The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose: Vana Parva, Part 1
Religion
The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Translated into English Prose: Vana Parva, Part 1
Epic literature, Sanskrit
Vaisampayana said, "Having thus sent away the Gandharva successful in
his mission, Urvasi of luminous smiles, moved by the desire of
possessing Phalguna, took a bath. And having performed her ablutions,
she decked herself in charming ornaments and splendid garlands of
celestial odour. And inflamed by the god of love, and her heart pierced
through and through by the shafts shot by Manmatha keeping in view the
beauty of Arjuna, and her imagination wholly taken up by the thoughts of
Arjuna, she mentally sported with him on a wide and excellent bed laid
over with celestial sheets. And when the twilight had deepened and the
moon was up, that Apsara of high hips set out for the mansions of
Arjuna. And in that mood and with her crisp, soft and long braids decked
with bunches of flowers, she looked extremely beautiful. With her beauty
and grace, and the charm of the motions of her eye-brows and of her soft
accents, and her own moon-like face, she seemed to tread, challenging
the moon himself. And as she proceeded, her deep, finely tapering
bosoms, decked with a chain of gold and adorned with celestial unguents
and smeared with fragrant sandal paste, began to tremble. And in
consequence of the weight of her bosoms, she was forced to slightly
stoop forward at every step, bending her waist exceedingly beautiful
with three folds. And her loins of faultless shape, the elegant abode of
the god of love, furnished with fair and high and round hips and wide at
their lower part as a hill, and decked with chains of gold, and capable
of shaking the saintship of anchorites, being decked with thin attire,
appeared highly graceful. And her feet with fair suppressed ankles, and
possessing flat soles and straight toes of the colour of burnished
copper and high and curved like tortoise back and marked by the wearing
of ornaments furnished with rows of little bells, looked exceedingly
handsome. And exhilarated with a little liquor which she had taken, and
excited by desire, and moving in diverse attitudes and expressing a
sensation of delight, she looked more handsome than usual. And though
heaven abounded with many wonderful objects, yet when Urvasi proceeded
in this manner, the _Siddhas_ and _Charanas_ and _Gandharvas_ regarded
her to be the handsomest object they had cast their eyes upon. And the
upper half of her body clad in an attire of fine texture and cloudy
hues, she looked resplendent like a digit of the moon in the firmament
shrouded by fleecy clouds. And endued with the speed of the winds or the
mind, she of luminous smiles soon reached the mansion of Phalguna, the
son of Pandu. And, O best of men, Urvasi of beautiful eyes, having
arrived at the gate of Arjuna's abode, sent word through the keeper in
attendance. And (on receiving permission), she soon entered that
brilliant and charming palace. But, O monarch, upon beholding her at
night in his mansion, Arjuna, with a fearstricken heart, stepped up to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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