The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (824 page)

 
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Gandhabba
(heavenly beings)
:

see
GANDHARVA
.

 
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Gandh
ra
.

A region in the NW of India (S. Afghanistan/N. Pakistan) which was a major centre of Buddhist art and culture.

 
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(Skt., imbiber of song).
1
In Hinduism, sometimes a single god, who is the guardian of
soma
. More often they are in the plural, described by the
Atharva Veda
as half-human, half-bird, and hairy. In later texts (e.g.
Mah
bh
rata
), they have become the musicians of the gods (with the
apsarasas
, the dancers) who also threaten to seduce
ascetics
when they rival the gods.
2
In Buddhism, (P
li,
gandhabba
) they continue as heavenly musicians, but they also have a role in sustaining the karmically governed accumulation of consequence from a previous life, through death, into a new appearance. They thus covered, mythologically, the ‘gap’ between death and new birth.

 
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