Pururavas

Pururavas
Pururavas in sadness
Information
Family	Ila (parent)

Pururavas (Sanskrit:पुरूरवस्) was the first king of the Aila dynasty or the Somavamsha. According to the Vedas, he is a mythological entity associated with Surya (the sun) and Usha (the dawn), and is believed to resided in the middle region of the cosmos. The Rig Veda (X.95.18) states that he was a son of Ila and was a pious king. However, the Mahabharata states that Ila was both his mother and his father. According to the Vishnu Purana, his father was Budha, and he was ancestor of the tribe of Pururavas, from whom descended the Kauravas and Pandavas.

The earlier version of the narrative of Urvashi and Pururavas is found in the Rigveda (X.95.1-18) and the Śatapaṭha Brāhmaṇa (XI.5.1). The later versions are found in the Mahābhārata, the Harivaṃsa, the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, the Matsya Purāṇa, and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

The Ṛg-veda, X.129 contains a conversational fragment, written in a highly wrought poetic style. The hymn suggests that Uṣas (also known as Urvaśi) is a Gandharvi or Apsara (an aquatic nymph). Having been united with a human king, Purūravas, and after living together for four autumns, suddenly left him on his unintentional violation of the stipulated conditions of the union. Later Purūravas made futile entreaties to her to return to him.

The narrative displays multiple levels of symbolism by playing on the multiplicity of meanings in the Vedic Saṃskṛt terms. While it is a love poem, expressing the conflict of interest between a lover and his beloved, who spurns his love, it also expresses the immortal relationship between the Sun (Purūravas) and the Dawn (Uṣas). In addition to these two levels of meaning, it also offers mantric prescriptions for a ritual activity bent on taking rebirth as a Gandharva or Apsaras.