GANDHARBA, or GANDHARVA, a species of demigods or angels, the musicians of heaven, inhabiting Indraloka, the paradise of the Hindu deities, and witnesses of the actions of men. They are 60,000,000 in number. In the creation of the second Manvantara they are called the children of Arishta and Kashyapa (whence they are sometimes called Mauneyas, children of Muni, namely, Kashyapa). By them the Nagas, or mythological serpents in the regions below were despoiled of the jewels which decorated their heads. They applied to Vishnu, who sent Purukusta to Pātala to destroy the Gandharbas. Originally they belong to the latter Epic period, but figure more prominently in the purānas. [No satisfactory etymology has yet been proposed for this name. One given in the Vishnu Purāna is gan dhayantas, i.e., "suckling the goddess of speech;" and another equally ridiculous is that in Wilson's Sanscrit Dictionary—ganda, "smell," and arb, "go," alluding to the musk-deer for which this word is a name. Its primitive meaning was probably that of some singing bird. The sense of Koil, or Indian cuckoo, is attributed to it in the Medino Kosha.]—Bhagavad-gita, by J. C. Thomson, 1855.