ORIENTAL SERIES.

APASTAMBAAPSARAS. 19
Eka-pa/ala, gave themselves up to austerity and practised
extraordinary abstinence; but while her sisters lived, as their
names denote, upon one leaf or on one paifala (Bignonia) respectively,
Aparwa managed to subsist upon nothing, and even
lived without a leaf (a-parna). This so distressed her mother
that she cried out in deprecation,
f
IJ-ma/ '
Oh, don't.' Apar^a
thus became the beautiful Uma, the wife of $iva.
APASTAMBA. An ancient writer on ritual and law,
author of Sutras connected with the Black Yajur-veda and of a
Dharma-sastra, He is often quoted in law-books. Two recen-
sions of the Taittiriya Sanhita are ascribed to him or his school
The Sutras have been translated by Biihler, and are being re-
printed in the Sacred Books of the East by Max Mliller.
APAVA. 'Who sports in the waters.' A name of the
same import as Naraya??a, and having a similar though not an
identical application. According to the Brahma Pnrawa and the
Hari-vansa, Apava performed the office of the creator Brahma,
and divided himself into two parts, male and female, the former
begetting offspring upon the latter. The result was the production
of Vislwu, who created Viraj, who brought the first man
into the world. According to the Maha-bharata, Apava is a name
of the Prajapati Vasish/ha. The name of Apava is of late intro-
duction and has been vaguely used. Wilson says : "According
to the commentator, the first stage was the creation of Apava or
Vasishflia or Viraj by Vishnu, through the agency of Brahma,
and the next was that of the creation of Mann by Viraj."
APSARAS. The Apsarases are the celebrated nymphs of
Indra's heaven.
'
The name, which signifies moving in the water/
has some analogy to that of Aphrodite. They are not prominent
in the Yedas, but Urvasi and a few others are mentioned, In
Manu they are said to be the creations of the seven Manus. In
the epic poems they become prominent, and the Ramayana and
the Pura?ias attribute their origin to the churning of the ocean.
(See Ainn'ta.)
It is said that when they came forth from the
waters neither the gods nor the Asuras would have them for
wives, so they became common to all They have the appellations
of Suranganas,
'
wives of the gods/ and Sumad-atmajas,
'daughters of pleasure.'
" Then from the agitated deep up sprung
The legion of Apsarases, so named