乾闥婆

Readings

Pinyin: gāntàpó

Wade-Giles: kan-t'a-p'o

Hangul: 건달파

Korean MC: gandalpa

Korean MR: kandalp'a

Katakana: ケンダツバ

Hepburn: kendatsuba

càn thát bà

gandharva

• (Pāli gandhabba; Tib. dri za ) Along with the kiṃnaras 緊那羅 a heavenly musician, one of the eight kinds of spiritual beings 八部衆 that protect the Dharma at the conclusion of Mahāyāna scriptures. Sometimes rendered with the English term centaur. According to tradition, they don't drink wine or eat meat, but survive on perfume vapors. They are colorful, and notorious for stealing virgin brides the night before their wedding. There are many kinds of transcriptions of this term, including 健達縛, 犍闥婆, 彥達婆, 乾沓婆, 乾沓和, 乾陀羅鬼神, 樂乾闥婆, etc. Gandharva is also translated as 食香, 尋香行, 香陰, 香神, 尋香, 樂天, etc. [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura, JEBD, Hirakawa, YBh-Ind,Yokoi]
• Monier-Williams says: "Though in later times the gandharvas are regarded as a class, yet in the Ṛg-Veda rarely more than one is mentioned. There, he is designated as the heavenly gandharva (divya gandharva), and is also called Viśvāvasu (cf. RV. x, 85, 21 and 22 ; 139, 4 and 5) and Vāyu-keśa (in pl. cf. RV. iii, 38, 6). His habitation is the sky, or the region of the air and the heavenly waters. His special duty is to guard the heavenly soma (cf. RV. ix, 83, 4 and 85, 12), which the gods obtain through his intervention. It is obtained for the human race by Indra, who conquers the gandharva and takes it by force. The heavenly gandharva is supposed to be a good physician, because the soma is considered as the best medicine. Possibly, however, the word soma originally denoted not the beverage so called, but the moon, and the heavenly gandharva may have been the genius or tutelary deity of the moon. In one passage (cf. RV. ix, 86, 36) the heavenly gandharva and the soma are identified. He is also regarded as one of the genii who regulate the course of the Sun's horses; he knows and makes known the secrets of heaven and divine truths generally; he is the parent of the first pair of human beings, Yama and Yamī (cf. RV. x, 10, 4), and has a peculiar mystical power over women and a right to possess them (cf. RV. x, 85, 21 and 22 ; 40 and 41). For this reason he is invoked in marriage ceremonies (cf. AV. xiv, 2, 35 and 36). Ecstatic states of mind and possession by evil spirits are supposed to be derived from the heavenly gandharva. The gandharvas as a class have the same characteristic features as the one gandharva: they live in the sky, guard the soma, are governed by Varuṇa (just as the apsarasas are governed by soma), know the best medicines, and regulate the course of the asterisms — hence twenty-seven are mentioned. They follow after women and are desirous of intercourse with them. As soon as a girl becomes marriageable, she belongs to soma, the gandharvas, and Agni. The the wives of the gandharvas are the apsarasas (gandharvâpsaras), and like them the gandharvas are invoked in gambling with dice (cf. AV. vii, 109, 5). They are also feared as evil beings together with the rākṣasas, kimīdins, piśācas, etc., amulets being worn as a protection against them. They are said to have revealed the Vedas to Vāc, and are called the preceptors of the ṛṣis. Purūravas is called among them; in epic poetry the gandharvas are the celestial musicians or heavenly singers who form the orchestra at the banquets of the gods, and they belong together with the apsarasas to Indra's heaven, sharing also in his battles. In the more systematic mythology the gandharvas constitute one of the classes into which the higher creation is divided (i. e. gods, manes, gandharvas, or gods, asuras, gandharvas, men; or gods, men, gandharvas, apsarasas, sarpas, and manes). Divine and human gandharvas are distinguished. The chief of the gandharvas is named Citraratha; they are called the creatures of Prajāpati or of Brahmā or of Kāśyapa or of the Munis or of Prādhā or of Ariṣtā or of Vāc. With Jainas the gandharvas constitute one of the eight classes of the Vyantaras. Also the name of the attendant of the 17th Arhat of the present Avasarpiṇī. [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): M-W]
• A singer. [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): M-W]
• The black cuckoo. [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): M-W]
• A sage, pious man. [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): M-W]
• A horse. [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): M-W]
• The musk deer. [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): M-W]
• The soul after death and previous to its being born again (corresponding in some respects to the western notion of a ghost). "[resp. Charles Muller; source(s): M-W]

Dictionary References:

Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 243

Bulgyo sajeon, 23II

Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.), 292d

Iwanami bukkyō jiten, 240

Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha), 170b/189

Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi), 361

Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura), 325b

Fo Guang Dictionary, 4371

Ding Fubao

Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa), 0079

Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki), (v.9-10)497b

Bukkyō daijiten (Oda), 421-2

Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller

generated: 2014-04-02