VIKRAMORVASIE

OR

THE HERO AND THE NYMPH

Translated from the Sanskrit Play of Kalidasa

CHARACTERS

PURURAVAS, Son of Budha and Ila, grandson of the Moon, King of the world, reigning at Pratisthana.

MANAVAKA, A Brahmin, the King's jester and companion.

LATAVYA, Chamberlain of the King's seraglio.

CHITRARATH, King of the Gandharvas, musicians of Heaven.

GALAVA,/ PELAVA,--------- = Disciples of Bharat, Preceptor of the Arts in Heaven. 

AYUS, Son of Pururavas.

CHARIOTEER of Pururavas.

THE QUEEN AUSHINARIE, Wife of Pururavas and daughter of the King of Kashi.

URVASIE, An Apsara or Nymph of Heaven, born from the thigh of Narayan.

NIPUNIKA, The Queen's handmaid.

CHITRALEKHA,/ SAHAJANYA,/ RAMBHA,/ MENAKA,--------- = Nymphs of Heaven, companions of Urvasie.

SATYAVATIE, A hermitess.

A HUNTRESS.

GIRLS, ATTENDANT ON THE KING; AMAZONS.

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Act One

INVOCATION

He in Vedanta by the Wise pronounced
Sole Being, who the upper and under world
Pervading overpasses, whom alone
The name of God describes, here applicable
And pregnant — crippled else of force, to others
Perverted — and the Yogins who aspire
To rise above the human death, break in
Breath, soul and senses passionately seeking
The Immutable, and in their own hearts find —
He, easily by work and faith and love
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
Old dramas by our earlier poets staged;

Therefore today a piece as yet unknown
I will present them, Vikram and the Nymph.
Remind our actors then most heedfully
To con their parts, as if on each success
Depended.

ASSISTANT

I shall do so.

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He goes.

MANAGER

And now to you,
O noble audience, I bow down and pray,
If not from kindliness to us your friends
And caterers, yet from pride in the high name
That graces this our plot, heedful attention,
Gentles, to Vikramorvasie, the work
Of Kalidasa.

VOICES

Help! O help, help, help!
Whoever is on the side of Heaven, whoever
Has passage through the paths of level air.

MANAGER

What cry is this that breaks upon our prologue
From upper worlds, most like the wail distressed
Of ospreys, sad but sweet as moan of bees
Drunken with honey in deep summer bloom,
Or the low cry of distant cuckoo ? or hear I
Women who move on Heaven's azure stage
Splendid with rows of seated Gods, and chant
In airy syllables a liquid sweetness ?

(After some thought)

Ah, now I have it. She who from the thigh
Of the great tempted sage Narayan sprang
Radiant, Heaven's nymph, divinest Urvasie,
In middle air from great Coilasa's lord
Returning, to the enemies of Heaven
Is prisoner; therefore the sweet multitude
Of Apsaras send forth melodious cry
Of pathos and complaint.

He goes. The Nymphs of
Heaven enter, Rambha, Menaka,

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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 Cubera'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 where 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, wakening
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.

PURURAVAS

Sad of heart they wait, O beauty!

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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
Bright asterisms that frame best his light.

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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.

ALL

Let us do it.

. They all approach.

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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 sup-
ported 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
Like a huge cloud with lightning on its wrist,
Streams towards us.

NYMPHS

Chitrarath! 'tis Chitrarath.

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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 ?

CHITRARATH

Indra had heard from Narad's lips
Of Urvasie by Titan Cay shy 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
Reverberating through the mountain glens
Scatter with sound the elephants ? We, O friend,
Are even such echoes.

CHITRARATH

This fits with thy great nature,

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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.

CHITRARATH

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;

But go for longer meeting.

The Gandharvas and the nymphs soar up into the sky.

URVASIE

Sister, stay!
My chain is in this creeper caught. Release it.

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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 boldest 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
Seeking its lair.

PURURAVAS

Therefore bring near the chariot,
While I ascend.

CHARIOTEER

'Tis done.

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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.

Curtain

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