apsara

plural apsaras · alternative upsara · alternative apsaras

1. HinduismIndian mythologyBuddhisma class of female celestial beings, originally associated with waters and clouds and later especially with celestial dance, music, beauty and the divine courts.

   Don't burn us with your fierce austerities, O master. I'll have to send apsaras to distract you.

   2006, Vikram Chandra, Sacred Games, volume 1, Penguin, published 2007, page 17

   2 more examples

   But the boy's relatives don't sit on their behinds and wait for a pari or an apsara to drop out of the heavens.

   1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 40

   But here was an apsara rising out of the waters of a holy Ganga, raising her arms in salutation to the sun rising above the range of hills and offering her behind to him to marvel at and worship.

   2004, Khushwant Singh, Burial at Sea, Penguin, published 2014, page 102