gandharva
गन्धर्व gandharvaA male celestial musician of Indra's court; in the Vedas, an older mysterious being who guards the sacred soma and hidden knowledge. The gandharva-vivaha, or love-match marriage, is named after them.
Where this term appears
- The Artists of the Sky Treatise
…d dead enjoy the fruits of their merit — and its entertainers are the gandharvas and the apsarás .
- The Classes of the Gods Treatise
… birth": the vidyādharas, the apsarases, the yakṣas and rakṣases, the gandharvas and kinnaras, the piśācas, the guhyakas, the siddhas, and the bhūtas — these are the deva-yonis.
- Jagannātha and Viśvāvasu Treatise
Viśvāvasu occurs six times, across three passages: 39.10, then 132.3, 132.6 and 132.8, then 171.14 and 171.20. All six are the gandharva of that name.
- The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: the forest of Yajnavalkya Treatise
…er is woven on air, air on the sky-worlds, those on the worlds of the Gandharvas, those on the sun, the sun on the moon, the moon on the stars, the stars on the gods, the gods on Indra, Indra on Prajapati, Praj…
- The Mandukya Upanishad: twelve verses, four states, one sound Treatise
…whole seen world "is seen by the wise in the Vedanta as a city of the gandharvas ," a mirage-city (Karika 2.31).
- The Taittiriya Upanishad: the ladder of selves, from food to bliss Treatise
Now multiply. A hundred such human joys make one joy of the human Gandharvas .