Apsaras, Alluring Damsels of Heaven

Apsaras, Alluring Damsels of Heaven

'If the clothes be of heat and cold and the food be of the wind, the alluring women of heaven be there everywhere. Or the alluring women of heaven may all go away. Still I may Praise Thee, O Lord! and the eagerness of my utterance may not diminish' .

Var Majh, M. l, p. 142

The reference to the alluring women of heaven is, in fact, a reference to the Apsaras, who are said to reside in the heaven of Indra. They rose during the churning of the milky-ocean along with the elixer of immortality and many oher wonderous things including the poison that turned Shiva's throat blue.

They are celestial beings in resplendent forms. None of the gods could wed them because they did not undergo puriflcation. Therefore they became women of easy virtue and the wives of the Gandharvas. They are also presented as a reward to young heroes fallen in battle. (One may notice a resemblence to the 72 virgins that each jihadist martyr is promised as he gets a, go strait to heaven, pass according to some Islamic teachings and rivers of wine to drink.)

Some of the important Apsaras are Menaka, Rambha and Thilothama, who are sent by Indra to try to shake the virtue of penitent sages. Sculptures of Apsaras, with one leg wrapped around a young tree, also adorn the toranas at entrances to Budhist Stupas.

References

1. Kohli, Surindar SINGH, Dictionary of Mythological References in Guru Granth Sahib, 1993