Urvashi

Urvashi's official art

Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes (mentioned)

Aru Shah and the City of Gold

Urvashi**,** according to Hindu Mythology, is the Chief Apsara in the Court of the Sky. As of in the Pandava Quintet, she is a member of the Council of Guardians.

## History

### Birth

According to Hindu mythology, one day the revered brother sages, Nara and Narayana, were meditating in the holy shrine of Badrinath Temple situated in the Himalayas. Indra, the king of the deva, did not want the sages to acquire divine powers through meditation, so he sent Kamadeva to strike them with his arrows, Vasanta the Spring ritu to bloom flowers, and two apsaras to distract them. Nara and Narayana realised that Indra was trying to get them to break their penance, so they decided to show the gods true beauty. Narayana then struck his thigh with a flower and created a woman so beautiful that Indra's apsaras were left matchless. She was named Urvashi, from *ur*, the Sanskrit word for thigh. After their meditation was complete, the sages gifted Urvashi to Indra, and she occupied the pride of place in Indra’s court.

Urvashi once fell in love with Pururavas, a handsome king, and swooped in on him. Even though he was already married, they conspired to be together despite the huge difference in their worlds. She became his queen for the rest of his mortal life. But one time, when he checked out a maiden by the river, Urvashi ran away from him and consequently got turned into a creeper.

### Mahabharata

In the Mahabharata, Urvashi made romantic advances towards Arjuna when he visited his father, Indra. Arjuna rejected her advances because Urvashi was the wife to Pururavas, who was his own ancestor, so he respectively called her his mother. As a result, Urvashi grew angry with Arjuna and cursed him to lose his manhood for one year. So Arjuna posed as a eunuch, took the name Brihannala, and taught song and dance to the princess of the kingdom of Virata.

## The Pandava Quintet

### Aru Shah and the End of Time

When Urvashi first arrives in the Court of the Sky, she was not impressed by Aru Shah and Mini. She gets mad at Boo, who she hasn't forgotten for ruining her outfit which was made out of skipped heartbeats of every person who had ever laid eyes on her which took her centuries to make. After Hanuman arrives, she says she doesn't want to train kids, and she doesn't even believe that they have the souls of the Pandavas. But after hearing about The Sleeper, Urvashi comments that he is hunting rather than looking, then she asks Aru if she meant anything else that was bad was happening. She reveals that the Sleeper intends to slow down the heavens but understand why the girls are the "agents." She wants them to prove that they're the Pandavas by undergoing the Claiming ceremony, and she says the rules say it must be unanimously agreed, by the Guardians in residence, in believing they are semidivine. Since she doesn't, and they're only children, they don't bother. Aru was soon to be discovered as the daughter of Indra while Mini's spiritual father was Dharma Raja, thereby meaning that they were the reincarnations of Arjuna and Yudhistira. Urvashi is convinced that they are indeed the Pandavas, but she wasn't impressed with the weapons they received. She gives them their Quest: They must go to the Kingdom of Death and look in the Pool of the Past to find out how to vanquish the Sleeper and awaken the celestial weapons before he gets them first. She tells them about hidden keys to get to the kingdom without dying and gives them a *mehndi* to travel near their locations. If they succeed, not only will they receive Pandava training from the entire Council if they succeed, but Boo can rejoin the council as well, in which she then disappears.

Although the Sleeper got away due to Shukra cursing Aru, she managed to keep him out of the Kingdom of Death while the new moon passes. So every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, for three hours, Aru Shah and Mini learned dancing and etiquette from Urvashi. Aru wans't too sure about Dance, but Urvashi told her how it made Arjuna more graceful in combat. This was their first class on Fridays in the Night Bazaar dance studio, in which the sky of the Night Bazaar opened up three times a week to allow Urvashi to descend in a celestial blue lotus as big as the museum as she had refused to rent space anywhere. One Friday, she heard about how Aru failed talking to Aiden Acharya and laughed. She says that when she's done with her, she will fell men with a laugh. The petals of the lotus then closed over Urvashi and she floated back to the heavens. But soon after she left, an alarm went off, as something even the gods fear had been stolen.

### Aru Shah and the Song of Death

Urvashi and all the other members of the Council of the Guardians descend down from the heavens and save the Pandavas and the new, supposed Pandava girl and both Hanuman and Urvashi prevent the girls from fighting amongst themselves. Later, in the Court of the Sky, she is shown to take an angry swig from her water bottle, only to be revealed that it is actual sunlight. All of them are arguing with Uloopi and Urvashi is shown to be outraged. When their decision has been made, she raises her hand, twirls her wrist and takes the three Pandava girls out of their bubbles. She says that all three of them won't be going alone and then Boo introduces them to a student of the Otherworld, Aiden Acharya. Urvashi then makes a daity golden bar appear from thin air and puts it around Boo. With another snap of her fingers, she makes Boo disappear into thin air. Later, after the battle in the Ocean of Milk, Urvashi, along with Takshaka, Uloopi and Hanuman came out of a portal. She demanded the Pandavas of the location of the thief, to which Aru replied by asking her to ask Takshaka. After that, they all go through the portal to the Court of the Sky and Urvashi is present in the hearing. When Takshaka demands Aiden to get out of the Court of the Sky, she defends him. Along with everyone else, she is angry that Takshaka betrayed everyone.

### Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

It is said by Boo that Hanuman and Urvashi have gone to Lanka.

## Physical Appearence

Urvashi is the most beautiful woman in the world. She is tall, dark-skinned and wears her black hair in a flowing and messy side braid, which "looks as if she just came out after dance practice." She has henna tattoos from the tips of her fingers all the way up to her elbows. On one wrist, she has a tattoo of a twig with tiny blossoms. Around her ankles was a set of bright *gunghroo* bells.

She has a silvery voice, and her laughter sounds like her *ghunghroo* bells.

In Aru Shah and the End of Time, she wears black leggings and a salwar kameez top that "would have appeared as simple as white spun cotton if it didn't glimmer like woven moonlight." In Aru Shah and the Song of Death, she wears a black tank top that says *'DANCING IS MY SUPERPOWER'.* At the end of the battle in the Ocean of Milk, she wears a dress of silk.

## Personality

At the beginning of the Pandava Quintet, Urvashi is shown to be vain and short-tempered. She snaps at people, gets angry easily, makes fun of them and takes immense pride in her looks.

But as the series progresses, Urvashi has been shown to have a soft side. She loves her nephew and defends him. She is said to be sad while imprisoning Boo, showing that she does care for him.

## Abilities and Powers

### Apsara Abilities

* **Smolder Power:** All apsaras, as Aiden puts it, have a kind of hypnotic power that makes them impossible to look away from and make people follow them. Since Urvashi is an Elite Apsara, it is possible that she too has this power, though to a much larger extent.

## Relationships

### Family

#### Aiden Acharya

Aiden and Urvashi care for each other; she’s sympathetic towards his family situation and doesn’t seem to be overly judgmental of his mother.

### Friends

#### Subala/Shakhuni/Boo

Urvashi makes fun of Boo at the beginning of Aru Shah and the End of Time, but later in Aru Shah and the Song of Death, she looks teary when imprisoning him, implying that she cares for him.

## Etymology

* **Urvashi** is a girl's name of origin meaning "she who controls the hearts of others".

## Trivia

* The love story of Urvashi and King Pururavas is one of the most widely-repeated tales in India.
* The Kuru clan, to which the Pandavas belong, are descended from Urvashi and Pururavas.
* ReadRiordan.com says that she is a goddess, while she is actually a celestial nymph.

## ReadRiordan's Article On Her

*"Urvashi, chief apsara, or celestial dancer or heavenly dancer, sits on a throne in the Court of the Sky. She is tall, wears her long, flowing black hair in a side braid, and is stunningly beautiful. She has henna tattoos from the tips of her fingers all the way up to her elbows. On one wrist, she has a tattoo of a twig with tiny blossoms."*