Supernatural Beings

In Indian mythology there are always many supernatural beings that inhabit the stories. They are very strange to a non-Indian audience, as there are really no counterparts for them in the mythologies of the other nations. This is an attempt to explain some of the salient features of the most common supernatural beings so that anybody who comes to these pages does not feel at sea - and also so that the other articles do not have to constantly stop and explain what is meant when one of these beings are referred to.

Apsaras
The are usually translated as heavenly nymphs but that is a very inadequate term. Nymphs were usually modest and bashful, but the apsaras were anything but. Their name literally means 'moving in the water' or alternatively 'water that moves'. They are found in Indra's heaven, each of the great gods having a separate world or heaven of their own. The apsaras are the ultimate Pleasure Principle incarnate, visions of voluptuous beauty that have stamped themselves on the Indian psyche as the ideal feminine form.

Their origins are controversial, some saying that the Indian Adam, Manu, created them while others state that they emerged at the great churning of the ocean of milk. In any case they are powerful beings who have the ability of flight and can pronounce frightful maledictions and even perform a few minor miracles. Form changing is amongst their abilities and an excessive love for dice and wine their weakness. However they have no power to grant boons like the devas or gods - a vital distinction. Primarily their function is to make the heaven of Indra an alluring delight and hence they are called Sumad-atmajas, the daughters of pleasure. They are also supposed to be the reward of the just man and the hero fallen in battle in the afterlife and are hence well nigh irresistible inducements for virtue.

Apsaras marry where they will, though they have a certain cold-blooded nose for the main chance about them. When they do fall in love however they become very good wives. One text says that here are 35 millions of them though only one thousand and sixty of them are the principal apsaras. A prime function of apsaras is to be the entertainers at Indra's court and they are supreme masters of dance and song.

Apsaras are known in India however for a special function that they perform for Indra. Whenever a person begins to perform too much askesis or tapasya, Indra is scared that their accumulating virtue will allow them to depose him. To these people are sent the apsaras to seduce and charm them away from the path of penance and to exhaust their accumulated merit in acts of pleasure. This can be a long-term project, apsaras actually getting married to the men or supernatural beings they distract from the path of tapasya. It is also a dangerous business as the constantly run the risk of being cursed by an irascible sage.

Meneka seduced Vishwamitra away from his austerities for three years till she gave birth to his child Shakuntala. Apsaras are genetically compatible with all humanoid forms of life and bear all of them children. Coming to his senses he resumed his tapasya whereupon Indra sent the even more beautiful Rambha to attract him but this time the sage cursed her to turn into stone for ten thousand years. The dazzlingly beautiful apsara striving to distract a meditating sage has become an important part of the Indian imagination and finds its echo in popular films to this day.

Asuras
The shadow side to the gods, being made of the same cosmic material as the devas are. The word asura actually meant spiritual and divine at one time. This can be seen even in the texts of ancient Zorashtrianism, which is written in a language practically indistinguishable from Vedic Sanskrit. The good guys there are the asuras, and the bad guys the devas! Even Indra, Agni, Mithra, Varuna of the Vedic gods were praised as being great asuras. They are believed to have emerged from the breath or asu of Prajapati the Primal Creator. They are the same class of beings as the devas, having the same religious beliefs praying to Shiva and Brahma, and having the same cultural practices too. The asuras are in constant dispute with the devas for the Overlordship of the Universe and they occasionally manage to wrest control for a while. Usually they live in the Shadow region called Patala or the Underworld.

They have a fatal flaw in them however, which causes them to fail each time, and that is their identification of the Self with the body. They are literal to an amazing degree, and hardly ever evolve in consciousness because the body satisfies them. They build great civilizations, which are monuments to pleasure, and they have an unfortunate tendency to chase after and abduct any pretty face they see - a habit that has more than once brought doom upon their heads. The asuras are what the devas might have been if they had not evolved in wisdom, powerful yet petty, immature in thinking but possessed of magical abilities, and constantly losing what they have gained because they have only drive but no discipline.

Danavas and Daityas
Asura like beings with considerably more strength, exceedingly long lives and a great deal more uncouth than any other life form. Unlike the asuras they do not share the cultural values of the devas and they have made a specialization of wrecking sacrifices that are being made to the gods. This consists of flying over the venue and dropping garbage, human wastes and blood and flesh over the sacred spot and fire. They are too disorganized to be more than nuisance value most of the time, though an occasional leader arises who leads them to some temporary victory over the devas. Human heroes regularly take on the danavas and daityas and rout them, though that is very rare in the case of the asuras. They love to torment mankind too because man performs the fire-sacrifices that keep the devas strong.

One of the Danavas, Maya by name, however went against type and became the greatest palace architect and city designer of mythology. All classes of beings used to get him to design their city to signify their new status as having arrived. This includes the Pandavas and their capital city of Indraprastha and the famous golden city of Lanka too. His daughter Mandodari, is one of the exemplars of perfection in mythology, so it would seem that the problem lay in what they choose to be rather than in any original danava predilection to uncouthness and brutality.

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