Speech Among the Gandharvas

Soma was in the sky, and the gods were down here on the earth.

"If only Soma would come to us," the gods said. "Then we could sacrifice with him."

They sent the Gayatri, one of the sacred metres in which hymns are sung, flying up to fetch him. She reached him, and she caught him, and she was carrying him down when a Gandharva named Vishvavasu stole him out of her grasp.

Now the Gandharvas had Soma, and they did not mean to give him up.

The gods saw what had happened.

"Soma has left the sky," they said, "but he has not come to us. The Gandharvas have him."

They sat and thought about what the Gandharvas might want. They knew one thing about them for certain.

"The Gandharvas are fond of women," the gods said. "Let us send Vac to them. She will come back to us, and she will bring Soma with her."

Vac is Speech. She is the word itself, and she was with the gods then as she is with everyone who talks. They sent her to the Gandharvas.

It went just as they had planned. She came back, and Soma came with her.

But the Gandharvas came after her.

"A bargain is a bargain," they said. "Soma shall be yours. Vac is ours."

The gods looked at one another. They had their Soma. They did not want to lose Speech.

"So be it," they said slowly. "But listen. If she would rather come to us, you must not carry her off by force. Let us both woo her. Let her choose."

The Gandharvas agreed to that. They were sure of themselves.

They went first. They stood before Vac and recited the Vedas to her, verse upon holy verse, in perfect order.

"See how we know it," they said. "See how we know it!"

Vac listened.

Then it was the gods' turn. The gods did not recite anything. The Brahmana says that then and there they made the lute, the first one. They sat down with it, and they played, and they sang.

"This is how we will sing to you," they said. "This is how we will delight you."

Vac turned and went to the gods.

The priest who tells this story is not pleased with her. He had spent his whole life learning to recite the Vedas the way the Gandharvas did. He grumbles that she turned from those who were praising and praying to those who were dancing and singing, and he says it was a vain choice.

You may think otherwise. The gods offered her something to do. The Gandharvas only showed her what they knew.

So Soma and Speech were both with the gods. And that, the Brahmana says, is why a cow is led up when the Soma plant is bought for a sacrifice. The cow is Vac. The priest sends her to fetch Soma as the gods once did. He tells her to go safely and to come back safely, and to bring Soma home with her.

In the Aitareya Brahmana nobody steals anything. King Soma is simply living among the Gandharvas, and the gods and the seers sit wondering how to bring him over.

It is Vac who speaks first.

"The Gandharvas love women," she said. "Make me the price. Trade me for him."

"No," said the gods. "How could we live without you?"

"Buy him all the same," said Speech. "When you have need of me, I will come back to you."

"So be it," they said.

It is the shortest of the tellings, and the only one in which she decides for herself.

So she went, and Soma came. That is why, this text explains, the priests speak under their breath once the Soma has been bought. Speech is away among the Gandharvas for that while. When the fire is carried forward she returns, and they may speak aloud again.

The Taittiriya Samhita tells it a third way. There the gods made Speech into a girl one year old and paid her over for Soma. But she would not stay bought. She took the shape of a deer and ran from the Gandharvas, and she did not run to the gods either.

"She has left you and she has not come to us," the gods said. "Let us both call her."

The Gandharvas spoke a sacred formula. The gods sang.

She went to the gods as they sang.

Because she was a year old when she was paid over, that text adds, a child begins to speak at one year. And the cow that buys the Soma must be one year old, so that the whole of Speech goes to fetch him.