Details of an apsara tale?

[crazyone]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to remember all the details of a mythological tale of apsaras I read a while ago (perhaps in Rajaji's Mahabharata?)...It goes like this:

Indra had two apsaras who were equal in terms of beauty and dancing ability.  He wanted to determine which one was the better dancer, but it was impossible to tell, so skilled were both the dancers.  Indra took this problem to a visitor to the court, and his solution was to give both dancers bouquets with which to dance.  In the bouquets he placed a sleeping scorpion.  The apsaras accepted the bouquets and began to dance.  One apsara was entirely unaffected and danced with her usual grace and style, but the other apsara started jerking around in pain and yelping after starting to dance.  Indra was amazed at the poor performance of the one apsara...and then the visitor explained what he had done:  since apsara 1 was the better, more fluid dancer, her scorpion had remained asleep, while the other apsara's comparatively  jerkier movements woke the scorpion, which then bit her.  The better dancer was ascertained but both apsaras were rewarded for their efforts.

Here are my questions:

1) Who was the visitor?  Was it Arjuna?

2) Who were the apsaras?  I seem to recall them as being Urvashi and Rambha, with Urvashi being the better dancer.

Has anyone else read this story, and where did you read/hear it?

[los angeles]

^ Did you ever find out where this tale is from...?

("Urvashi" and "Rambha" are actually the only apsara names I'm familiar with.)

I adore India dance and I adore Hindu mythological stories, so I find this kind of thing to be fascinating.