Mahagatha by Satyarth Nayak

Author:Satyarth Nayak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Published: 2022-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘My father also fluctuates. He waxes and wanes.’

‘Chandra?’

‘The eternal shape-shifter. You say you could be both this and that, while I am neither male nor female. Perhaps we can fulfil each other.’

‘What’s your name?’

‘Budh.’

She stretched out her hand. ‘Will you stay by my side?’

The being held her close. ‘Always.’

Brahmanda watched as the moon and the sun became one.

56

URVASHI TRICKS PURURAVA

Budh and Ila gave birth to Pururava with whom now dawned the Chandravanshi dynasty. Such was his majesty that he soon completed multiple Ashwamedha Yagnas. Alas, too much splendour attracts trouble and three forces now decided to test the king. They were neither gods nor demons but the highest abstractions. Three goals of human life.

Artha. Kama. Dharma. Prosperity. Sensuality. Morality.

Curious to find out which of them Pururava revered the most, they assumed the form of human sages and arrived at his court. The king served them a royal repast and gifted them several offerings. But the subconscious mind often senses what the conscious mind cannot. And so it came to pass that, while Pururava’s bounty appeared equally divided among the three, he had somehow been a little more generous towards Dharma. The goal that he valued the most. With morality thus ending up with more offerings, the other two instantly cursed the king.

‘You shall lose your wealth,’ Artha screamed.

‘And you will become besotted with a nymph,’ Kama roared.

The king fell at their feet but Dharma held his hand. ‘You shall never stray from the path of righteousness.’

Days later, Pururava was journeying through a forest when piercing shrieks made him halt. The asura, Keshi, was abducting an apsara. The king trounced him and rescued the frightened being.

‘What’s your name?’

‘Urvashi. I am a water nymph.’

Pururava froze. Kama’s curse was chiming in his ears now. Standing before him in the most captivating form. His mind was urging him to look away. Throwing a lasso and pulling him back, but the king knew how fragile that knot was. His heart was already getting enmeshed in that auburn hair. Already pounding at the sight of that face. Voices inside him were screaming that he was falling under the spell of his own doom, but all Pururava wanted now was to hold this curse and make love to it.

News soon reached Indra that the king had saved one of his prized apsaras and he invited Pururava to celebrate. Celestial music played as the nymphs began to dance. Rambha, Menaka and Urvashi were pirouetting to lyrical strains. Their feet were making exquisite moves. Their fingers were sculpting visions in the air. Their bodies were swaying in perfect tandem as if they were not three but one. The act was nearing a crescendo when Urvashi suddenly fell out of step. She had been gazing at Pururava and had missed her beat. Indra’s voice rumbled.

‘I banish you from my loka. You shall live on Earth now for a period of one hundred years.’

Although distraught at being exiled, Urvashi embraced Pururava when he proposed marriage. But the water nymph knew that she could not remain tied to a human.

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