APSARAS. - This name means “who moves in the water” and designates an Indian water divinity, akin to the Greek Nereid. Already in the Ṛgveda, X, 123, 5, the A. is associated with the Gandharva, the air spirit to whom she smiles and who loves her. Even when the A., having abandoned their natural substratum, become celestial nymphs and personify the feminine power of seduction, they still love to frequent the banks of lakes and rivers in memory of their origin. The Atharvaveda calls them
wives of the Gandharvas, who reappear in epic mythology as celestial musicians. They play the vīṇā, a kind of lute, and the A. dance and sing. As in Greece, so too in India the founders of famous dynasties boast of a semidivine descent from a mortal hero and a celestial nymph. The episode of Purūravas and Urvaśī, the Indian Melusina, is the subject of a Vedic hymn (Ṛgveda, X, 95) before it became the celebrated drama of Kālidāsa, the Vikramōrvaśīyam. According to the Rāmāyaṇa, the A. were born from the churning of the ocean together with Śrī, the Indian Venus, and with amṛta (v.).