Excerpt from Ūrvashi by Ramdhari Singh Dinkar
Translated from the Hindi original by Professor (Dr.) Ashok Kumar Mohapatra
Abstract
Ramdhari Singh Dinkar (1908-974), doyen of Hindi Literature, was the recipient of the Jnānapith Award in 1973 for the magnum opus and classic Ūrvashi, a poetic play in five acts. It is an adaptation of the Vedic story.
The above excerpt is from Act III, a poetic exchange between Ūrvashi and Purūravā that dramatizes a tension between eros and divinity, as each affects the other. Eros in the Indian sense, rather than in the Western sense, is kāma (desire), a component of Purushārtha. The other components of Purushārtha include worldly duties, social obligations, which Purūravā, a Candravanshi king of Prayāga, embodies along with his erotic longing for Urvashi. The divine love that apsarā Ūrvashi signifies is not disembodied in an abstract spiritual way.