Section Three

Kalidasa

Vikramorvasie

or

The Hero and the Nymph

Characters

of the world, reigning at Pratisthana.

LATAVYA, Chamberlain of the King's seraglio.

AYUS, son of Pururavas.

THE QUEEN AUSHINARIE, wife of Pururavas and daughter of the

URVASIE, an Apsara or Nymph of Heaven, born from the thigh

NIPUNIKA, the Queen's handmaid.

A HUNTRESS.

GIRLS, attendant on the King; AMAZONS.

Act I

INVOCATION

He in Vedanta by the Wise pronounced

Pervading overpasses, whom alone

And pregnant — crippled else of force, to others

To rise above the human death, break in

The Immutable, and in their own hearts find, —

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

Therefore today a piece as yet unknown

Remind our actors then most heedfully

Depended.

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ASSISTANT

I shall do so.

He goes.

MANAGER

And now to you,

O noble audience, I bow down and pray,

And caterers, yet from pride in the high name

Gentles, to Vikramorvasie, the work

VOICES

Help! O help, help, help!

Whoever is on the side of Heaven, whoever

MANAGER

What cry is this that breaks upon our prologue

From upper worlds, most like the wail distressed

Drunken with honey in deep summer bloom,

Women who move on Heaven's azure stage

In airy syllables a liquid sweetness?

(after some thought)

Ah, now I have it. She who from the thigh

Radiant, Heaven's nymph, divinest Urvasie,

Returning, to the enemies of Heaven

Of Apsaras send forth melodious cry

He goes.

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The Nymphs of Heaven enter, Rambha, Menaka,

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 Cuvera'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 armed 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 when 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, waking

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.

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PURURAVAS

Sad of heart they wait, O beauty!

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

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Bright asterisms that frame best his light.

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.

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ALL

Let us do it.

They all approach.

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

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Like a huge cloud with lightning on its wrist,

Streams towards us.

NYMPHS

Chitrarath! 'tis Chitrarath.

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?

CHITRARATHA

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

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Reverberating through the mountain glens

Scatter with sound the elephants? We, O friend,

Are even such echoes.

CHITRARATHA

This fits with thy great nature,

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.

CHITRARATHA

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;

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But go for longer meeting.

The Gandharvas and Nymphs

soar up into the sky.

URVASIE

Sister, stay!

My chain is in this creeper caught. Release it.

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

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Seeking its lair.

PURURAVAS

Therefore bring near the chariot,

While I ascend.

CHARIOTEER

'Tis done.

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.

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