Mahabharata – 96
by
Sankar Mukherjee
&
Dr. Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya
                                            Aadivamsavatarana Parva

The famous Pururava took birth from Ila .And  we learned  that Ila was
the father & mother of Pururava. The famous Pururava being a human was
brutal in nature. He used to rule thirteen islands of the ocean. The
mighty Pururava entered into dispute with the Brahmins & despite
their laments, he took away their wealth by force. And then Sanatkumar
advised Pururava from Bramahaloka. But he never paid heed to
Sanatkumar’s words.Then the greedy & haughty & insensible Pururava was
ruined due to the curse of the great sages.
Before that he along with Urvashi brought from the Gandharvaloka three
fires for the sacrificial rites. Thus Pururava was the Prometheus of
Indian mythology. Prometheus defied the gods & stole fire from heaven
to help man in innovative activity. But our Pururava was enamoured  of
the child of heaven – Urvashi. And thereby he could bring three fires
from heaven so that the men on earth could develop spiritually through
the observation of fire sacrifice.
Be that as it may, while Prometheus was tortured ceaselessly by the
angry gods as he had stolen fire from heaven Pururava had to undergo
the curse of gods & sages for becoming cruel to his subjects & to
other men. Anyone can guess where ancient Indian myths differ from the
Greek myths.