Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami
From the book “Sri Vraja-maṇḍala-parikramā”:
Apsarā-kuṇḍa and Navala-kuṇḍa lie near each other. Śrīmatī Rādhikā is likened to the most beautiful apsarā, a damsel from the heavenly planets. Apsarā-kuṇḍa received its name after Her, and the eternally youthful (navala) Nanda-nandana Śrī Kṛṣṇa is present here as Navala-kuṇḍa. Nearby is a place of rāsa. Previously this was a delightful and enchanting grove of thousands of kadamba and tamāla trees. Today hardly any of these trees remain. The Divine Couple Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa melted in prema while performing the rāsa dance here. Apsarā-kuṇḍa and Navala-kuṇḍa are Their melted forms. Fortunate sādhakas obtain darśana of these ponds.
Rajashekhara Dasa
From the book “Chaurasi-kosa Vraja Mandala Parikrama”:
This kunda was said to have been created when the Apsaras, the celestial dancing girls of heaven, performed an abhisheka of Shri Krishna. The water from the abhisheka formed a kunda and the Apsaras took their bath in the purified water of the kunda, which became known as Apsara-kunda. When Indra performed his abhisheka of Krishna at Govinda-kunda, it is said that all the denizens of heaven, including the Apsaras, also performed their own abhisheka of Lord Krishna at various locations around Govardhana Hill. Formerly, there were one hundred and eight different kundas of the demigods situated around the sacred Hill, but most have now disappeared.
Right next to Apsara-kunda is Navala-kunda which is also called Punchari-kunda. Navala-Kishore is one of Krishna’s names which means the ‘ever fresh youth’. It is said that once when Radha and Krishna were enjoying Their spring-time rasa-lila pastimes on the banks of Apsara-kunda, They became so absorbed in the ecstasy of Their love for one-another, that They simply melted and in Their liquid forms flowed into these two kundas, with Radha melting into Apsara-kunda and Krishna melting into Navala-kunda. It is sometimes said that Apsara-kunda was named after Radharani, whose dancing in the rasa-lila surpassed that of the heavenly dancing girls, the Apsaras, and for this reason it became known as Apsara-kunda
In the Vishnu-dharmottara it says that at one time or another, Krishna manifested all twenty four principle forms of Lord Vishnu during His pastimes simply for the pleasure of the cowherd boys. It is said that many of these pastime forms were manifested by Krishna at Apsara-kunda. On one occasion Krishna manifested the form of Rama and the cowherd boys becam monkeys and bears and on another occasion he manifested the form of twelve-armed Govindadeva, and one of the cowherd boys became Garuda. Krishna also manifested the form of the Boar incarnation Lord Varahadeva and started to dig up the earth with His tusks, as well as the half-man, half-lion form of Lord Vishnu who appeared from a stone pillar to save the five year old boy-saint Prahlada Maharaja from the torment of his demonic father Hiranyakashipu.
