' soft opening buds, And hurt myself with pallid drifting leaves, And with the busy zephyr wound my soul.
MANAVAKA Be not so full of grief. For Love himself Will help you soon to your extreme desire.
PURURAVAS I seize upon thy word,—the Brahmin's speech That never can be false!
MANAVAKA See what a floral Green loveliness expresses the descent And rosy incarnation of the spring. Do you not find it lovely?
PURURAVAS Friend, I do. I study it tree by tree and leaf by leaf. This courbouc's like a woman's rosy nail, But darkens to the edge; heavy with crimson, Yon red asoka breaking out of bud Seems all on fire; and here the carvy mounting Slight dust of pollen on his stamen-ends Clusters with young sweet bloom. Methinks I see The infant honeyed soul of spring, half-woman, Grow warm with bud of youth.
MANAVAKA This arbour green With blosoms loosened by the shock of bees
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Upon a slab of costly stone, prepares With its own hands your cushioned honours. Take The courtesy.
PURURAVAS As you will.
MANAVAKA Here sit at ease. The sensitive beauty of the creepers lax Shall glide into your soul and gently steal The thought of Urvasie.
PURURAVAS O no, mine eyes Are spoilt by being indulged in her sweet looks, And petulantly they reject all feebler Enchantings, even the lovely embowering bloom Of these grace-haunted creepers bending down To draw me with their hands. I am sick for her. Rather invent some way to my desire.
MANAVAKA Oh rare! when Indra for Ahalya pined A cheapjack was his counsellor; you as lucky Have me for your ally. Mad all! mad all!
PURURAVAS Not so! affection edges so the wit, Some help it's sure to find for one it loves.
MANAVAKA Good, I will cogitate. Disturb me not With your love-moanings.
PURURAVAS (his right arm throbbing. Aside) Her face of perfect moonlight
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Is all too heavenly for my lips. How canst thou then Throb expectation in my arm, O Love? Yet all my heart is suddenly grown glad As if it had heard the feet of my desire.
He waits hopefully. There enter in the sky Urvasie and Chitralekha.
CHITRALEKHA Will you not even tell me where we go?
URVASIE Sister, when I upon the Peak of Gold Was stayed from Heaven by the creeper's hands, You mocked me then. And have you now to ask 'Whither it is I go?'
CHITRALEKHA To seek the side Of King Pururavas you journey then?
URVASIE Even so shameless is your sister's mind.
CHITRALEKHA Whom did you send before, what messenger To him you love?
URVASIE My heart.
CHITRALEKHA O yet think well, Sister; do not be rash.
URVASIE Love sends me, Love Compels me. How can I then think?
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CHITRALEKHA To that I have no answer.
URVASIE Then take me to him soon. Only let not our way be such as lies Within the let of hindrance.
CHITRALEKHA Fear not that. Has not the great Preceptor of the Gods Taught us to wear the crest invincible? While that is bound, not any he shall dare Of all the Heaven-opposing faction stretch An arm of outrage.
URVASIE (abashed) Oh true! my heart forgot.
CHITRALEKHA Look, sister! For in Ganges' gliding waves Holier by influx of blue Yamuna, The palace of the great Pururavas, Crowning the city with its domes, looks down As in a glass at its own mighty image.
URVASIE All Eden to an earthly spot is bound. But where is he who surely will commiserate A pining heart?
CHITRALEKHA This park which seems one country With Heaven, let us question. See the King Expects thee, like the pale new-risen moon
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Waiting for moonlight.
URVASIE How beautiful he is— Fairer than when I saw him first!
CHITRALEKHA 'Tis true. Come, we will go to him.
URVASIE I will not yet. Screened in with close invisibility, I will stand near him, learn what here he talks Sole with his friend.
CHITRALEKHA You'll do your will always.
MANAVAKA Courage! your difficult mistress may be caught, Two ways.
URVASIE (jealously) O who is she, that happy she Being wooed by such a lover, preens herself And is proud?
CHITRALEKHA Why do you mock the ways of men And are a Goddess?
URVASIE I dare not, sweet, I fear To learn too suddenly my own misfortune, If I use heavenly eyes.
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MANAVAKA Listen, you dreamer! Are you deaf? I tell you I have found a way:
PURURAVAS Speak on.
MANAVAKA Woo sleep that marries men with dreams, Or on a canvas paint in Urvasie And gaze on her for ever.
URVASIE (aside) O sinking coward heart, now, now revive.
PURURAVAS And either is impossible. For look! How can I, with this rankling wound of love, Call to me sleep who marries men with dreams? And if I paint the sweetness of her face, Will not the tears, before it is half done, Blurring my gaze with mist, blot the dear vision?
CHITRALEKHA Heard'st thou?
URVASIE I have heard all. It was too little For my vast greed of love.
MANAVAKA Well, that's my stock Of counsel.
PURURAVAS (sighing) Oh me! she knows not my heart's pain, Or knowing it, with those her heavenly eyes
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Scorns my poor passion. Only the arrowed Love Is gratified tormenting with her bosom My sad, unsatisfied and pale desire.
CHITRALEKHA Heard'st thou, sister?
URVASIE He must not think so of me! I would make answer, sister, but to his face I have not hardihood. Suffer me then, To trust to faery birch-leaf mind-created My longing.
CHITRALEKHA It is well. Create and write.
Urvasie writes in a passion of timidity and excitement, then throws the leaf between Pururavas and Manavaka.
MANAVAKA Murder! murder! I'm killed! I am dead! help! help! (looking) What's this? a serpent's skin come down to eat me?
PURURAVAS (looks closely and laughs) No serpent's slough, my friend, only a leaf Of birch-tree with a scroll of writing traced upon it.
MANAVAKA Perhaps the invisible fair Urvasie Heard you complain and answers.
PURURAVAS To desire Nothing can seem impossible.
He takes the leaf and reads it to himself, then with joy.
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O friend, How happy was your guess!
MANAVAKA I told you so. The Brahmin's speech! Read, read! aloud, if it please you.
URVASIE (aside) The Brahmin has his own urbanity!
PURURAVAS Listen.
MANAVAKA I am all ears.
PURURAVAS (reading aloud) "My master and my King! Were I what thy heart thinks and knows me not, Scorning thy love, would then the soft-winged breeze Of deathless gardens and the unfading flowers That strew the beds of Paradise, to me Feel fire!"
URVASIE What will he say now?
CHITRALEKHA What each limb, That is a drooping lotus-stalk with love, Has said already.
MANAVAKA You're consoled, I hope? Don't tell me what you feel. I've felt the same When I've been hungry and one popped in on me With sweetmeats in a tray.
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PURURAVAS Consoled! a word How weak! I con this speaking of my sweet, This dear small sentence full of beautiful meaning, This gospel of her answering love, and feel Her mouth upon my mouth and her soft eyes Swimming and large gaze down into my own, And touch my lifted lids with hers.
URVASIE O even Such sweetness feels thy lover.
PURURAVAS Friend, my finger Moistening might blot the lines. Do thou then hold This sweet handwriting of my love.
He gives the leaf to Manavaka.
MANAVAKA But tell me. Why does your mistress, having brought to bloom Your young desire, deny its perfect fruit?
URVASIE O sister, my heart flutters at the thought Of going to my lord. While I cajole And strengthen the poor coward, show yourself, Go to him, tell him all that I may speak.
CHITRALEKHA I will.
She becomes visible and approaches the King.
Hail, lord our King.
PURURAVAS (joyfully) O welcome, welcome!
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He looks around for Urvasie.
Yet, fair one, as the Yamuna not mixed With Ganges, to the eye that saw their beauty Of wedded waters, seems not all so fair, So thou without thy sister givest not That double delight.
CHITRALEKHA First is the cloud's dim legion Seen in the Heavens; afterwards comes the lightning.
MANAVAKA (aside) What! this is not the very Urvasie? Only the favourite sister of that miracle!
PURURAVAS Here sit down, fairest.
CHITRALEKHA Let me first discharge My duty. Urvasie by me bows down Her face thus to her monarch's feet, imploring—
PURURAVAS Rather commanding.
CHITRALEKHA She whom in Titan hands Afflicted thou didst pity, thou didst rescue, Now needs much more thy pity, not by hands Titan, but crueller violence of love Oppressed—the sight of thee her sudden cause.
PURURAVAS O Chitralekha, her thou tell'st me of Passionate for me. Hast thou not eyes to know Pururavas in anguish for her sake?
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One prayer both pray to Kama, 'Iron with iron Melts in fierce heat; why not my love with me?'
CHITRALEKHA (returning to Urvasie) Come sister, to your lord. So much his need Surpasses yours, I am his ambassador.
URVASIE (becoming visible) How unexpectedly hast thou with ease Forsook me!
CHITRALEKHA (with a smile) In a moment I shall know Who forsakes whom, sister. But come away And give due greeting.
Urvasie approaches the King fearfully and bows down, then low and bashfully.
Conquest to the King!
PURURAVAS I conquer, love, indeed, when thy dear lips Give greeting to me, vouchsafed to no mortal But Indra only.
He takes her by both hands and makes her sit down.
MANAVAKA I am a mighty Brahmin and the friend Of all earth's lord. O'erlook me not entirely.
Urvasie smiles and bows to him.
Peace follow you and keep you.
MESSENGER OF THE GODS (cries from within) Chitralekha, urge haste on Urvasie. This day the wardens of the ancient worlds And the great King of Heaven himself will witness That piece where all the passions live and move, Quickened to gracious gesture in the action
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Deposed in you by Bharat Sage, O sisters.
All listen, Urvasie sorrowfully.
CHITRALEKHA Thou hearst the Messenger of Heaven? Take leave, Sweet, of the King.
URVASIE I cannot speak!
CHITRALEKHA My liege, My sister not being lady of herself Beseeches your indulgence. She would be Without a fault before the Gods.
PURURAVAS (articulating with difficulty) Alas! I must not wish to hinder you when Heaven Expects your service. Only do not forget Pururavas.
Urvasie goes with her sister, still looking backwards towards the King.
O she is gone! my eyes Have now no cause for sight: they're worthless balls Without an object.
MANAVAKA Why, not utterly.
He is about to give the birch-leaf.
There's—Heavens! 'tis gone; it must have drifted down, While I, being all amazed with Urvasie, Noticed nothing.
PURURAVAS What is it thou wouldst say? There is—?
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MANAVAKA No need to droop your limbs and pine. Your Urvasie has to your breast been plucked With cords of passions, knots that will not slacken Strive as she may.
PURURAVAS My soul tells me like comfort. For as she went, not lady of her limbs To yield their sweets to me for ever, yet Her heart, which was her own, in one great sob From 'twixt two trembling breasts shaken with sighs Came panting out. I hear it throb within me.
MANAVAKA (aside) Well, my heart's all a-twitter too. Each moment I think he is going to mention the damned birch-leaf.
PURURAVAS With what shall I persuade mine eyes to comfort? The letter!
MANAVAKA (searching) What! Hullo! It's gone! Come now, It was no earthly leaf; it must have gone Flying behind the skirts of Urvasie.
PURURAVAS (bitterly, in vexation) Will you then never leave your idiot trick Of carelessness? Search for it.
MANAVAKA (getting up) Oh, well! well! It can't be far. Why here it is—or here—or here.
While they search, the Queen enters, with her attendants and Nipunika.
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AUSHINARIE Now, maiden, is it true thou tell'st me? Saw'st thou really My lord and Manavaka approach the arbour?
NIPUNIKA I have not told my lady falsehood ever That she should doubt me.
AUSHINARIE Well, I will lurk thick-screened With hanging creepers and surprise what he Disburdens from his heart in his security. So I shall know the truth.
NIPUNIKA (sulkily) Well, as you please.
They advance.
AUSHINARIE (looking ahead) What's yonder like a faded rag that lightly The southern wind guides towards us?
NIPUNIKA It is a birch-leaf. There's writing on it; the letters, as it rolls, Half show their dinted outlines. Look, it has caught Just on your anklet spike. I'll lift and read.
She disengages the leaf.
AUSHINARIE Silently first peruse it; if 'tis nothing Unfit for me to know, then I will hear.
NIPUNIKA It is, oh, it must be that very scandal. Verses they seem and penned by Urvasie, And to my master. Manavaka's neglect
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Has thrown it in our hands.
Laughs.
AUSHINARIE Tell me the purport.
NIPUNIKA I'll read the whole. "My master and my King! Were I what thy heart thinks and knows me not, Scorning thy love, would then the soft-winged breeze Of deathless gardens and unfading flowers That strew the beds of Paradise, to me Feel fire!"
AUSHINARIE So! by this dainty love-letter, He is enamoured then, and of the nymph.
NIPUNIKA It's plain enough.
They enter the arbour.
MANAVAKA What's yonder to the wind Enslaved, that flutters on the parkside rockery?
PURURAVAS (rising) Wind of the south, thou darling of the Spring, Seize rather on the flowery pollen stored By months of fragrance, that gold dust of trees. With this thou mightest perfume all thy wings. How wilt thou profit, snatching from me, O wind, My darling's dear handwriting, like a kiss All love? When thou did'st woo thine Anjana, Surely thou knewest lovers' dying hearts Are by a hundred little trifles kept, All slight as this!
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NIPUNIKA See, mistress, see! A search In progress for the leaf.
AUSHINARIE Be still.
MANAVAKA Alas! I was misled with but a peacock's feather, Faded, a saffron splendour of decay.
PURURAVAS In every way I am undone.
AUSHINARIE (approaching suddenly) My lord, Be not so passionate; here is your dear letter.
PURURAVAS (confused) The Queen! O welcome!
MANAVAKA (aside) I'll come, if 'twere convenient To tell the truth.
PURURAVAS (aside) What shall I do now, friend, Or say?
MANAVAKA (aside) Much you will say! A thief red-handed Caught with his swag!
PURURAVAS (aside) Is this a time for jesting? (aloud)
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Madam, it was not this I sought but other, A record of state, a paper that I dropped.
AUSHINARIE Oh, you do well to hide your happiness.
MANAVAKA My lady, hurry on His Majesty's dinner. When bile accumulates, dinner does the trick.
AUSHINARIE A noble consolation for his friend The Brahmin finds! Heard'st thou, Nipunika?
MANAVAKA Why, madam, even a goblin is appeased By dinner.
PURURAVAS Fool! by force you'ld prove me guilty.
AUSHINARIE Not yours the guilt, my lord! I am in fault Who force my hated and unwelcome face Upon you. But I go. Nipunika, Attend me.
She is departing in wrath.
PURURAVAS (following her) Guilty I am. O pardon, pardon! O look on me more kindly. How can a slave Be innocent, when whom he should please is angry?
He falls at her feet.
AUSHINARIE (aside) I am not so weak-minded as to value Such hollow penitence. And yet the terror
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Of that remorse I know that I shall feel If I spurn his kindness, frightens me—but no!
She goes out with Nipunika and attendants.
MANAVAKA She has rushed off like a torrent full of wrath. Rise, rise! she's gone.
PURURAVAS (rising) O she did right to spurn me. Most dulcet words of lovers, sweetest flatteries, When passion is not there, can find no entrance To woman's heart; for she knows well the voice Of real love, but these are stones false-coloured Rejected by the jeweller's practised eye.
MANAVAKA This is what you should wish! The eye affected Brooks not the flaming of a lamp too near.
PURURAVAS You much misjudge me. Though my heart's gone out To Urvasie, affection deep I owe My Queen. But since she scorned my prostrate wooing, I will have patience till her heart repent.
MANAVAKA Oh, hang your patience! keep it for home consumption. Mine's at an end. Have some faint mercy instead And save a poor starved Brahmin's life. It's time For bath and dinner! dinner!!
PURURAVAS (looking upward) 'Tis noon. The tired And heated peacock sinks to chill delight Of water in the tree-encircling channel, The bee divides a crimson bud and creeps
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Into its womb; there merged and safe from fire, He's lurking. The duck too leaves her blazing pool And shelters in cold lilies on the bank, And in your summer-house weary of heat The parrot from his cage for water cries.
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Hermitage of the Saint Bharat in Heaven. Galava and Pelava.
GALAVA Pelava, thee the Sage admitted, happier Chosen, to that great audience in the house Of highest Indra—I meanwhile must watch The sacred flame; inform my absence. Was The divine session with the acting pleased?
PELAVA Of pleased I know not; this I well could see They sat all lost in that poetic piece Of Saraswatie, "Luxmie's Choice"—breathlessly Identified themselves with every mood. But—
GALAVA Ah, that but! It opens doors to censure.
PELAVA Yes, Urvasie was heedless, missed her word.
GALAVA How? how?
PELAVA She acted Luxmie; Menaka Was Varunie; who asking, "Sister, see, The noble and the beautiful of Heaven, And Vishnu and the guardians of the worlds. To whom does thy heart go mid all these glories?"—
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Urvasie should have answered 'Purushottam,' But from her lips 'Pururavas' leaped forth.
GALAVA Our organs are the slaves of fate and doom! Was not the great Preceptor angry?
PELAVA Yes; He cursed her, but high Indra blessed.
GALAVA What blessing?
PELAVA "Since thou hast wronged my teaching and my fame, For thee no place in Heaven"—so frowned the Sage. Heaven's monarch marked her when the piece was ended, Drooping, her sweet face bowed with shame, and said, With gracious brows, "Since thou hast fixed thy heart Upon my friend and strong ally in war, I will do both a kindness. Go to him And love and serve him as thy lord until A child is got in thee and he behold His offspring's face."
GALAVA O nobly this became Indra; he knows to value mighty hearts.
PELAVA (looking at the Sun) Look, in our talk if we have not transgressed Our teacher's hour for bathing. Galava, We should be at his side.
GALAVA Let us make haste.
They go out.
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Outside the palace of Pururavas, beneath the House of Gems. The terrace of the House of Gems with a great staircase leading up to it.
The Chamberlain Latavya enters.
LATAVYA (sighing) All other men when life is green and strong Marry and toil and get them wealth, then, ageing, Their sons assume the burden, they towards rest Their laboured faces turn. But us for ever Service, a keyless dungeon still renewed, Wears down; and hard that service is which keeps O'er women ward and on their errands runs. Now Kashi's daughter, careful of her vow, Commands me, "I have put from me, Latavya, The obstinacy of offended love And wooed my husband through Nipunika. Thou too entreat him." Therefore I linger here Waiting till the King's greatness swiftly come, His vesper worship done. It dims apace. How beautifully twilight sits and dreams Upon these palace walls! The peacocks now Sit on their perches, drowsed with sleep and night, Like figures hewn in stone. And on the roof The fluttering pigeons with their pallid wings Mislead the eye, disguised as rings of smoke That from the window-ways have floated out Into the evening. In places flower-bestrewn The elders of the high seraglio, gentle souls Of holy manners, set the evening lamps, Dividing darkness; flames of auspice burn. The King! I hear the sound of many feet, Ringed round with torches he appears, his girls Hold up with young fair arms. O form august Like Mainak, when as yet the hills had wings,
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Moving, and the slim trees along its ridge Flickered with vermeil shaken blooms. Just here I'll wait him, in the pathway of his glance.
Enter Pururavas, surrounded by girl attendants carrying torches; with him Manavaka.
PURURAVAS (aside) Day passes with some pale attempt at calm, For then work walls the mind from the fierce siege Of ever-present passion. But how shall I Add movement to the tardy-footed night, The long void hours by no distraction winged?
LATAVYA (approaching) Long live the King! My lady says, "The moon Tonight in splendour on the House of Jewels Rises like a bright face. On the clear terrace, My husband by my side, I would await With Rohinie, his heavenly fair delight, The God's embracings."
PURURAVAS What the Queen wills, was ever My law, Latavya.
LATAVYA So I'll tell my lady.
PURURAVAS Think you in very truth for her vow's sake My lady makes this motion?
MANAVAKA Rather I deem 'Tis her remorse she cloaks with holy vows, Atoning thus for a prostration scorned.
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PURURAVAS O true! the proud and loving hearts of women, Who have their prostrate dear ones spurned, repenting Are plagued with sweet accusing memories Of eyes that ask forgiveness, outstretched hands, Half-spoken words and touches on their feet, That travel to the heart. Precede me then To the appointed terrace.
MANAVAKA Look, my lord, The crystal stairs roll upward like bright waves On moonlit Ganges; yonder the terrace sleeps Wide-bosomed to the cold and lovely eve.
PURURAVAS Precede me; we'll ascend.
They ascend to the terrace.
MANAVAKA The moon is surely Upon the verge of rise; swiftly the east Empties of darkness, and the horizon seems All beautiful and brightening like a face.
PURURAVAS O aptly said! Behind the peak of rise The hidden moon, pushing black night aside, Precedes himself with herald lustres. See! The daughter of the imperial East puts back The blinding tresses from her eyes, and smiles, And takes with undimmed face my soul.
MANAVAKA Hurrah! The king of the twice-born has risen all white And round and luscious like a ball of sugar.
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PURURAVAS (smiling) A glutton's eloquence is ever haunted With images of the kitchen. (bowing with folded hands) Hail, God that rulest The inactive night! O settler with the sun For ritual holy, O giver to the Gods And blessed fathers dead of nectarous wine, O slayer of the vasty glooms of night, Whose soul of brightness crowns the Almighty's head, O moon, all hail! accept thy offspring's prayer.
MANAVAKA Well now, your grandpapa has heard your vows; You'll take it from a Brahmin's mouth, through whom Even he may telepath his message. So, That's finished. Now sit down and give me a chance Of being comfortable.
PURURAVAS (sitting down, then looking at his attendants) The moon is risen; These torches are a vain reiteration Of brightness. Ladies, rest.
ALL Our lord commands us.
PURURAVAS It is not long before my lady comes. So, let me, while we yet are lonely here, Unburden me of my love-ravaged thoughts.
MANAVAKA They are visible to the blind. Take hope and courage By thinking of her equal love.
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PURURAVAS I do; And yet the pain within my heart is great. For as a mighty river whose vast speed Stumbles within a narrow pass of huge And rugged boulders, chides his uncouth bed, Increasing at each check, even so does love, His joy of union stinted or deferred, Rebel and wax a hundredfold in fire.
MANAVAKA So your love-wasted limbs increase their beauty, They are a sign you soon will clasp your love.
PURURAVAS O friend, as you my longing heaviness Comfort with hopeful words, my arm too speaks In quick auspicious throbs.
He looks with hope up to the sky.
MANAVAKA A Brahmin's word!
There enter in the air Chitralekha with Urvasie in trysting-dress.
URVASIE (looking at herself) Sister, do you not think my trysting-dress, The dark-blue silk and the few ornaments, Becomes me vastly? Do you not approve it?
CHITRALEKHA O inexpressibly! I have no words To praise it. This I'll say; it makes me wish I were Pururavas.
URVASIE Since Love himself
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Inspires you, bring me quickly to the dwelling Of that high beautiful face.
CHITRALEKHA Look, we draw near. Your lover's house lifts in stupendous mass, As it were mountain Coilas, to the clouds.
URVASIE Look, sister, with the eye of Gods and know Where is that robber of my heart and what His occupation?
CHITRALEKHA (aside, with a smile) I will jest with her. (aloud) I see him. He, in a sweet region made For love and joy, possesses with desire The body and the bosom of his love.
URVASIE (despairingly) Happy that woman, whosoe'er she be!
CHITRALEKHA Why, sweet faint-hearted fool, in whom but thee Should his thoughts joy?
URVASIE (with a sigh of relief) Alas, my heart perverse Will doubt.
CHITRALEKHA Here on the terraced House of Gems The King is with his friend sole-sitting. Then, We may approach.
They descend.
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PURURAVAS O friend, the widening night And pangs of love keep pace in their increase.
URVASIE Sister, my heart is torn with apprehension Of what his words might mean. Let us, ourselves Invisible, hear their unfettered converse. My fears might then have rest.
CHITRALEKHA Good.
MANAVAKA Take the moonbeams Whose pregnant nectar comforts burning limbs.
PURURAVAS But my affliction's not remediable With such faint medicines. Neither smoothest flowers, Moonlight nor sandal visiting every limb, Nor necklaces of cool delightful pearl, Only Heaven's nymph can perfectly expel With bliss, or else—
URVASIE (clutching at her bosom with her hand) O me! who else? who else?
PURURAVAS Speech secret full of her unedge my pangs.
URVASIE Heart that left me to flutter in his hands, Now art thou for that rashness recompensed!
MANAVAKA Yes, I too when I cannot get sweet venison
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And hunger for it, often beguile my belly With celebrating all its savoury joys.
PURURAVAS Your belly-loves, good friend, are always with you And ready to your gulp.
MANAVAKA You too shall soon Possess your love.
PURURAVAS My friend, I have strange feeling.
CHITRALEKHA Hearken, insatiable, exacting, hearken, And be convinced!
MANAVAKA What feeling?
PURURAVAS This I feel, As if this shoulder by her shoulder pressed In the car's shock bore all my sum of being, And all this frame besides were only weight Cumbering the impatient earth.
CHITRALEKHA Yet you delay!
URVASIE (suddenly approaching Pururavas) O me! sister!
CHITRALEKHA What is it now?
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URVASIE I am Before him, and he does not care!
CHITRALEKHA (smiling) O thou All passionate unreasoning haste! Thou hast not Put off as yet invisibility.
VOICE (within) This way, my lady.
All listen, Urvasie and Chitralekha are despondent.
MANAVAKA (in dismay) Hey? The Queen is here? Keep watch upon your tongue.
PURURAVAS You first discharge Your face of conscious guilt.
URVASIE Sister, what now?
CHITRALEKHA Be calm. We are unseen. This princess looks As for a vow arrayed, nor long, if so, Will tarry.
As she speaks, the Queen and Nipunika enter with attendants carrying offerings.
AUSHINARIE How does yonder spotted moon Flush with new beauty, O Nipunika, At Rohinie's embracings.
NIPUNIKA So too with you,
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Lady, my lord looks fairer than himself.
MANAVAKA The Queen, my lord, looks very sweet and gracious, Either because I know she'll give me sweetmeats Or 'tis a sign of anger quite renounced, And from your memory to exile her harshness She makes her vow an instrument.
PURURAVAS Good reasons both; (smiling) Yet to my humble judgment the poor second Has likelier hue. For she in gracious white Is clad and sylvanly adorned with flowers, Her raven tresses spangled with young green Of sacred grass. All her fair body looks Gentle and kind, its pomp and pride renounced For lovely meekness to her lord.
AUSHINARIE (approaching) My husband!
ATTENDANT Hail to our master!
MANAVAKA Peace attend my lady.
PURURAVAS Welcome.
He takes her hand and draws her down on a seat.
URVASIE By right this lady bears the style Of Goddess and of Empress, since no whit Her noble majesty of fairness yields
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To Heaven's Queen.
CHITRALEKHA O bravely said, my sister! 'Twas worthy of a soul where jealous baseness Ought never harbour.
AUSHINARIE I have a vow, my lord, Which at my husband's feet must be absolved. Bear with me that I trouble you one moment.
PURURAVAS No, no, it is not trouble, but a kindness.
MANAVAKA The good trouble that brings me sweetmeats! often, O often may such trouble vex my belly.
PURURAVAS What vow is this you would absolve, my own?
Aushinarie looks at Nipunika.
NIPUNIKA 'Tis that women perform to win back kindness In eyes of one held dear.
PURURAVAS If this be so, Vainly hast thou these tender flower-soft limbs Afflicted with a vow's austerities, Beloved. Thou suest for favour to thy servant, Propitiatest who for thy propitiated All-loving glance is hungry.
URVASIE Greatly he loves her!
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CHITRALEKHA Why, silly one, whose heart is gone astraying, Redoubles words of kindness to his wife. Do you not know so much?
AUSHINARIE (smiling) Not vain my vow, That to such words of love has moved already My husband.
MANAVAKA Stop, my lord, a word well spoken Is spoilt by any answer.
AUSHINARIE Girls, the offering With which I must adore this gentle moonlight That dreams upon our terrace!
NIPUNIKA Here, my lady, Are flowers, here costly scents, all needed things.
AUSHINARIE Give them to me.
She worships the moonbeams with flowers and perfumes.
Nipunika, present The sweetmeats of the offering to the Brahmin.
NIPUNIKA I will, my lady. Noble Manavaka, Here is for you.
MANAVAKA Blessings attend thee. May Thy vow bear fruit nor end.
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AUSHINARIE Now, dear my lord, Pray you, draw nearer to me.
PURURAVAS Behold me, love! What must I do?
Aushinarie worships the King, then bowing down with folded hands.
AUSHINARIE I, Aushinarie, call The divine wife and husband, Rohinie And Mrigalanchhan named the spotted moon, To witness here my vowed obedient love To my dear lord. Henceforth whatever woman My lord shall love and she desire him too, I will embrace her and as a sister love, Nor think of jealousy.
URVASIE I know not wholly Her drift, and yet her words have made me feel All pure and full of noble trust.
CHITRALEKHA Be confident, Your love will prove all bliss; surely it must When blessed and sanctioned by this pure, devoted And noble nature.
MANAVAKA (aside) When from 'twixt his hands Fish leaps, cries me the disappointed fisher, "Go, trout, I spare you. This will be put down To my account in Heaven." (aloud)
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No more but this You love my friend, your husband, lady?
AUSHINARIE Dull fool! I with the death of my own happiness Would give my husband ease. From this consider How dearly I love him.
PURURAVAS Since thou hast power on me To give me to another or to keep Thy slave, I have no right to plead. And yet I am not as thou thinkest me, all lost, O thou too jealous, to thy love.
AUSHINARIE My lord, We will not talk of that. I have fulfilled My rite, and with observance earned your kindness. Girls, let us go.
PURURAVAS Is thus my kindness earned? I am not kind, not pleased, if now, beloved, Thou shun and leave me.
AUSHINARIE Pardon, my lord. I never Have yet transgressed the rigour of a vow.
Exeunt Queen, Nipunika and attendants.
URVASIE Wife-lover, uxorious is this King, and yet I cannot lure my heart away from him.
CHITRALEKHA Why, what new trick of wilful passion's this?
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PURURAVAS (sitting down) The Queen is not far off.
MANAVAKA Never heed that, Speak boldly. She has given you up as hopeless. So doctors leave a patient, when disease Defies all remedy, to his own sweet guidance.
PURURAVAS O that my Urvasie—
URVASIE Today might win Her one dear wish.
PURURAVAS From her invisible feet The lovely sound of anklets on my ear Would tinkle, or coming stealing from behind Blind both my eyes with her soft little hands Like two cool lotuses upon them fallen: Or, Oh, most sweet! descending on this roof Shaken with dear delicious terrors, lingering And hanging back, be by her sister drawn With tender violence, faltering step by step, Till she lay panting on my knees.
CHITRALEKHA Go, sister, And satisfy his wish.
URVASIE Must I? well then, I'll pluck up heart and play with him a little.
She becomes visible, steals behind the King and covers his eyes with her hands. Chitralekha puts off her veil of
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invisibility and makes a sign to Manavaka.
MANAVAKA Now say, friend, who is this?
PURURAVAS The hands of beauty. 'Tis that Narayan-born whose limbs are sweetness.
MANAVAKA How can you guess?
PURURAVAS What is there here to guess? My heart tells me. The lily of the night Needs not to guess it is the moon's cool touch. She starts not to the sunbeam. 'Tis so with me. No other woman could but she alone Heal with her little hands all my sick pining.
Urvasie removes her hands and rises to her feet; then moves a step or two away.
URVASIE Conquest attend my lord!
PURURAVAS Welcome, O beauty.
He draws her down beside him.
CHITRALEKHA Happiness to my brother!
PURURAVAS Here it sits Beside me.
URVASIE Because the Queen has given you to me,
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Therefore I dare to take into my arms Your body like a lover. You shall not think me Forward.
MANAVAKA What, set the sun to you on this terrace?
PURURAVAS O love, if thou my body dost embrace As seizable, a largess—from my Queen, But whose permission didst thou ask, when thou Stolest my heart away?
CHITRALEKHA Brother, she is Abashed and has no answer. Therefore a moment Turn to me, grant me one entreaty.
CHITRALEKHA When spring is vanished and the torrid heat Thickens, I must attend the glorious Sun. Do thou so act that this my Urvasie Left lonely with thee, shall not miss her Heaven!
MANAVAKA Why, what is there in Heaven to pine for? There You do not eat, you do not drink, only Stare like so many fishes in a row With wide unblinking eyes.
PURURAVAS The joys of Heaven No thought can even outline. Who then shall make The soul forget which thence has fallen? Of this
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Be sure, fair girl, Pururavas is only Thy sister's slave: no other woman shares That rule nor can share.
CHITRALEKHA Brother, this is kind. Be brave, my Urvasie, and let me go.
URVASIE (embracing Chitralekha, pathetically) Chitralekha, my sister, do not forget me!
CHITRALEKHA (with a smile) Of thee I should entreat that mercy, who Hast got thy love's embrace.
She bows down to the King and goes.
MANAVAKA Now nobly, sir, Are you increased with bliss and your desire's Accrual.
PURURAVAS You say well. This is my increase; Who felt not half so blest when I acquired The universal sceptre of the world And sovran footstool touched by jewelled heads Of tributary monarchs, as today I feel most happy who have won the right To touch two little feet and am allowed To be thy slave and do thy lovely bidding.
URVASIE I have not words to make a sweeter answer.
PURURAVAS How does the winning of one loved augment
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Sweet contradictions! These are the very rays Of moonlight burned me late, and now they soothe; Love's wounding shafts caress the heart like flowers, Thou being with me; all natural sights and sounds Once rude and hurtful, now caressing come Softly, because of thee in my embrace.
URVASIE I am to blame that I deprived my lord So long.
PURURAVAS Beloved and beautiful, not so! For happiness arising after pain Tastes therefore sweeter, as the shady tree To one perplexed with heat and dust affords A keener taste of Paradise.
MANAVAKA We have courted For a long hour the whole delightfulness Of moonlight in the evening. It is time To seek repose.
PURURAVAS Guide therefore this fair friend The way her feet must henceforth tread.
MANAVAKA This way.
PURURAVAS O love, I have but one wish left.
URVASIE What wish, my lord?
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PURURAVAS When I had not embraced thee, my desire, One night in passing seemed a hundred nights; O now if darkness would extend my joys To equal length of real hours with this Sweet face upon my bosom, I were blest.
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The sky near the doors of the sunrise; clouds everywhere. Chitralekha and Sahajanya.
SAHAJANYA Dear Chitralekha, like a fading flower The beauty of thy face all marred reveals Sorrow of heart. Tell me thy melancholy; I would be sad with thee.
CHITRALEKHA (sorrowfully) O Sahajanya! Sister, by rule of our vicissitude, I serving at the feet of the great Sun Was troubled at heart for want of Urvasie.
SAHAJANYA I know your mutual passion of sisterliness. What after?
CHITRALEKHA I had heard no news of her So many days. Then I collected vision Divine into myself to know of her. O miserable knowledge!
SAHAJANYA Sister, sister!
CHITRALEKHA (still sorrowfully) I saw that Urvasie Taking with her Pururavas and love— For he had on his ministers imposed
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His heavy yoke of kingship—went to sport Amorously in Gandhamadan green.
SAHAJANYA (proudly) O love is joy indeed, when in such spots Tasted. And there?
CHITRALEKHA And there upon the strands Of heavenly Ganges, one, a lovely child Of spirits musical, Udayavatie, Was playing, making little forts of sand; On her with all his soul the monarch gazed. This angered Urvasie.
SAHAJANYA O natural! Deep passion always is intolerant. Afterwards?
CHITRALEKHA She pushed aside her pleading husband, Perplexed by the Preceptor's curse forgot The War-God's vow and entered in that grove Avoidable of women; but no sooner Had trod its green, most suddenly she was A creeper rooted to that fatal verge.
SAHAJANYA (in a voice of grief) Now do I know that Fate's indeed a thing Inexorable, spares no one, when such love Has such an ending; O all too suddenly! How must it be then with Pururavas?
CHITRALEKHA All day and night he passions in that grove Seeking her. And this cool advent of cloud
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That turns even happy hearts to yearning pain Will surely kill him.
SAHAJANYA Sister, not long can grief Have privilege over such beautiful beings. Some God will surely pity them, some cause Unite once more. (looking towards the east) Come, sister. Our lord the Sun Is rising in the east. Quick, to our service.
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Pururavas enters disordered, his eyes fixed on the sky.
PURURAVAS (angrily) Halt, ruffian, halt! Thou in thy giant arms Bearest away my Urvasie! He has Soared up from a great crag into the sky And wars me, hurling downward bitter rain Of arrows. With this thunderbolt I smite thee.
He lifts up a clod and runs as to hurl it; then pauses and looks upwards. (pathetically) Oh me, I am deceived! This was a cloud Equipped for rain, no proud and lustful fiend, The rainbow, not a weapon drawn to kill, Quick-driving showers are these, not sleety rain Of arrows; and that brilliant line like streak Of gold upon a touchstone, cloud-inarmed, I saw, was lightning, not my Urvasie. (sorrowfully) Where shall I find her now? Where clasp those thighs Swelling and smooth and white? Perhaps she stands Invisible to me by heavenly power, All sullen? But her anger was ever swift And ended soon. Perhaps into her Heavens She has soared? O no! her heart was soft with love, And love of me. Nor any fiend adverse To Heaven had so much strength as to hale her hence While I looked on. Yet is she gone from me Invisible, swiftly invisible— Whither? O bitter miracle! and yet—
He scans each horizon, then pauses and sighs.
Alas! when fortune turns against a man, Then sorrow treads on sorrow. There was already This separation from my love, and hard Enough to bear; and now the pleasant days,
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Guiltless of heat, with advent cool of rain Must help to slay me. (laughing) Why do I so tamely Accept addition to my pangs? For even The saints confess "The king controls the seasons"; If it be so, I will command the thunder Back to his stable. (pausing to think) No, I must permit The season unabridged of pomp; the sighs Of storm are now my only majesty; This sky with lightning gilt and laced becomes My canopy of splendour, and the trees Of rain-time waving wide their lavish bloom Fan me; the sapphire-throated peacocks, voiced Sweeter for that divorce from heat, are grown My poets; the mountains are my citizens, They pour out all their streams to swell my greatness. But I waste time in idly boasting vain Glories and lose my love. To my task, to my task! This grove, this grove should find her.
He moves onward.
And here, O here Is something to enrage my resolution. Red-tinged, expanding, wet and full of rain, These blossom-cups recall to me her eyes Brimming with angry tears. How shall I trace her, Or what thing tell me "Here and here she wandered?" If she had touched with her beloved feet The rain-drenched forest-sands, there were a line Of little gracious footprints seen, with lac Envermeilled, sinking deeper towards the heel Because o'erburdened by her hips' large glories.
He moves onward. (exultantly) Oh joy! I see a hint of her. This way
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Then went her angry beauty! Lo, her bodice Bright green as is a parrot's belly, smitten With crimson drops. It once veiled in her bosom And paused to show her navel deep as love. These are her tears that from those angry eyes Went trickling, stealing scarlet from her lips To spangle all this green. Doubtless her heaving Tumult of breasts broke its dear hold and, she Stumbling in anger, from my Heaven it drifted. I'll gather it to my kisses. (He stoops to it, then sorrowfully) O my heart! Only green grass with dragon-wings enamelled! From whom shall I in all the desolate forest Have tidings of her, or what creature help me? Lo, in yon waste of crags the peacock! he Upon a cool moist rock that breathes of rain Exults, aspires, his gorgeous mass of plumes Seized, blown and scattered by the roaring gusts. Pregnant of shrillness is his outstretched throat, His look is with the clouds. Him I will question: Have the bright corners of thine eyes beheld, O sapphire-throated bird, her, my delight, My wife, my passion, my sweet grief? Yielding No answer, he begins his gorgeous dance. Why should he be so glad of my heart's woe? I know thee, peacock. Since my cruel loss Thy plumes that stream in splendour on the wind, Have not one rival left. For when her heavy Dark wave of tresses over all the bed In softness wide magnificently collapsed On her smooth shoulders massing purple glory And bright with flowers, she passioning in my arms, Who then was ravished with thy brilliant plumes, Vain bird? I question thee not, heartless thing, That joyest in others' pain. (turning away)
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Lo, where, new-fired With sweet bird-passion by the season cool, A cuckoo on the plum-tree sits. This race Is wisest of the families of birds And learned in love. I'll greet him like himself. O cuckoo, thou art called the bird of love, His sweet ambassador, O cuckoo. Thou Criest and thy delightful voice within The hearts of lovers like an arrow comes, Seeks out the anger there and softly kills. Me also, cuckoo, to my darling bring Or her to me. What saidst thou? "How could she Desert thee loving?" Cuckoo, I will tell thee. Yes, she was angry. Yet I know I never Gave her least cause. But, cuckoo, dost thou know not That women love to feel their sovereignty Over their lovers, nor transgression need To be angry? How! Dost thou break off, O bird, Our converse thus abruptly and turn away To thine own tasks? Alas, 'twas wisely said That men bear easily the bitter griefs Which others feel. For all my misery This bird, my orison disregarding, turns To attack the plum-tree's ripening fruit as one Drunken with love his darling's mouth. And yet I cannot be angry with him. Has he not The voice of Urvasie? Abide, O bird, In bliss, though I unhappy hence depart.
He walks on, then stops short and listens.
O Heaven? what do I hear? the anklets' cry That tell the musical footing of my love? To right of this long grove 'twas heard. Oh, I Will run to her. (hurrying forward) Me miserable! This was No anklets' cry embraceable with hands, But moan of swans who seeing the grey wet sky
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Grow passionate for Himaloy's distant tarns. Well, be it so. But ere in far desire They leap up from this pool, I well might learn Tidings from them of Urvasie. (approaching) Listen, O king of all white fowl that waters breed. Afterwards to Himaloy wing thy way, But now thy lotus fibres in thy beak Gathered by thee for provender resign; Ere long thou shalt resume them. Me, ah, first From anguish rescue, O majestic swan, With tidings of my sweet; always high souls Prefer another's good to selfish aims. Thou lookest upward to the Heavens and sayest, "I was absorbed with thoughts of Himaloy; Her have I not observed." O swan, thou liest, For if she never trod upon thy lake's Embankment, nor thou sawest her arched brows, How couldst thou copy then so perfectly Her footing full of amorous delight, Or whence didst steal it? Give me back my love, Thou robber! Thou hast got her gait and this Is law that he with whom a part is found Must to the claimant realise the whole. (laughing) O yes, thou flyest up, clanging alarm, "This is the king whose duty is to punish All thieves like me!" Go then, but I will plunge Into new hopeful places, seeking love. Lo, wild-drake with his mate, famed chocrobacque, Him let me question. O thou wondrous creature, All saffron and vermilion! Wilt thou then Not tell me of my love? Oh, sawest thou not My Goddess laughing like a lovely child In the bright house of spring? For, wild-drake, thou Who gettest from the chariot's orb thy name,
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I who deprived am of her orbed hips, The chariot-warrior great Pururavas, Encompassed with a thousand armed desires, Question thee. How! "Who? Who?" thou sayest to me! This is too much. It is not possible He should not know me! Bird, I am a king Of kings, and grandson to the Sun and Moon, And earth has chosen me for her master. This Were little. I am the loved of Urvasie! Still art thou silent? I will taunt him, then Perhaps he'll speak. Thou, wild-drake, when thy love, Her body hidden by a lotus-leaf, Lurks near thee in the pool, deemest her far And wailest musically to the flowers A wild deep dirge. Such is thy conjugal Yearning, thy terror such of even a little Division from her nearness. Me afflicted, Me so forlorn thou art averse to bless With just a little tidings of my love! Alas, my miserable lot has made All creatures adverse to me. Let me plunge Into the deeper wood. Oh no, not yet! This lotus with the honey-bees inside Making melodious murmur, keeps me. I Remember her soft mouth when I have kissed it Too cruelly, sobbing exquisite complaint. These too I will implore. Alas, what use? They will despise me like the others. Yet, Lest I repent hereafter of my silence, I'll speak to him. O lotus-wooing bee, Tell me some rumour of those eyes like wine, But no, thou hast not seen that wonder. Else Wouldst thou, O bee, affect the lotus' bloom, If thou hadst caught the sweetness from her lips Breathing, whose scent intoxicates the breeze? I'll leave him. Lo! with his mate an elephant. His trunk surrounds a nym-tree to uproot.
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To him will I, he may some rumour have Or whisper of my love. But softly! Haste Will ruin me. Oh, this is not the time! Now his beloved mate has in her trunk Just found him broken branches odorous And sweet as wine with the fresh leaves not long In bud, new-honied. These let him enjoy. His meal is over now. I may approach And ask him. O rut-dripping elephant, Sole monarch of the herd, has not that moon With jasmines all a glory in her hair And limbs of fadeless beauty, carrying Youth like a banner, whom to see is bliss, Is madness, fallen in thy far ken, O king? O joy! he trumpets loud and soft as who Would tell me he has seen indeed my love. Oh, I am gladdened! More to thee I stand Attracted, elephant, as like with like. Sovereign of sovereigns is my title, thou Art monarch of the kingly elephants, And this wide freedom of thy fragrant rut Interminable imitates my own Vast liberality to suppliant men, Regally; thou hast in all the herd this mate, I among loveliest women Urvasie. In all things art thou like me; only I pray, O friend, that thou mayst never know the pang, The loss. Be fortunate, king, farewell! Oh, see, The mountain of the Fragrant Glens appears, Fair as a dream, with his great plateaus trod By heavenly feet of women. May it not be, To this wide vale she too has with her sisters Brought here her beautiful body full of spring? Darkness! I cannot see her. Yet by these gleams Of lightning I may study, I may find. Ah God! the fruit of guilt is bounded not With the doer's anguish; this stupendous cloud
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Is widowed of the lightning through my sin. Yet I will leave thee not, O thou huge pile Of scaling crags, unquestioned. Hear me, answer me! O mountain, has she entered then the woods, Love's green estate—ah, she too utter love! Her breasts were large like thine, with small sweet space Between them, and like thine her glorious hips And smooth fair joints a rapture. Dumb? No answer? I am too far away, he has not heard me. Let me draw nearer. Mountain, seen was she, A woman all bereaved, her every limb A loveliness, in these delightful woods?
ECHO Nearer, O nearer! Mountain-seen was she, A woman all bereaved, her every limb A loveliness, in these delightful woods.
PURURAVAS He has answered, answered! O my heart, I draw Nearer to her! In my own words the hill Answers thee, O my heart. As joyous tidings Mayst thou too hear, mountain. She then was seen, My Urvasie in thy delightful woods?
ECHO Mountain! mountain! mountain! She then was seen, My Urvasie in thy delightful woods, In thy delightful woods, delightful woods.
PURURAVAS Alas! 'tis Echo mocks me with my voice Rolling amid the crags and mountain glens. Out on thee, Echo! Thou hast killed my heart. O Urvasie! Urvasie! Urvasie!
He falls down and swoons.
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(recovering) I am all weary and sad. Oh, let me rest Beside this mountain river for a moment And woo the breeze that dances on the waves. All turbid is this stream with violent rain, And yet I thrill to see it. For, O, it seems Just like my angry darling when she went Frowning—as this does with its little waves,— A wrathful music in her girdle—and see! This string of birds with frightened clangour rise; She trailed her raiment as the river its foam, For it loosened with her passion as she moved With devious feet, all angry, blind with tears, And often stopped to brood upon her wrongs: But soon indignantly her stormy speed Resumed, so tripping, winding goes the stream, As she did. O most certainly 'tis she. My sweet quick-tempered darling, suddenly changed Into a river's form. I will beseech her And soothe her wounded spirit. Urvasie? Did I not love thee perfectly? Did not My speech grow sweetness when I spoke to thee? And when did my heart anything but hate To false our love? O what was the slight fault Thou foundest in thy servant that thou couldst Desert him, Urvasie, O Urvasie! She answers not! It is not she, merely A river. Urvasie would not have left Pururavas to tryst with Ocean. And now Since only by refusal to despair Can bliss at last be won, I will return Where first she fled from my pursuing eyes. This couching stag shall give me tidings of her, Who looks as if he were a splendid glance Some dark-eyed Dryad had let fall to admire This budding foliage and this young green beauty Of grass. But why averts he then his head
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As though in loathing? I perceive his reason. Lo, his fair hind is hasting towards him, stayed By their young dearling plucking at her teats. With her his eyes are solely, her with bent Lithe neck he watches. Ho, thou lord of hind! Sawst thou not her I love? O stag, I'll tell thee How thou shouldst know her. Like thine own dear hind She had large eyes and loving, and like hers That gaze was beauty. Why does he neglect My words and only gaze towards his love? All prosperous creatures slight the unfortunate! 'Tis natural. Then elsewhere let me seek. I have found her, I have found her! O a hint And token of her way! This one red drop Of summer's blood the very codome was, Though rough with faulty stamens, yet thought worthy To crown her hair. And thou, asoka red, Didst watch my slender-waisted when she gave So cruelly a loving heart to pain. Why dost thou lie and shake thy windy head? How couldst thou by her soft foot being untouched Break out into such bloom of petals stung And torn by jostling crowds of bees, who swarm All wild to have thy honey? Ever be blest, Thou noble trunk. What should this be, bright red, That blazes in a crevice of the rocks? For if it were a piece of antelope's flesh Torn by a lion, 'twould not have this blaze, This lustre haloing it; nor can it be A spark pregnant of fire; for all the wood Is drowned in rain. No, 'tis a gem, a miracle Of crimson, like the red felicitous flower, And with one radiant finger of the sun Laid on it like a claim. Yet I will take it, For it compels my soul with scarlet longing. Wherefore? She on whose head it should have burned, Whose hair all fragrant with the coral-bloom
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I loved like Heaven, is lost to me, beyond Recovery lost to me. Why should I take it To mar it with my tears?
A VOICE Reject it not, My son; this is the jewel Union born From the red lac that on the marvellous feet Was brilliant of Himaloy's child, and, soon, Who bears it, is united with his love.
PURURAVAS Who speaks to me? It is a saint who dwells In forest like the deer. He first of creatures Has pitied me. O my lord anchoret, I thank thee. Thou, O Union, if thou end My separation, if with that small-waisted Thou shouldst indeed be proved my Union, Jewel, I'll use thee for my crown, as Shiva Upon his forehead wears the crescent moon. This flowerless creeper! Wherefore do mine eyes Dwell with its barren grace and my heart yearn Towards it? And yet, O, not without a cause Has she enchanted me. There standst thou, creeper, All slender, thy poor sad leaves are moist with rain, Thou silent, with no voice of honey-bees Upon thy drooping boughs; as from thy lord The season separated, leaving off Thy habit of bloom. Why, I might think I saw My passionate darling sitting penitent With tear-stained face and body unadorned, Thinking in silence how she spurned my love. I will embrace thee, creeper, for thou art Too like my love. Urvasie! all my body Is thrilled and satisfied of Urvasie! I feel, I feel her living limbs. (despairingly)
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But how Should I believe it? Everything I deem A somewhat of my love, next moment turns To other. Therefore since by touch at least I find my dear one, I will not separate Too suddenly mine eyes from sleep. (opening his eyes slowly) O love, 'Tis thou!
He swoons.
URVASIE Upraise thy heart, my King, my liege!
PURURAVAS Dearest, at last I live! O thou hadst plunged me Into a dark abyss of separation, And fortunately art thou returned to me, Like consciousness given back to one long dead.
URVASIE With inward senses I have watched and felt Thy whole long agony.
PURURAVAS With inward senses? I understand thee not.
URVASIE I will tell all. But let my lord excuse my grievous fault, Who, wretch enslaved by anger, brought to this My sovereign! Smile on me and pardon me!
PURURAVAS Never speak of it. Thy clasp is thy forgiveness. For all my outward senses and my soul
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Leap laughing towards thy bosom. Only convince me How thou couldst live without me such an age.
URVASIE Hearken. The War-God Skanda, from of old Virginity eternal vowing, came To Gandhamadan's bank men call the pure, And made a law.
PURURAVAS What law, beloved?
URVASIE This That any woman entering these precincts Becomes at once a creeper. And for limit Of the great curse, "Without the jewel born From crimson of my mother's feet can she Never be woman more." Now I, my lord, My heart perplexed by the Preceptor's curse, Forgot the War-God's oath and entered here, Rejecting thy entreaties, to the wood Avoidable of women: at the first step, All suddenly my form was changed. I was A creeper growing at the wood's wild end.
PURURAVAS Oh now intelligible! When from thy breasts Loosening the whole embrace, the long delight, I sank back languid, thou wouldst moan for me Like one divided far. How is it then Possible that thou shouldst bear patiently Real distance between us? Lo, this jewel, As in thy story, gave thee to my arms. Admonished by a hermit sage I kept it.
URVASIE The jewel Union! Therefore at thy embrace
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I was restored.
She places the jewel gratefully upon her head.
PURURAVAS Thus stand a while. O fairest, Thy face, suffused with crimson from this gem Above thee pouring wide its fire and splendour, Has all the beauty of a lotus reddening In early sunlight.
URVASIE O sweet of speech! remember That thy high capital awaits thee long. It may be that the people blame me. Let us, My own dear lord, return.
PURURAVAS Let us return.
URVASIE What wafture will my sovereign choose?
PURURAVAS O waft me Nearer the sun and make a cloud our chariot, While lightning like a streaming banner floats Now seen, now lost to vision, and the rainbow With freshness of its glory iridescent Edges us. In thine arms uplift and waft me, Beloved, through the wide and liquid air.
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Outside the King's tents near Pratisthana. In the background the confluence of the river Ganges and Yamuna. Manavaka alone.
MANAVAKA After long pleasuring with Urvasie In Nandan and all woodlands of the Gods, Our King's at last returned, and he has entered His city, by the jubilant people met With splendid greetings, and resumed his toils. Ah, were he but a father, nothing now Were wanting to his fullness. This high day At confluence of great Ganges with the stream Dark Yamuna, he and his Queen have bathed. Just now he passed into his tent, and surely His girls adorn him. I will go exact My first share of the ointments and the flowers.
MAIDS (within lamenting) O me unfortunate! the jewel is lost Accustomed to the noble head of her Most intimate with the bosom of the King, His loveliest playmate. I was carrying it In palm-leaf basket on white cloth of silk; A vulture doubting this some piece of flesh Swoops down and soars away with it.
MANAVAKA Unfortunate! This was the Union, the crest-jewel, dear O'er all things to the King. Look where he comes, His dress half-worn just as he started up
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On hearing of his loss. I'll go to him.
Then Pururavas enters with his Amazons of the Bactrian Guard and other attendants in great excitement.
PURURAVAS Huntress! huntress! Where is that robber bird That snatches his own death? He practises His first bold pillage in the watchman's house.
HUNTRESS Yonder, the golden thread within his beak! Trailing the jewel how he wheels in air Describing scarlet lines upon the sky!
PURURAVAS I see him, dangling down the thread of gold He wheels and dips in rapid circles vast. The jewel like a whirling firebrand red Goes round and round and with vermilion rings Incarnadines the air. What shall we do To rescue it?
MANAVAKA (coming up) Why do you hesitate to slay him? He is marked out for death, a criminal.
PURURAVAS My bow! my bow!
AN AMAZON I run to bring it!
She goes out.
PURURAVAS Friend, I cannot see the bird. Where has it fled?
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MANAVAKA Look! to the southern far horizon wings The carrion-eating robber.
PURURAVAS (turns and looks) Yes, I see him. He speeds with the red jewel every way Branching and shooting light, as 'twere a cluster Of crimson roses in the southern sky Or ruby pendant from the lobe of Heaven.
Enter Amazon with the bow.
AMAZON Sire, I have brought the bow and leathern guard.
PURURAVAS Too late you bring it. Yon eater of raw flesh Goes winging far beyond an arrow's range, And the bright jewel with the distant bird Blazes like Mars the planet glaring red Against a wild torn piece of cloud. Who's there? Noble Latavya?
LATAVYA Your Highness?
PURURAVAS From me command The chief of the police, at evening, when Yon winged outlaw seeks his homing tree, That he be hunted out.
LATAVYA It shall be done.
He goes out.
MANAVAKA Sit down and rest. What place in all broad earth
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This jewel-thief can hide in, shall elude Your world-wide jurisdiction?
PURURAVAS (sitting down with Manavaka) It was not as a gem Of lustre that I treasured yonder stone, Now lost in the bird's beak, but 'twas my Union And it united me with my dear love.
MANAVAKA I know it, from your own lips heard the tale.
Chamberlain enters with the jewel and an arrow.
LATAVYA Behold shot through that robber! Though he fled, Thy anger darting in pursuit has slain him. Plumb down he fell with fluttering wings from Heaven And dropped the jewel bright.
All look at it in surprise.
Ill fate o'ertaking Much worse offence! My lord, shall not this gem Be washed in water pure and given—to whom!
PURURAVAS Huntress, go, see it purified in fire, Then to its case restore it.
HUNTRESS As the King wills.
She goes out with the jewel.
PURURAVAS Noble Latavya, came you not to know The owner of this arrow?
LATAVYA Letters there are
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Carved on the steel; my eyes grow old and feeble, I could not read them.
PURURAVAS Therefore give me the arrow. I will spell out the writing.
The Chamberlain gives him the arrow and he reads.
LATAVYA And I will fill my office.
MANAVAKA (seeing the King lost in thought) What do you read there, sir?
PURURAVAS Hear, Manavaka, hear The letters of this bowman's name.
MANAVAKA I'm all Attention; read.
PURURAVAS O hearken then and wonder. (reading) "Ayus, the smiter of his foeman's lives, The warrior Ilian's son by Urvasie, This arrow loosed."
MANAVAKA (with satisfaction) Hail, King! now dost thou prosper, Who hast a son.
PURURAVAS How should this be? Except By the great ritual once, never was I
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Parted from that beloved; nor have I witnessed One sign of pregnancy. How could my Goddess Have borne a son? True, I remember once For certain days her paps were dark and stained, And all her fair complexion to the hue Of that wan creeper paled, and languid-large Her eyes were. Nothing more.
MANAVAKA Do not affect With mortal attributes the living Gods. For holiness is as a veil to them Concealing their affections.
PURURAVAS This is true. But why should she conceal her motherhood?
MANAVAKA Plainly, she thought, "If the King sees me old And matron, he'll be off with some young hussy."
PURURAVAS No mockery, think it over.
MANAVAKA Who shall guess The riddles of the Gods? (enter Latavya) LATAVYA Hail to the King! A holy dame from Chyavan's hermitage Leading a boy would see my lord.
PURURAVAS Latavya,
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Admit them instantly.
LATAVYA As the King wills.
He goes out, then re-enters with Ayus bow in hand and a hermitess.
Come, holy lady, to the King.
They approach the King.
MANAVAKA How say you, Should not this noble boy be very he, The young and high-born archer with whose name Was lettered yon half-moon of steel that pierced The vulture? His features imitate my lord's.
PURURAVAS It must be so. The moment that I saw him, My eyes became a mist of tears, my spirit Lightened with joy, and surely 'twas a father That stirred within my bosom. O Heaven! I lose Religious calm; shudderings surprise me; I long To feel him with my limbs, pressed with my love.
LATAVYA (to the hermitess) Here deign to stand.
PURURAVAS Mother, I bow to thee.
SATYAVATIE High-natured! may thy line by thee increase! (aside) Lo, all untold this father knows his son. (aloud) My child, Bow down to thy begetter.
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Ayus bows down, folding his hands over his bow.
PURURAVAS Live long, dear son.
AYUS (aside) O how must children on their father's knees Grown great be melted with a filial sweetness, When only hearing that this is my father I feel I love him!
PURURAVAS Vouchsafe me, reverend lady, Thy need of coming.
SATYAVATIE Listen then, O King; This Ayus at his birth was in my hand By Urvasie, I know not why, delivered, A dear deposit. Every perfect rite And holiness unmaimed that princely boys Must grow through, Chyavan's self, the mighty Sage, Performed, and taught him letters, scripture, arts— Last, every warlike science.
PURURAVAS O fortunate In such a teacher!
HERMITESS The children fared a field Today for flowers, dry fuel, sacred grass, And Ayus faring with them violated The morals of the hermitage.
PURURAVAS (in alarm) O how?
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SATYAVATIE A vulture with a jag of flesh was merging Into a tree-top when the boy levelled His arrow at the bird.
PURURAVAS (anxiously) And then?
SATYAVATIE And then The holy Sage, instructed of that slaughter, Called me and bade, "Give back thy youthful trust Into his mother's keeping." Therefore, sir, Let me have audience with the lady.
PURURAVAS Mother, Deign to sit down one moment.
The hermitess takes the seat brought for her.
Noble Latavya, Let Urvasie be summoned.
LATAVYA It is done.
PURURAVAS Child of thy mother, come, O come to me! Let me feel my son! The touch of his own child, They say, thrills all the father; let me know it. Gladden me as the moonbeam melts the moonstone.
SATYAVATIE Go, child, and gratify thy father's heart.
Ayus goes to the King and clasps his feet.
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PURURAVAS (embracing the boy and seating him on his footstool) This Brahmin is thy father's friend. Salute him, And have no fear.
MANAVAKA Why should he fear? I think He grew up in the wood and must have seen A mort of monkeys in the trees.
AYUS (smiling) Hail, father.
MANAVAKA Peace and prosperity walk with thee ever.
Latavya returns with Urvasie.
LATAVYA This way, my lady.
URVASIE Who is this quivered youth Set on the footstool of the King? Himself My monarch binds his curls into a crest! Who should this be so highly favoured? (seeing Satyavatie) Ah! Satyavatie beside him tells me; it is My Ayus. How he has grown!
PURURAVAS (seeing Urvasie) O child, look up. Lo, she who bore thee, with her whole rapt gaze Grown mother, the veiled bosom heaving towards thee And wet with sacred milk!
SATYAVATIE Rise, son, and greet
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Thy parent.
She goes with the boy to Urvasie.
URVASIE I touch thy feet.
SATYAVATIE Ever be near Thy husband's heart.
AYUS Mother, I bow to thee.
URVASIE Child, be thy sire's delight. My lord and husband!
PURURAVAS O welcome to the mother! sit thee here.
He makes her sit beside him.
SATYAVATIE My daughter, lo, thine Ayus. He has learned All lore, heroic armour now can wear. I yield thee back before thy husband's eyes, Thy sacred trust. Discharge me. Each idle moment Is a religious duty left undone.
URVASIE It is so long since I beheld you, mother, I have not satisfied my thirst of you, And cannot let you go. And yet 'twere wrong To keep you. Therefore go for further meeting.
PURURAVAS Say to the Sage, I fall down at his feet.
SATYAVATIE 'Tis well.
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AYUS Are you going to the forest, mother? Will you not take me with you?
PURURAVAS Over, son, Thy studies in the woods. Thou must be now A man, know the great world.
SATYAVATIE Child, hear thy father.
AYUS Then, mother, let me have when he has got His plumes, my little peacock, jewel-crest, Who'ld sleep upon my lap and let me stroke His crest and pet him.
SATYAVATIE Surely, I will send him.
URVASIE Mother, I touch thy feet.
PURURAVAS I bow to thee, Mother.
SATYAVATIE Peace be upon you both, my children.
PURURAVAS O blessed lady! Now I am grown through thee A glorious father in this boy, our son; Not Indra, hurler down of cities, more In his Jayanta of Paulomie born.
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Urvasie weeps.
MANAVAKA Why is my lady suddenly all tears?
PURURAVAS My own beloved! How art thou full of tears While I am swayed with the great joy of princes Who see their line secured? Why do these drops On these high peaks of beauty raining down, O sad sweet prodigal, turn thy bright necklace To repetition vain of costlier pearls?
He wipes the tears from her eyes.
URVASIE Alas, my lord! I had forgot my doom In a mother's joy. But now thy utterance Of that great name of Indra brings to me Cruel remembrance torturing the heart Of my sad limit.
PURURAVAS Tell me, my love, what limit.
URVASIE O King, my heart held captive in thy hands, I stood bewildered by the curse; then Indra Uttered his high command: "When my great soldier, Earth's monarch, sees the face that keeps his line Made in thy womb, to Eden thou returnest." So when I knew my issue, sick with the terror Of being torn from thee, all hidden haste, I gave to noble Satyavatie the child, In Chyavan's forest to be trained. Today This my beloved son returns to me; No doubt she thought that he was grown and able To gratify his father's heart. This then
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Is the last hour of that sweet life with thee, Which goes not farther.
Pururavas swoons.
MANAVAKA Help, help!
URVASIE Return to me, my King!
PURURAVAS (reviving) O love, how jealous are the Gods in Heaven Of human gladness! I was comforted With getting of a son—at once this blow! O small sweet waist, I am divorced from thee! So has a poplar from one equal cloud Received the shower that cooled and fire of Heaven That kills it.
MANAVAKA O sudden evil out of good! For I suppose you now will don the bark And live with hermit trees.
URVASIE I too unhappy! For now my King who sees that I no sooner Behold my son reared up than to my Heavens I soar, will think that I have all my need And go with glad heart from his side.
PURURAVAS Beloved, Do not believe it. How can one be free To do his will who's subject to a master? He when he's bid, must cast his heart aside And dwell in exile from the face he loves.
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Therefore obey King Indra. On this thy son I too my kingdom will repose and dwell In forests where the antlered peoples roam.
AYUS My father should not on an untrained steer Impose the yoke that asks a neck of iron.
PURURAVAS Child, say not so! The ichorous elephant Not yet full-grown tames all the trumpetings Of older rivals; and the young snake's tooth With energy of virulent poison stored Strikes deadly. So is it with the ruler born: His boyish hand inarms the sceptred world. The force that rises with its task, springs not From years, but is a self and inborn greatness. Therefore, Latavya!
LATAVYA Let my lord command me.
PURURAVAS Direct from me the council to make ready The coronation of my son.
LATAVYA (sorrowfully) It is Your will, sire.
He goes out. Suddenly all act as if dazzled.
PURURAVAS What lightning leaps from cloudless Heavens?
URVASIE (gazing up) 'Tis the Lord Narad.
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PURURAVAS Narad? Yes 'tis he. His hair is matted all a tawny yellow Like ochre-streaks, his holy thread is white And brilliant like a digit of the moon. He looks as if the faery-tree of Heaven Came moving, shooting twigs all gold, and twinkling Pearl splendours for its leaves, its tendrils pearl. Guest-offering for the Sage!
Narad enters: all rise to greet him.
URVASIE Here is guest-offering.
NARAD Hail, the great guardian of the middle world!
PURURAVAS Greeting, Lord Narad.
URVASIE Lord, I bow to thee.
NARAD Unsundered live in sweetness conjugal.
PURURAVAS (aside) O that it might be so! (aloud to Ayus) Child, greet the Sage.
AYUS Urvasiean Ayus bows down to thee.
NARAD Live long, be prosperous.
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PURURAVAS Deign to take this seat.
Narad sits, after which all take their seats.
What brings the holy Narad?
NARAD Hear the message Of mighty Indra.
PURURAVAS I listen.
NARAD Maghavan, Whose soul can see across the world, to thee Intending loneliness in woods—
PURURAVAS Command me.
NARAD The seers to whom the present, past and future Are three wide-open pictures, these divulge Advent of battle and the near uprise Of Titans warring against Gods. Heaven needs Thee, her great soldier; thou shouldst not lay down Thy warlike arms. All thy allotted days This Urvasie is given thee for wife And lovely helpmeet.
URVASIE Oh, a sword is taken Out of my heart.
PURURAVAS In all I am Indra's servant.
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NARAD 'Tis fitting. Thou for Indra, he for thee, With interchange of lordly offices. So sun illumes the fire, fire the great sun Ekes out with heat and puissance.
He looks up into the sky.
Rambha, descend And with thee bring the high investiture Heaven's King has furnished to crown Ayus, heir Of great Pururavas.
Apsaras enter with the articles of investiture.
NYMPHS Lo! Holiness, That store!
NARAD Set down the boy upon the chair Of the anointing.
RAMBHA Come to me, my child.
She seats the boy.
NARAD (pouring the cruse of holy oil on the boy's head) Complete the ritual.
RAMBHA (after so doing) Bow before the Sage, My child, and touch thy parents' feet.
Ayus obeys.
NARAD Be happy.
PURURAVAS Son, be a hero and thy line's upholder.
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URVASIE Son, please thy father.
BARDS (within) Victory to Empire's heir.
Ode
First the immortal seer of Brahma's kind And had the soul of Brahma; Atri's then The Moon his child; and from the Moon again Sprang Budha-Hermes, moonlike was his mind. Pururavas was Budha's son and had Like starry brightness. Be in thee displayed Thy father's kindly gifts. All things that bless Mortals, descend in thy surpassing race.
Epode
Thy father like Himaloy highest stands Of all the high, but thou all steadfast be, Unchangeable and grandiose like the sea, Fearless, surrounding Earth with godlike hands. Let Empire by division brighter shine; For so the sacred Ganges snow and pine Favours, yet the same waters she divides To Ocean and his vast and heaving tides.
NYMPHS (approaching Urvasie) O thou art blest, our sister, in thy son Crowned heir to Empire, in thy husband blest From whom thou shalt not part.
URVASIE My happiness Is common to you all, sweet sisters: such Our love was always.
She takes Ayus by the hand.
Come with me, dear child,
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To fall down at thy elder mother's feet.
PURURAVAS Stay yet; we all attend you to the Queen.
NARAD Thy son's great coronation mindeth me Of yet another proud investiture— Kartikeya crowned by Maghavan, to lead Heaven's armies.
PURURAVAS Highly has the King of Heaven Favoured him, Narad; how should he not be Most great and fortunate?
NARAD What more shall Indra do For King Pururavas?
PURURAVAS Heaven's King being pleased, What further can I need? Yet this I'll ask.
He comes forward and speaks towards the audience.
Learning and fortune, Goddesses that stand In endless opposition, dwellers rare Under one roof, in kindly union join To bless for glory and for ease the good. This too; may every man find his own good, And every man be merry of his mind, And all men in all lands taste all desire.
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