46 The Religion of the Vcnln

book of Genesis.‘ Many echoes are called up by the story of Cyavana the Bliirgnvzt who, old and decrepit as a ghost, is pelted with cluds by thu chilclrcn of the ncigliborliood. Then he punishes their families by creating discord, so that “f.'1thur fought with son, and brother with bmthcr." (.Iyuvnn:| finally, tlxrough the hulp of the divinc pliysicizins, the Agvins, cntcrs the fountain of youth (_r1m'cA'/Iru/1/1) and marries the lovely Suknny'."i." Like an n ' the desert comes the ancient title of I’urL'1r:v.vzxs and Urvagr, whose mythic meaning has been much dis- puted or altogether denial.’ Already the Rig-Vcdu knows the story, and the Hindu master-pout Kali- dasa, perhaps a thousand years later, derives from it one of his loveliest dramas. It is (I. story which con-

Ill

tnins the same molif as the Undinc, Mclusinu, and Lohcngrin stories. A heavenly nymph (Apsaras), Urvagi by name, loves and marries King Purflravus, but she abandons him again because hc violates one of the conditions of this intrinsically ill-assorted

‘Sec Eggcling‘s translation of the version of this legend in the Catapathn Bnihmnua, .5‘u:r-ed flunk: a/I/to /:'a.rt, vol. i., 11. emf. For the Story of the {load in general sec Uscner, Dir .S“i:://lulrzxgm (Bonn, 1899); Andree, Di: Flulmgm (Brunswick, mgr) ; and Wintcrnitz in Ali///m‘1zmgm a’IrAnlIzra15o10g1':z:/MI: Gzrrllu/mfl in Wim, vol.xxxi(1qnx), p. 305.

’ Catnpatlm Brihmana 4. 1. 5. I f.

‘ See, last, the author in ymmml aftliz Amzriazn Orimlal Soritly, vol. xx., 1). 180.

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