Dancing Apsara

This carefully sculpted brass image depicts apsara in an iconic position, one leg raised backward, symbolizing how they float in the heavens. An Aspara is a protector of vital energy that escapes from the body of a dead warrior. Apsaras are said to have been created after a thousand-year effort to extract Amrita, Kshirodadhi's nectar of immortality, the sea of milk, by Vishnu in coalition with Vasuki, king of Nagas the tortoise Akupara, an avatar of Vishnu.

Adorned with ornaments, this beautiful apsara is depicted to be in the characteristic fluid-like floating dancing motion, her right hand on her left thigh, her left leg bent at the knee and raised backward, and the left hand raised in a dancing motion. As the protector of vital energy, asparas maintain the integrity of the essential powers of fallen enemies for preservation, without which the necessary energy could turn into a vengeful energy sowing bad fortune. Apsaras are thus, bringers of good fortune.

Carved beautifully as the depiction of beautiful heavenly and celestial beings, they are often associated with personifying the element of water in the principle of creation. As water is connected to fertility, these divine beings are believed to be auspicious, bringing prosperity, abundance and considered to be the guardian and liberator of the fertile waters. Apsara is the cosmic auspiciousness for fertility.