Who is an apsara? Apsaras - maidens of unearthly beauty from Indian legends - Earth before the Flood: disappeared continents and civilizations

Apsara

The origin of apsaras is described differently in different sources. The Ramayana mentions that apsaras arose when the ocean was churned by gods and asuras; neither one nor the other wanted to take them as wives, and they began to belong to everyone. According to other legends, the most famous apsaras (such as Menaka, Urvashi, Tilottama, etc.) were created by Brahma, and the rest were daughters of Daksha. The number of apsaras varies according to various sources from several tens to hundreds of thousands. Apsaras, who were in the direct service of the gods, were often used by them to seduce ascetics or holy hermits, who through asceticism could become equal to the gods.

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• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

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See what "Apsara" is in other dictionaries:

Noun, number of synonyms: 1 dancer (26) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Synonym dictionary

- (letters moving in the waters) mythological class. creatures already mentioned in the Vedas. In the Atharva Veda, demonic. spirits of forest and water, similar to Slavic mermaids, luring and destroying mortals. In post-Vedic mythology, heavenly nymphs, dancers,... ... Dictionary of Hinduism

- (Sanskrit) Undine or Water Nymph, from Paradise, or Heaven, and Indra. The Apsaras in popular belief are the consorts of the gods and are called Suranganas, and by the less honorable term Sumat atmajas, or daughters of pleasure; for it is said that when... Religious terms

apsara- (Ind.) Heavenly dancer, the spirit of water, who, like nymphs and mermaids, troubling people, bringing them to the love deity. In the sky, the stench of serving the gods, the death of fallen warrior heroes. Sculptural and pictorial depictions of A. young wives with... ... Architecture and monumental art

APSARA- (Sanskrit) Undine or Water Nymph, from Paradise, or Heaven, and Indra. The Apsaras in popular belief are the consorts of the gods and are called Suranganas, and by the less honorable term Sumat atmajas, or daughters of pleasure; for it is said that when they... ... Theosophical Dictionary

Hotel Apsara- (Pitsunda, Abkhazia) Hotel category: 2 star hotel Address: Nasadza Street 32, 354000 P ... Hotel catalog

A set of mythological ideas of the Vedic Aryans (who invaded northwestern India in the 2nd millennium BC and gradually settled in the eastern and southern directions); V. m. is usually understood as the mythological ideas of the Aryans of the period... ... Encyclopedia of Mythology

A complex of mythological ideas, images and plots of various origins, united in the religious system of Hinduism, which replaced by the end of the 1st millennium BC. e. in India the ancient religion of Vedic Brahmanism. Pushed back into the previous era with... Encyclopedia of Mythology

Apsaras (Old Indian apsaras, possibly “coming out of the water”), in Vedic and Hindu mythology, semi-divine female beings who live primarily in the sky, but also on the earth (in rivers, mountains, etc.). As female spirits of waters (cf. ... ... Encyclopedia of Mythology

- (Old Indian Sóma, from su, “squeeze”), in ancient Indian mythology, a divine drink and the deity of this drink (later the moon) Soma Pavamana (“purifying”). According to the number of mentions in the Rigveda, S. is in third place among the gods (after Indra and ... ... Encyclopedia of Mythology

Story love between Apsara Shakuntala and King Dushyanta

Shakuntala was the daughter of the apsara Menaka and the rishi Vishwamitra. Menaka left the newborn Shakuntala in the forest, where she was guarded by the Shakunta birds. Then she was found and raised by the hermit Kanva. Once during a hunt, King Dushyanta came to the hermit’s abode. She and Shakuntala fell madly in love with each other and married the Gandharvas. When Dushyanta had to return home, he left his ring to Shakuntala as a pledge of love. After some time, Shakuntala went to Dushyanta, but while taking a bath in the Ganges, she dropped the ring into the water. Due to the intention of the rishi who was offended by her, the king did not recognize Shakuntala at the meeting and rejected her, and her mother Menaka took her to the Apsara lake, where Shakuntala gave birth to a son, Bharata. Meanwhile, Dushyanta's servants brought him a ring that was found in the belly of a caught fish. The king remembered his beloved and went to look for her. After many years of searching, he found Shakuntala and his son in heaven and returned with them to his capital.

Story love of the apsara Urvashi and the founder of the Lunar dynasty Pururavasa

Another example is the love story of the apsara Urvashi and the founder of the Lunar dynasty of Indian rulers Pururavas, as described in the Rigveda, Yajurveda, Padma Purana and Ramayana.
Urvashi used to live “in heaven” in the divine grove of “Nandana”, located in Swarga on the slopes of Mount Meru. The gods, Aditya Mitra and Varuna, were inflamed with love for her.. She became Mitra's wife, but her heart lay with Varuna. Urvashi gave birth to two sons - the great sages Agastya and Vasishtha, and the gods did not know who their father was. For this they expelled her from heaven.
In the mortal world, Urvashi met Pururavas. When she saw him, she loved him with all her heart. And King Pururavas fell in love with the divine maiden, enchanted by her wondrous beauty. They merried. But at the same time, the heavenly maiden set two conditions, upon fulfillment of which she would remain with the earthly king forever. One of them was the king's obligation to never appear naked before her.
They lived happily for many years, and their love for each other increased every day. But time passed, and in order to return Urvashi to the camp of the gods, without whom it was sad and dreary, Vishvavasu, the ruler of the Gandharvas, made Pururavas rise from his bed naked on a dark night, and at the same time illuminated him with the brilliance of lightning. Seeing this, Urvashi left her husband.
Pururavas began to wander around the world in search of his beloved. Having visited many countries, he came to Kurukshetra. There he saw a lake covered with lotuses, on which swans swam. They were apsaras in the form of swans, and among them was Urvashi. The Apsaras appeared before him in their true form as celestial maidens. Pururavas began to pray for Urvashi to return to him, but she was adamant. True, she promised to give him their child if he came to the lake again in a year.
Pururavas returned a year later, Urvashi met him and offered to become a Gandharva. Having passed the tests proposed by the Gandharvas, Pururavas became one of them and was again able to unite with his beloved.

Apsaras abandoned their children

Despite the fact that apsaras were quite often described as devoted wives of gods, gandharvas and mortals (which does not at all fit with their appearance as celestial courtesans, which some researchers of Indian folklore attribute to them), they usually abandoned their children. They were raised by hermits or random people. Although, as we have seen, there were exceptions. And, most likely, not so rare, because apsaras were associated with fertility in ancient India.

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I like to remember one story from childhood. Someone gave my mother a large round tin jar of Ceylon tea, painted with beauties in saris in fancy poses. I remember I was sitting at homework when my mother came up to me and whispered: “Let’s go to the kitchen.” We crept up to the glass door. And what? There was this jar on the kitchen table, and my little sister, bending like a monkey, tried to take the same position, while constantly losing her balance. At one of the most comical moments, my mother and I laughed together. The little sister turned around and laughed too. I also tried to portray something similar, but I almost fell. In those years, we were very fond of Indian films and Indian music.

Many years later. And here Montreal is a city in which all the peoples of the world live, including people from the Hindustan Peninsula. I love Indian shops full of pretty jewelry, beautiful light chiffons and gold brocade, pillows and bedspreads with ornamental embroidery. But what attracts the most attention are the intricate figurines and monumental heavy bronze sculptures.

One day we were rushing to a restaurant on the Plateau. On the way, I dropped into a familiar Indian shop on Rue Saint-Denis. There were always many traditional Buddhist bells and large bells - heavy, with chains, with images of deities and legendary creatures. One huge bell especially struck me - it was crowned with the head of an elephant: as I learned, this is how the god Ganesha is depicted. Only one chain weighed five kilograms. I thought: “Where should I put it?” I had just started collecting bells and had not yet thought about anything like a museum. Now, maybe, I would buy it.

On the shelf I noticed a figurine that reminded me of my dancing sister. The figurine stood on a raised platform that looked like the skirt of a bell. I extended my hand. That's right - a bell! I was happy like a child. I asked the owner whose figurine this was.

Apsara,” he replied.
- Apsara? - there was no time to find out who it was. I rushed to the restaurant, clutching the bag with the bell in my hand.

That shop soon, alas, closed, otherwise I would have bought Ganesha now. And only the apsara bell reminds of her. Last year I got another apsara. And I noticed - but they are different! Their arms are curved differently. Then it became really interesting to me. Are there many varieties? What country are they from - India, Cambodia, Thailand? I decided to learn more about the apsaras, and I discovered fascinating stories from the Indian epic.

On November 14, 1913, Rabindranath Tagore learned that he had won the Nobel Prize in Literature

India has always been interesting to me - perhaps this is the influence of numerous Indian films with music and dance, which they loved to show in Uzbekistan, where I spent my childhood. I read Indian fairy tales about beautiful peris. Later I became acquainted with the works of Rabindranath Tagore. 2013 marked one hundred years since he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Monument to Rabindranath Tagore in London, Gordon Square

Rabindranath Tagore - Indian writer, poet, composer, artist, public figure. A bright spiritual charismatic personality. In the West, his image was associated with Tagore the Prophet. Tagore was born in Calcutta, the youngest of fourteen children in an Indian Brahmin family. He began writing poetry early - at the age of eight, and at sixteen he was already composing his first short stories and dramas. He published his poetic samples under the pseudonym "Sunny Leo". A very figurative and self-explanatory pseudonym.

In November 1913, Tagore received the Nobel Peace Prize as a person “bringing together the cultures of East and West.” He was also awarded honorary degrees from four Indian universities and received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. It is difficult to fit into a short essay the vibrant and multifaceted life of this outstanding son of India. And, in general, I’m not writing about him. I just couldn’t help but remember his lyrical lines about the lovely apsara.

Tagore's poems and poems were so popular among ordinary people that they were perceived as folk. His songs were sung in the most remote Indian villages, and the poet wrote more than 3 thousand of them; people read his poems aloud, quoted his sayings, often without even knowing who their author was.

Tagore loved his country and dreamed of it becoming independent.

I give a small fragment of his poem in which he praises the beautiful apsara:

O apsara,
Your hidden appearance is beautiful!
You dance tirelessly, dancer.
And the stream of your dance flows,
And every bit of the life of the world
He cleanses with the water of death
And the sky opens up blue.
Poet, today he rules over you
The anklets of life ring loudly;
And the dance is a causeless movement
Violent excitement flows into my veins,
Filling your chest with the sounds of battle.
Nobody knows what's in your chest
Today the sea waves parted,
The forests are trembling, full of excitement.

Myths and legends about beautiful maidens

And now a little about who the apsaras are? Greek nymphs, Slavic mermaids and waterwomen, Muslim houris, Valkyries - warrior maidens from Scandinavian mythology, and also seductive Venetian courtesans - put it all together and apsaras from ancient Indian epics appear before you. And add magic: the apsaras were transported in space with amazing speed, changed their appearance, took on any shape and turned into any creature, it’s good if it’s swans, but sometimes even crocodiles.

And yet, most often they were described as beautiful half-naked girls, dressed in thin silk flowing fabrics, decorated with jewelry and flowers. These were dancing, captivating, seducing maidens, capable of seducing with their unearthly beauty and charms both a deity and a simple person, and even the most unshakable ascetic, from the true path.

The name "apsara", which means "high water" in Sanskrit, is taken from Hindu mythology. It is believed that apsaras were originally demigoddesses. According to legend, having made a mistake, they were deprived of their divinity and became dancers of the gods. In ancient Indian religious texts, in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda, apsaras are described as female spirits of the waters and wives of the Gandharvas (demigods, warriors, lovers).

Apsaras are the heavenly dancers of the kingdom of the lord of the gods Indra, the drivers of flying chariots. In the Mahabharata, the apsaras lived in the kingdom of Indra - in beautiful groves on the mountains. And in the wonderful palace of Pushkaramalini they delighted the gods and mortal warriors who heroically fell on the battlefield with music and dance. Their duty was also to escort fallen warriors to heaven. They transported them across the sky in flying chariots, the art of driving which they mastered no worse than male warriors.

The number of apsaras ranges from two or three dozen to hundreds of thousands. The ancient books mention two types of apsaras: “worldly” (laukika), who seduced people, and “divine” (daivika). The highest, “divine” category included apsaras, who were in the direct service of the gods and often, on their instructions, seduced asuras or ascetics, who, thanks to their exploits, gained excessive power over the world order and became equal to the gods. Seduced by the apsaras, they lost their power and became mere mortals.

There are many famous apsaras, their stories are interesting, full of miracles. From mouth to mouth, many generations passed on all sorts of details about the lives of these enchantresses. Thus, apsaras not only seduced gods and mortals. Sometimes they fell in love with them, entered into legal marriages and gave birth to children who turned into kings and heroes. In the Mahabharata there is a touching love story between the apsara Shakuntala and King Dushyanta.

Shakuntala was the daughter of the apsara Menaka, who left the girl in the forest under the protection of magical birds. The orphan was found by a hermit, and he raised her. And she, of course, turned into a beauty (how could it be otherwise?). Once upon a time, King Dushyanta was hunting in those forests. He saw a beautiful maiden, fell in love, and they were married in heaven. The king left his ring to Shakuntala as a pledge of love. Only one day a girl dropped a gift into the waters of the Ganges. Having learned about the pregnancy, Shakuntala came to the palace, but an evil enemy cast a spell on her and her lover drove her away without recognizing her.

Mother Menaka this time helped her daughter - she took her to the apsara lake, where Shakuntala gave birth to her son Bharata. Meanwhile, Dushyanta's servants brought him a ring that was found in the belly of a caught fish. The king remembered his beloved and went to look for her. After many years of searching, he found Shakuntala and his son in heaven and returned with them to the capital. That's the end of the fairy tale. Indian version of both Cinderella and Mowgli.

I love stories with a happy ending. As I remember Indian films: you cry, worrying about the tragic ups and downs of the life of the main characters, and at the end you cry with joy.

Apsaras in temples - sculptures, frescoes and bas-reliefs

Apsaras inspired artists, sculptors, architects, poets, and musicians. Graceful sculptures, bas-reliefs and frescoes of apsaras still decorate the facades and interiors of many Indian, Cambodian, Indonesian and Chinese Buddhist temples, silently testifying to the beauty and grace of these divine creatures.

There are especially many statues and bas-reliefs of apsaras in the famous temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Statues and bas-reliefs of apsaras have been preserved in the ancient temples of Khajuraho, in Alaska, in the Borobudur temple complex on the island of Java, in the Kailash cave temple in Ellora and Kuladabad, in the temple in Belur, in the Longmen grottoes in Liayang in China. It is curious that even inscriptions with the names of the dancers have been preserved.

Not one of them is like the other: with different facial expressions, turns of the head, position of the hands, with various exquisite jewelry and clothes, or rather only the lower part of them. It is they who appear topless on the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat and other temples.

We still have to talk about Angkor Wat. This year I received a royal gift. My son visited Cambodia and brought back many photographs and a bell from this famous temple. Little did I know that I would have an apsara from Angkor Wat itself!

Apsaras - maidens of unearthly beauty from Indian legends Apsara (Sanskrit) - in Vedic mythology - a female semi-deity living in a source, a tree. In Buddhist texts, apsaras refer to the heavenly beauties-dancers in the kingdom of Indra on the top of the universal mountain Sumeru. The hosts of these heavenly maidens were famous for their unsurpassed art of dancing, singing, playing music and... love. The most beautiful earthly women are often compared to apsaras. Most often, the word “apsara” is translated as “heavenly nymph,” which does not fully reflect the true meaning of the word. Nymphs of Greek mythology are often modest, timid, bashful; Indian apsaras were not distinguished by such qualities. Their common name literally means "movement in water" or "moving water", "coming out of water". The inhabitants of Indra's paradise - apsaras - are the embodied principle of pleasure. This mythological image is the Indian idea of ​​ideal femininity. Their beauty symbolizes passion (the scorpion on the hip of the apsaras) that destroys the kingdoms of the gods or the asceticism of sages. Their origin is controversial. According to one version of the legend, they were created by the forefather MANU, others claim that they arose from the waters of the Ocean of Milk, which was churned by both gods and demons, wanting to obtain the priceless elixir of immortality (Amrita). Their origin is the ocean. Neither the gods nor the asuras wanted to take them as wives (by that time each of them already had their own shAkti - spouse), so they began to belong to everyone (metaphor: accessibility of beauty and fine arts to everyone?). Another hypothesis for the emergence of apsaras is from the “imagination” of the god Brahma, and he dreamed of such seductive beauty... In any case, they are quite powerful creatures, capable of moving through the air, sending a strong curse on those they dislike, changing their appearance at will, sending love madness. Their weakness is an excessive love of gambling (dice) and wine. Apsaras are capable of performing miracles. However, they do not have the power to create greater good like gods or demigods - this is their significant difference from the hosts of other deities. Their original function was to add seductive charm to Indra's court with their presence and art, which is why they are sometimes called "daughters of pleasure" (sumAd atmaja). They are also considered to be the reward of a righteous person or a hero killed in battle in their subsequent existences, and (predetermined fate!) it is therefore difficult for virtue to resist the apsaras. Apsaras marry wherever they wish. Although they are quite intelligent and cold-blooded in their passions, when they meet true love, apsaras become ideal wives. One of the ancient texts reports the existence of 35 million apsaras, adding that only 1060 of them are essentially apsaras, the rest are therefore secondary. In India, apsaras are known for another duty, which they perform at the command of Indra. Whenever anyone on earth begins to intensely indulge in austerity (tapAsya), Indra is in fear of his power and is afraid of being dethroned from his throne. Apsaras are sent to them with a “combat mission” to charm and seduce, thereby leading them away from the path of acquiring spiritual benefits (=magical power). The temptation was great (the apsaras were good!), intense (the apsaras tried!) and long-lasting (it could take a long time to complete the “task”). It took an Apsara named Menaka 3 years to make VishvamItra forget the austerity and strict life of a righteous man. The result of this union was their daughter ShakUntala. Apsaras are believed to be genetically compatible with all human-like life forms and capable of giving birth to a child. The mystical power accumulated by asceticism (for example, over several years!) was quickly exhausted in the pleasures of all the senses. It was believed that violation of chastity or even the awakening of love passion deprived the ascetic of his magical power, acquired by him in asceticism. This “task” could be fraught with great danger: there was always the risk of being “marked” with the curse of a hot-tempered ascetic. The same Vishvamitra, having come to his senses, resumed tapasya even when Indra sent to him an even more beautiful apsara named Rambha to entice him. This time the sage cursed this, perhaps the most valuable of the apsaras, and turned her into stone for a decent period of time (according to one source - for 10,000 years, according to another - for 1000 years... still a lot...) As a rule , apsaras married people, heroes or supernatural beings whom they led astray from the path of virtue. The mesmerizingly beautiful apsaras, seeking to distract the contemplative sage, became part of the flow of creative inspiration. “In comparison with these pink-footed celestial maidens [apsaras], a girl from the Shakya clan, the most beautiful on earth, is like a disfigured monkey whose ears and nose have been cut off. She has no advantages, even partially she cannot be equal to them, there is no comparison here . These five hundred pink-footed apsaras are much more beautiful, much more beautiful, much more charming" (Nanda Sutra). Apsaras are often compared with Greek nymphs, Muslim houris, Slavic mermaids and waterworts. Apsaras are described in the Rig Veda and Atharva Veda as female spirits of the waters and wives of the Gandharvas. In the Rig Veda only one Apsara is mentioned, but in the Akhtarva Veda there are already many of them. Apsaras are the celestial dancers of Indra's kingdom. Pilots of flying chariots In the epic and, above all, in the Mahabharata, as well as many puranas, apsaras, while remaining the wives of the Gandharvas, began to perform the functions of celestial dancers. They lived together with the Gandharvas in the kingdom of Indra Svarga (Hyperborea) - in beautiful groves on the Meru and Mandara mountains and in the capital Amaravati. There, in the palace of Pushkaramalini (and here) they delighted the gods and mortal warriors who died as heroes on the battlefield with music and dance. Their duty was also to accompany the fallen soldiers to “heaven”. Moreover, they transported them in sky carriages, driving the horses themselves. The main means of transportation for apsaras in the sky were flying chariots, the art of driving which they mastered no worse than the gandharvas. Apsaras participated in the wars of gods and asuras, serving refreshments to the warriors or taking part in hostilities as pilots of flying chariots (Mahabharata, Skanda Purana, etc.). In Buddhist texts, apsaras were depicted as celestial dancers of the kingdom of Sakra (Indra). Apsaras belonged to the white race. But an apsara is a servant. In India, dance is still considered one of the types of yoga, i.e. serving God. Apsara is the owner of mystical beauty. What does mystical beauty mean? This means that one look, word or movement is enough to make you fall in love with yourself. How much does it take for a mortal to go crazy? “Heavenly Dancer” is a special stage of spiritual development, therefore you can use your mystical gift only for the good (even if this good causes suffering to someone) and a stimulus for spiritual growth. And not for profit and using men as a source of income. We were not born dancers. They became heavenly dancers through long work on themselves. To perform a dance on the surface of the earth, you need years of training, and to perform a dance above the surface of the earth, you need a very serious spiritual school. Do you know what dancing above the ground is? The dancer knew how to distribute and accumulate “multipolar” energy in her body, thereby increasing or decreasing her weight. “+” and “-” are gravity, “+” and “+” are levitation. By directing energy with a “plus” to the legs, you can achieve the effect of hovering in the air. The smaller the difference in the values ​​of the plus indicators, the greater the hovering height. The viewer gets the impression of flight. Are you familiar with Aristotle's Poetics? He introduces the concept of "catharsis" there. Catharsis is purification by divine fire. A simple person, seeing a theatrical spectacle, cried from the feelings that overwhelmed him and thereby cleansed his soul from the filth of existence. Imagine what feelings mere mortals experienced when they saw girls floating in the air. And to this day they are the theme of various genres of world art. That's what they are, apsaras!