Dialogue of Purūravas and Urvaśī
Rigveda X.95 is a sūkta (hymn) from Maṇḍala 10 of the Rigveda, one of the 1,028 hymns organized within the ten books of the oldest Veda. Unlike most Rigvedic hymns, it is not addressed to a deity but is composed as a dialogue (ākhyāna) between the mortal king Purūravas and the vanishing celestial nymph (apsaras) Urvaśī, who has left him and their son. The Rigveda was composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE in Vedic Sanskrit and preserved through oral transmission across millennia.
This is a Good Works Translation produced for the Good Works Library from the Sanskrit of the Śākala recension.
1. Purūravas: Ho, wife! Hold still in your mind, terrible one — let us exchange words together now. These thoughts of ours, left unspoken, will bring no joy, not even on some later day.
2. Urvaśī: What should I do with this speech of yours? I have already gone forth, like the foremost of the dawns. Purūravas, go home again. I am as hard to catch as the wind.
3. Purūravas: Like an arrow shot from the quiver for glory, swift as one who wins a hundred head of cattle — they flashed out in a fight without heroes; the trembling ones made known their cry, like ewes bleating.
4. She who, bringing goods to her father-in-law for his strength, came at dawn if he wished it, from the house close by — she reached the home of the one she loved; day and night she was pierced by the reed-rod.
5. Urvaśī: Three times a day you pierced me with the reed-rod, and you filled me though I did not ask it. I followed your intention, Purūravas; you were the ruler of my body, hero that you were.
6. Purūravas: That troop, well-formed, gracious, moving in a linked line, eye of the lake — they streamed like ruddy ointments; like milking cows they lowed for beauty.
7. Urvaśī: When this one was born, the divine women sat close around him, and the self-roaring rivers made him grow. For great combat, Purūravas, the gods made you strong, for the slaying of the Dasyus.
8. Purūravas: When I, a mortal, kept company among them, the more-than-human ones, as they cast off their garments — they fled from me swiftly, like one saved from the flood, trembling like horses brushing against the chariot-pole.
9. Urvaśī: When a mortal clings close among these immortal ones and mingles among them as if by design — they adorn their own bodies like darting birds, like playful horses that nip and bite.
10. Purūravas: She who, falling like lightning, flashed, bringing me the desired things of the waters — a manly, well-born son was born from the waters. May Urvaśī draw out his life long.
11. Urvaśī: You were indeed born for this, for the protection of the herds — you held that strength of mine, Purūravas. I, knowing, instructed you on that day; you did not listen to me. Why do you speak now, when it gains you nothing?
12. Purūravas: When will the son, once born, seek out his father, rolling a tear like a wheel, and know him? Who shall part a wedded pair of one mind, while the fire still burns among the elders of the house?
13. Urvaśī: I will answer him when he rolls forth a tear, wailing like a wheel, for gentle care. That of yours which is with us I will send on to you. Go home; you will not win me, fool.
14. Purūravas: Let the one favored by the gods fall today, never to return, gone to the farthest distance. Then let him lie in the lap of Ruin — or let the fierce wolves devour him.
15. Urvaśī: Purūravas, do not die, do not throw yourself down; let no ill-omened wolves devour you. There is truly no lasting friendship with women — their hearts are the hearts of jackals.
16. When I moved among mortals in another form, I dwelt there four autumns of nights. I ate one drop of ghee each day, and satisfied by that alone, I go about even now.
17. Purūravas: I, most excellent, seek to win Urvaśī, who fills the space between earth and sky, who measures out the realm of dust. Let the gift of a good deed stand by you — turn back; my heart is burning.
18. The gods: So these gods say to you, son of Iḷā: since it has fallen out this way, you belong now to death. Your offspring shall worship the gods with oblation, and you too shall find joy in heaven.
Translator's note: several verses (3, 6, 9) describe the apsarases in imagery whose precise referents are debated among Vedic scholars — birds, ornaments, animals compared for movement and sound. These are rendered conservatively, keeping the comparison rather than resolving it to a single reading. The word "bhujyu" in verse 8 may be the proper name of a hero rescued from shipwreck elsewhere in the Rigveda rather than a common noun; it is kept close to its literal sense here.
Colophon
Rigveda X.95 is drawn from the Śākala recension of the Rigveda, composed approximately 1700–1100 BCE. This is a Good Works Translation rendered verse by verse from the Sanskrit text printed below. Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation.
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Source Text: ṛgveda X.95
Sanskrit source text from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input). Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
haye jāye manasā tiṣṭha ghore vacāṁsi miśrā kṛṇavāvahai nu |
na nau mantrā anuditāsa ete mayas karan paratare canāhan || 1 ||
kim etā vācā kṛṇavā tavāham prākramiṣam uṣasām agriyeva |
purūravaḥ punar astam parehi durāpanā vāta ivāham asmi || 2 ||
iṣur na śriya iṣudher asanā goṣāḥ śatasā na raṁhiḥ |
avīre kratau vi davidyutan norā na māyuṁ citayanta dhunayaḥ || 3 ||
sā vasu dadhatī śvaśurāya vaya uṣo yadi vaṣṭy antigṛhāt |
astaṁ nanakṣe yasmiñ cākan divā naktaṁ śnathitā vaitasena || 4 ||
triḥ sma māhnaḥ śnathayo vaitasenota sma me 'vyatyai pṛṇāsi |
purūravo 'nu te ketam āyaṁ rājā me vīra tanva1s tad āsīḥ || 5 ||
yā sujūrṇiḥ śreṇiḥ sumnaāpir hradecakṣur na granthinī caraṇyuḥ |
tā añjayo 'ruṇayo na sasruḥ śriye gāvo na dhenavo 'navanta || 6 ||
sam asmiñ jāyamāna āsata gnā utem avardhan nadya1ḥ svagūrtāḥ |
mahe yat tvā purūravo raṇāyāvardhayan dasyuhatyāya devāḥ || 7 ||
sacā yad āsu jahatīṣv atkam amānuṣīṣu mānuṣo niṣeve |
apa sma mat tarasantī na bhujyus tā atrasan rathaspṛśo nāśvāḥ || 8 ||
yad āsu marto amṛtāsu nispṛk saṁ kṣoṇībhiḥ kratubhir na pṛṅkte |
tā ātayo na tanvaḥ śumbhata svā aśvāso na krīḻayo dandaśānāḥ || 9 ||
vidyun na yā patantī davidyod bharantī me apyā kāmyāni |
janiṣṭo apo naryaḥ sujātaḥ prorvaśī tirata dīrgham āyuḥ || 10 ||
jajñiṣa itthā gopīthyāya hi dadhātha tat purūravo ma ojaḥ |
aśāsaṁ tvā viduṣī sasminn ahan na ma āśṛṇoḥ kim abhug vadāsi || 11 ||
kadā sūnuḥ pitaraṁ jāta icchāc cakran nāśru vartayad vijānan |
ko dampatī samanasā vi yūyod adha yad agniḥ śvaśureṣu dīdayat || 12 ||
prati bravāṇi vartayate aśru cakran na krandad ādhye śivāyai |
pra tat te hinavā yat te asme parehy astaṁ nahi mūra māpaḥ || 13 ||
sudevo adya prapated anāvṛt parāvatam paramāṁ gantavā u |
adhā śayīta nirṛter upasthe 'dhainaṁ vṛkā rabhasāso adyuḥ || 14 ||
purūravo mā mṛthā mā pra papto mā tvā vṛkāso aśivāsa u kṣan |
na vai straiṇāni sakhyāni santi sālāvṛkāṇāṁ hṛdayāny etā || 15 ||
yad virūpācaram martyeṣv avasaṁ rātrīḥ śaradaś catasraḥ |
ghṛtasya stokaṁ sakṛd ahna āśnāṁ tād evedaṁ tātṛpāṇā carāmi || 16 ||
antarikṣaprāṁ rajaso vimānīm upa śikṣāmy urvaśīṁ vasiṣṭhaḥ |
upa tvā rātiḥ sukṛtasya tiṣṭhān ni vartasva hṛdayaṁ tapyate me || 17 ||
iti tvā devā ima āhur aiḻa yathem etad bhavasi mṛtyubandhuḥ |
prajā te devān haviṣā yajāti svarga u tvam api mādayāse || 18 ||
Source Colophon
Sanskrit text of the Rigveda, Śākala recension. The standard scholarly edition is the Bombay Oriental (Vishva Bandhu, 5 vols., 1963–66). IAST transliteration available from GRETIL (Göttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages) and Vedaweb (University of Cologne). Both sources are open access. IAST transliteration from the Aufrecht edition (1877) via GRETIL (Van Nooten & Holland input, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).