Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

by Devdutt Pattanaik

Pururava’s yearning for the elusive and ethereal Urvashi forms a dialogue that is recorded in the Rig Veda, the oldest Vedic text, dated conservatively to 1500 BCE. In Kalidasa’s play, Vikramorvasiyam, written in 500 CE, two thousand years later, Pururava is a dashing king who does not chase the nymph. It is she who chases him;