Gandharvas and Apsarās

Gandharvas are the celestial musicians and singers, and apsarās are the celestial dancers of great beauty. They live in the antariksha (the space between earth and sky) and in the gandharva-loka (the world of the gandharvas). They are the artists, musicians and dancers of the divine worlds.

Chapter 7 of the Madhyama Bhāga (middle part) of the Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa gives this Purāṇa’s fullest family record of these beings. It lists the Mauneya gandharvas (sixteen by name, and others), twenty-four apsarā sisters with their names, ten groups of apsarās and where they came from, and the birth of Urvaśī from the thigh of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa.

The Mauneya Gandharvas

The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa names the Mauneya gandharvas as the main clan of celestial musicians. Their name comes from their special quality of deep, silent absorption (mauna). They are beings of intense artistic focus, and their music and song reach deep into the mind of everyone who hears them. The Purāṇa names sixteen of them, along with other gandharvas of other sub-clans. As a class, the gandharvas are the musicians and singers of the divine worlds. They provide the divine music at every great event: the gatherings of the devas, the festivals of svarga (the heavenly world) and the great yajñas (fire offerings) held in the higher worlds.

The Twenty-Four Apsarā Sisters

Chapter 7 lists twenty-four apsarā sisters. They are celestial women of extraordinary beauty who dance and keep company with the gandharvas. These twenty-four form a sisterhood of their own, each with her own name and her own role in the divine assembly. Each apsarā is linked with particular qualities of grace, artistic expression or divine duty.

The Ten Groups of Apsarās

Besides the twenty-four sisters, the Purāṇa arranges all the apsarās into ten groups, each with its own story of origin and its own role. These groups include apsarās born from the waters, from the air, from various divine sources and from the churning of creation. Together the ten groups give the divine worlds their beauty, dance, music and grace, which set them apart from the world of mortals.

Urvaśī, Born from Nārāyaṇa’s Thigh

One of the most famous of all apsarās is Urvaśī. The Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa traces her birth to Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa himself. The great ṛshis Nara and Nārāyaṇa were performing tapas (austerity) at Badarikāśrama, and the devas sent a crowd of apsarās to distract them. Nārāyaṇa was not disturbed. He struck his thigh (ūru), and from it came Urvaśī, an apsarā of such matchless beauty that she outshone all the apsarās sent to distract him. The devas received Urvaśī, and she became the most famous of all the celestial dancers. Her birth from Nārāyaṇa’s thigh explains both her matchless beauty and her name: Urvaśī, “she who was born from the thigh (ūru)”.

Acchodā, the Apsarā of the Pitṛs

Acchodā belongs to a special class of apsarā. She was born from the sacred lake Acchodā and is linked with the Barhishad pitṛs (a group of ancestors). She fell in love with the ṛshi Amāvasu, was sent down to the world of mortals, and was born again as Satyavatī, who became the wife of Ṛcīka. Her story shows the delicate place of the apsarās, where the divine and mortal worlds meet.

The Role of Gandharvas and Apsarās

Together the gandharvas and apsarās are the side of the divine world that is about beauty. They are beauty, music, dance and grace in living form. Their presence at divine gatherings, yajñas and festivals is not just decoration. It is needed, because the divine world needs beauty and art just as much as it needs dharma and knowledge. The music of the gandharvas keeps the higher worlds in harmony, and the dance of the apsarās shows the joy of the divine in created form. The Purāṇas also show the gandharvas and apsarās as testers: they are sent to distract great ṛshis and so reveal how strong a ṛshi’s tapas is. In this way they play an important part in the order of spiritual growth.

Sources

• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 7