Apasmara

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} [[File:Apasmara.jpg|thumb|Apasmara, clutching a cobra and trampled beneath the foot of Nataraja (Shiva as lord of dance).]]'''Apasmara''' ({{Langx|sa|अपस्मार}}, {{IAST3|Apasmāra}}) is a diminutive man who represents spiritual ignorance and ''ahamkara'' in Hindu mythology.<ref name="rao227">{{cite book |author=T. A. Gopinatha Rao |title=Elements of Hindu Iconography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e7mP3kDzGuoC |year=1997 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0877-5 |pages=223–229, 237}}</ref><ref name="articnataraja">[http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/24548 Shiva as Lord of the Dance (Nataraja), Chola period, c. 10th/11th century] The Art Institute of Chicago, United States</ref> He is also known as '''Muyalaka''' or '''Muyalakan'''.

==Etymology and definition== The suffix ''smāra'' (from ''smaranam'') means memory. The compound ''apasmāra'' means loss of memory, which corresponds to conditions such as dementia or amnesia. It can also imply gibberish (unintelligible speech) or ego (Ahamkara).<ref>{{cite book |last1=DeVito |first1=Carole |title=India - Mahabharata. Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar Abroad 1994 (India) |last2=DeVito |first2=Pasquale |publisher=United States Educational Foundation in India |year=1994 |page=5 |language=en}}</ref> ''Apasmara'' in Ayurveda referred to neurological disorders characterized by memory loss rather than speech issues. Due to the lack of modern diagnostic tools such as brain scanning at the time, the exact conditions described remain uncertain.

== Theological and symbolic significance== {{Section rewrite|date=December 2022}}[[File:Shiva Nataraja Musée Guimet 25971.jpg|thumb|Nataraja dancing the cosmic dance of creation, destruction and ''moksha'' (ultimate liberation) upon the prone body of Apasmara, the demon of ''avidya'' (ignorance or lack of spiritual insight) – Chola bronze, Musée Guimet.]]

Apasmara, depicted as a diminutive man, is often shown in Hindu iconography clutching a cobra, which symbolizes (''ahamkara'') in Shaivite tradition.<ref>{{cite web |title=What is the significance of the snake around Lord Shiva's neck? |url=https://www.timesnownews.com/spiritual/religion/article/what-is-the-significance-of-the-snake-around-lord-shivas-neck/468331 |website=Times Now News |access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref>

''Ahamkara'', literally means the "I-maker", and is the faculty by which ''jivas'' (souls) identify with the physical body rather than their higher self.<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of ahankara |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ahankara |website=Merriam-Webster |access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref> The Shiva Purana describes ''ahamkara'' as originating from ''Prakriti'' (nature).<ref>Shiva Purana, J. L. Shastri, 1950, Chapter 6: 56–59</ref> Apasmara symbolizes the ignorance of selfhood (''ahamkara''), a universal, cosmic form of ignorance essential for jivas to function in samsara across their countless rebirths by forgetting past lives and identifying with a new body each time. This "necessary evil" of Apasmara is part of the cosmic balance between spiritual knowledge and the inherent ignorance in one's sense of self, and cannot be eradicated without disrupting the cosmic order. Killing Apasmara would represent gaining spiritual knowledge without the effort, will, and dedication required, thereby devaluing that knowledge itself.<ref name="articnataraja" />

To enable moksha (transcendence) while preserving the cosmic balance between spiritual knowledge and ignorance inherent in samsara, Apasmara must be subdued rather than killed.<ref name="articnataraja" /> To suppress Apasmara, Shiva assumes the form of Nataraja—the Lord of Dance—and performs the cosmic dance of tāṇḍava. During this dance, Shiva subdues Apasmara under his right foot, symbolizing the subjugation of ignorance and ''ahamkara''. Apasmara is believed to remain eternally subdued beneath Nataraja's foot, with Shiva perpetually maintaining this balance through his cosmic dance.<ref name="articnataraja" /><ref>Knappert, Jan ''Indian Mythology'', a volume in the series ''Encyclopedias of Myth and Legend'' pub. The Aquarian Press (An Imprint of Harper Collins) 1991 pps. 181-2.</ref> Similar symbolism is seen in representations of Dakshinamurti, another form of Shiva as a guru, where Apasmara is subdued under Shiva’s right foot.

English writer and philosopher, Aldous Huxley has described and summarized the symbolism of Nataraja and Apasmara, also known as Muyalaka in his utopian novel, Island:

<blockquote>Nataraja's right foot is planted squarely on a horrible little subhuman creature - the demon, Muyalaka. A dwarf, but immensely powerful in his malignity, Muyalaka is the embodiment of ignorance, the manifestation of greedy, possessive selfhood. Stamp on him, break his back! And that's precisely what Nataraja is doing. Trampling the little monster down under his right foot. But notice that it isn't at this trampling foot that he points his finger; it's at the ''left'' foot, the foot that, as he dances, he's in the act of raising from the ground. And ''why'' does he point at it? Why? That lifted foot, that dancing defiance of the force of gravity - it's the symbol of release, of ''moksha'', of liberation.<ref>Huxley, Aldous ''Island'' First published by Chatto and Windus 1962.</ref></blockquote>

==Disease concept in Ayurveda== The concept of ''Apasmara'' in Āyurveda relates to a group of neurological disorders, one of which may be identified as epilepsy:<ref>[http://easyayurveda.com/2014/04/23/epilepsy-ayurvedic-understanding-treatment/ M.S. Krishnamurthy, ''Epilepsy - Ayurvedic Understanding and its Treatment''']</ref><ref name="Manyam">[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1592022 B.V. Manyam (1992), ''Epilepsy in ancient India''. Epilepsia. 1992 May-Jun;33(3):473-5]</ref> according to Maharṣi Caraka, there are 4 types of apasmāra.<ref name="Manyam" /> These 4 types of apasmara are Vataja, Pitaja, Kapahaja and Sannipataja.These can be related to conditions associated with loss of memory like amnesia and dementia or temporal lobe epilepsy with fugue states or hysteria.<ref>Ayurvedic Epilepsy Treatment https://www.epilepsytreatment.org/ayurvedic-treatment-for-epilepsy</ref> Charakhas instituted this classification depending upon the different doshas of the body.

==References== {{reflist}}

==Sources== *Dictionary of Hindu Lore and Legend ({{ISBN|0-500-51088-1}}) by Anna Dallapiccola

Category:Characters in Hindu mythology