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Mythical: Yes
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Apsara, also spelled apsarasa, are celestial singers and dancers from Indian religion and mythology that inhabit the heaven of the God Indra, Lord of the heavens. Sage Kashyapa, who has many wives, is considered as father of many celestial races. The demi-gods are born from his wife Aditi and demons come from his other wife Diti. While the Bhagavata Purana states that apsaras were born from Kashyapa and Muni, it is in the Mahabharata, Pradha is mentioned as apsara’s mother. In other ancient legends, it is said that the apsaras came out during the churning of the sea.
The Rigveda mentions these apsaras as aquatic water nymphs. Atharvaveda introduces apsaras as the inhabitants of the waters. It discusses their heavenly association with the stars, clouds and rain. The Satapatha Brahmana Samhita often describes apsaras as transforming themselves into a kind of a marine bird. The apsaras are seen in close contact with the woods and the wet. Apsara are said to be able to change their shape at will and rule over the fortunes of gaming and gambling. The Atharvaveda puts forward that the apsaras are fond of the dice game and create the basis to bring in fortune at the dice play. There are two types of apsaras: laukika (worldly) and daivika (divine). English translations of the word “apsara” include “nymph”, “fairy”, “celestial nymph”, and “celestial maiden”. Apsaras are associated with water; thus, they may be compared to the nymphs, dryads, and naiads of ancient Greece. They are also associated with fertility rites. In Hinduism, the lower apsaras are sometimes regarded as nature spirits who may lure men to their deaths; in this respect they may be compared to the Slavic Rusalki or the Greek sirens.
They are youthful and elegant, and superb in the art of dancing. . Most of the Puranas indicate that they were born during the Samudra Manthan (the churning of the sea). They selected Gandharvas as their consorts, the court musicians of Indra. Gandharva, a class of celestial beings, among Males are divine singers, and females are divine dancers. They are also messengers between Gods and Humans. Gandharva generally dwells in the Sky and their city is often referred to as being Marvelous.
Often looked upon as the choristers in Indra’s heaven, the Gandharvas were the descendants of Kashyapa and his wife Arishta. According to the Vishnu Purāna, they were sons of Lord Brahma. The Gandharvas are often seen as companions to the apsaras. They are handsome, possess brilliant weapons, and wear fragrant clothes.
They guard the Soma but do not have the right to drink it. How they lost this right has a story: in one version, the Gandharvas failed to guard the Soma properly, resulting in it being stolen. Indra brought back the Soma and, as a punishment for their dereliction of duty, the Gandharvas were excluded from the Soma-draught. In another version, the Gandharvas were the original owners of the Soma. They sold it to the gods in exchange for a goddess – the goddess Vach (speech) – because they are very fond of female company. Soma was perceived to be the drink of the gods, an elixir consumed by the Hindu gods and their ancient priests, the Brahmanas, during rituals. Its properties included an ability to heal illness but it was also thought to have brought great riches. Soma is personified by the god of the same name who is also the god of sacrifices and who may, in some texts, be associated with the Moon. The drink is famously described and praised in a Mandala of the sacred Vedic text, the Rigveda.
In Hindu scripts, the gods gained their immortality by drinking Soma and it was the favorite tipple of the great god Indra. They then gave the drink to the archer-god Gandharva for safe-keeping but one day Agni, the fire-god, stole it and gave it to the human race. Not only drunk by priests for its sacred nature it was also credited with uplifting qualities, giving the drinker a boost in energy and alertness. These effects meant that the drink has been considered divine since ancient times; a beverage which brought humans closer to divinity. The theft of the Soma infuriated all the gods yet they couldn’t do anything as the Gandharvas were their allies. All the Gods turned to Goddess Saraswati for her wisdom. Saraswati promised to recover the soma plant.
The goddess disguised herself as a young maiden. She carried with her only one weapon — her veena. She then set off for the land where the Gandharvas lived. Upon reaching there, she found a spot in a beautiful garden, where she sat and began playing lovely music on her veena creating enchanting tunes: the Ragas and the Raginis.
Melodious notes filled the air. It was unlike anything the Gandharvas had heard. They were drawn to the place as if in a trance. Soon, all the Gandharvas surrounded her while she continued playing. Then suddenly, she stopped playing. The Gandharvas felt disappointed that the music had stopped. Vishvavasu looked in distress at the beautiful girl and said,
“Why did you stop?
“Give us this music,”.
“Only if you give back the Soma plant to the devas,” said the goddess Saraswati.
The Gandharvas then ashamed of their actions returned the Soma plant and learned how to play music from Saraswati. In time they became celestial musicians whose melodies had more power to rouse the mind than any intoxicant.
They dance to the music made by the Gandharvas, usually in the palaces of the gods, entertain, and sometimes provide sensual pleasure and seduce gods and men. They are also seen to sing and dance on other happy occasions such as births and weddings of the gods and also of humans particularly favored by the gods. They are somewhat semi-divine; we do not see them as being able to curse humans (except on one occasion) or grant them boons as gods can, but we do see them as adept in magic and knowledgeable in all of the 64 performing arts; additionally, we see many gandharvas skilled in warfare. They are handsome, possess brilliant weapons, and wear fragrant clothes. As ethereal beings who inhabit the skies, and are often depicted taking flight, or at service of a god, they may be compared to angels. They have been beautifully depicted in sculpture and painting in India and throughout areas of South and Southeast Asia influenced by Hinduism and Buddhism.
They figure prominently in the sculpture, dance, literature and painting of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures. The apsara celestial maidens might be found as decorative motifs or also as integral parts of a story in bas-relief. Notable examples are the 5th–6th-century frescoes at Ajanta in India and at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka and the sculptures and bas-reliefs decorating the temples of Angkor, Cambodia.
At Borobudur, apsaras are depicted as divinely beautiful celestial maidens, pictured either in standing or in flying positions, usually holding lotus blossoms, spreading flower petals, or waving celestial clothes as if they were wings enabling them to fly. The temple of Mendut near Borobudur depicted groups of devatas, divine beings flying in heaven, which included apsaras. In the Prambanan temple compound, especially in Vishnu temple, along with the gallery, some images of male devata are found flanked by two apsaras.
Angkor Wat, the largest Angkor temple (built-in 1113-1150 AD), features both Apsaras and Devata, however, the devata type are the most numerous with more than 1,796 in the present research inventory. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewelry and decorative flowers, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.
Apsara are sometimes compared to the Muses of ancient Greece, with each of the 26 apsara at Indra’s court representing a distinct aspect of the performing arts. They are associated with fertility rites. In many of the stories related in the Mahabharata, apsara appear in important supporting roles. The aspara “possessed of eyes like lotus leaves, who were employed in enticing the hearts of persons practicing rigid austerities, danced there. And possessing slim waists and fair large hips, they began to perform various evolutions, shaking their deep bosoms, and casting their glances around, and exhibiting other attractive attitudes capable of stealing the hearts and resolutions and minds of the spectators.” However, when brave warriors fall in battle they may rise to the heavens carried by the celestial apsaras, which reminds of Valkyries from Norse mythology.
There are numerous stories where the Gods have, with the help of these women and their beauty, turned critical situations into their own favor. Apsara have been a consistent part of Hinduism, having an insightful presence in Vedic literature. The commonality lies in the fact that these beautiful creations were females with captivating powers and immense dedication to their creators. The semiotics of the apsara are interesting — forever young, forever beautiful, never attached, always willing to seduce, even willing to bear children, if she must. She is the ultimate male fantasy, a sexually idealised woman whose promiscuity has no consequences. A variant of this fantasy are the women who constantly get their virginity back — their male partners can take pleasure in both their social and sexual restoration.
Additionally, the apsara are frequently employed by Indra to distract kings and sages who Indra fears to be progressing along the path of divinity (and hence capable of depriving Indra of his throne). Perhaps because of their somewhat frivolous nature, both apsaras and gandharvas frequently run afoul of the more staid sages and are cursed by them to be born on earth as trees, animals, or deformed beings, redeemable after thousands of years by the touch or grace of an incarnate god or a human hero.
A story type or theme appearing over and over again in the Mahabharata is that of an apsara sent to distract a sage or spiritual master from his ascetic practices. One story embodying this theme is that recounted by the epic heroine Shakuntala to explain her own parentage. Once upon a time, the sage Viswamitra generated such intense energy by means of his asceticism that Indra himself became fearful. Vishwamitra was one of the most respected and revered sages in ancient India and even tried to create another heaven.
Deciding that the sage would have to be distracted from his penances, he sent the apsara Menaka to work her charms. Menaka trembled at the thought of angering such a powerful ascetic, but she obeyed the god’s order. As she approached Viswamitra, the wind god Vayu tore away her garments. Seeing her thus disrobed, the sage abandoned himself to lust. Nymph and sage engaged in sex for some time, during which Viswamitra’s asceticism was put on hold. However, she fell in genuine love with him and a baby was born to them. Vishwamitra abandons the child in a patch of reeds where she is cared for by birds. The sage Kanva finds her and takes her home, naming her Shakuntala after the birds that had looked after her. Later Shakuntala falls in love with King Dushyanta and gives birth to a child called Bharata after whom India was first named. When Vishwamitra realized that he had been tricked by Indra, he was enraged. But he merely cursed Menaka to be separated from him forever, for he loved her as well and knew that she had lost all devious intentions towards him long ago.
Rambha is equally popular in mythology of apsaras. Rambha is said to have originated during the churning of the ocean of milk. She was regarded to be the Queen of Apsaras. Vishwamitra once engaged in Tapasya for a thousand years, after which Lord Brahma granted him the title of ‘Maharishi’. But Vishwamitra was not satisfied by this, as he wanted to be a ‘Brahmarishi’ so that he would be Vasishtha’s equal. So, he engaged in another thousand years of Tapasya, which was so intense that it caused disruption in the three worlds. So, Indra told the Apsara Rambha to tempt Vishwamitra away from his Tapasya. Vishwamitra was indeed distracted by Rambha, but then he cursed her to turn to stone for thousand years.
The Javanese Hindu-Buddhist tradition also influenced Bali. In Balinese dance, the theme of celestial maidens often occurred. In the court of Mataram Sultanate the tradition of depicting heavenly maidens in dances still alive and well. The Javanese court dances of Bedhaya portray apsaras.
Khmer classical dance, the indigenous ballet-like performance art of Cambodia, is frequently called “apsara dance.” This appellation reflects the belief that the Khmer classical dance of today is connected by an unbroken tradition to the dance practiced in the courts of the Angkorian monarchs, which in turn drew its inspiration from the mythological court of the gods and from its celestial dancers, the Apsaras.
The term ‘Bidadari’ (from sanskrit vidhya dharya; ‘the bearer of knowledge’) is a Malay-Indonesian word that equates refer Indian concept; as heavenly maidens living in the svargaloka or in celestial palace of Indra, described in Balinese dedari (Bidadari or Apsara) dance. However, after the adoption of Islam, aspara is equated with houri or Bidadari, the heavenly maiden mentioned in the Quran, in which God stated that the ‘forbidden pearls’ of heaven are for those men who have resisted temptation and borne life’s trials. Islam spread in the Malay archipelago when Arabic traders came to trade spices with the Malays; at that time, Hinduism formed the basis of the Malay culture, but syncretism with the Islamic religion and culture spawned the idea of a Bidadari. It is usually seen as a prized offer to those who lived a lifestyle in service to and pleasing to God; after death, the Bidadari was the man’s wife or wives, depending on what type of person he was. The worthiness of a man who was offered Bidadari depended upon his holiness: how often he prayed, how much he turned away from the ‘outside world’, and how little he heeded worldly desires.
Apsaras are often depicted in East Asia Buddhist art. They are referred to as feitian in Chinese. They are depicted as flying figures in the mural paintings and sculptures of Buddhist cave sites in China such as in the Mogao Caves, Yulin Caves, Tianlongshan grottoes, the Yungang, and Longmen Grottoes. They are also depicted on tiles of pagoda, such as Xiuding-si pagoda. They may also be depicted as dancers or musicians who are holding musical instruments, such as flute, pipa, or sheng. Generally, they are depicted with a long skirt fluttering in the wind.
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