The Guest at the Wedding

The Rigveda has one long hymn for weddings. It begins in heaven, with the marriage of Surya, the daughter of the Sun. Then, without any break, it comes down into an ordinary house where an ordinary girl is about to leave her father. The verses from here on are words to be spoken, one after another, as the wedding moves forward.

What the hymn shows is this.

The bride is ready. Her new family is waiting to take her away. And before anyone moves, the speaker of the verses turns and talks to somebody who cannot be seen.

"Rise up from here. This girl has a husband now."

The one he is speaking to is Vishvavasu, the Gandharva. The speaker is careful with him. He does not shout, and he does not threaten.

"I praise Vishvavasu with songs and with bows," he says. "Look for another girl, one who is still in her father's house. That is your share. It was given to you long ago."

Then he says it once more, by name, so that there can be no mistake.

"Rise up from here, Vishvavasu. We honour you. Find another willing girl, and leave this bride with her husband."

The hymn does not stop to explain. It expects everyone at the wedding to know already why a Gandharva should be sitting beside the bride.

The reason comes later in the same hymn, and it is spoken to the bride herself.

"Soma had you first," the verse tells her. "The Gandharva was your next lord. Agni was your third husband. Your fourth is this one, born of a woman."

So before any man asked for her, the girl had been in the keeping of three gods, one after another. The next verse lets the bridegroom speak, and he sounds like a man counting up a gift.

"Soma gave her to the Gandharva. The Gandharva gave her to Agni. And Agni has given her to me, with wealth and with sons."

That is why Vishvavasu is at the wedding. He has not come as a thief. He is the second of her three guardians, and his time is over. The fire in front of the couple is the third guardian, and it is handing her on. All that the family asks of the Gandharva is that he should let go as well, and go back to the girls who are still unmarried, who are his proper charge.

Once he has been asked to rise, the hymn turns to the road.

"Let the paths be straight and free of thorns, where our friends go to the wooing. Let Aryaman and Bhaga lead us."

The bride is set free from her old home. The speaker says he is loosing her from the cord with which the kindly Savitr had bound her there. He asks Pushan to take her by the hand and lead her out, and the Ashvins to carry her on their chariot.

Then the bridegroom takes her hand himself.

"I take your hand for good fortune, so that you may reach old age with me, your husband."

The last words are for the two of them together.

"Do not be parted. Live here, and reach the full length of your lives. Play with your sons and your grandsons, and be glad in your own house."

Nothing more is said to Vishvavasu. The hymn takes it that a guest who has been asked so courteously has stood up and gone.

The Atharvaveda has its own book of wedding verses. It repeats the Rigveda's lines about the three divine husbands almost word for word. But it has more to say to the Gandharva, and it says it in a more watchful voice.

First there is the journey. The wedding party passes under great trees on its way, and the trees are not empty.

"May the divine Apsarases and the Gandharvas, all those who guard these fruitful trees, look kindly on this bride," the verse asks. "May they do no harm to the wedding train as it goes by."

Another hymn of the same Veda says where they live: where the ashvattha and the banyan stand with their leafy crowns, where swings hang bright and green, and lutes and cymbals sound together.

Then comes the moment at the house. The Atharvaveda does not leave it at "rise up". It tells Vishvavasu where to go.

"Rise and go from here, Vishvavasu. We honour you. Go to her sister who still lives with her father. That is your share from of old."

"The Apsarases are feasting together, between the sun and the place of offering. They are your own kin. Go and join them."

It bows very low to him while it shows him out.

"Homage to the Gandharva's favour. Homage to his eye and to his fiery anger. Vishvavasu, we honour you with prayer. Go away to the Apsarases, your wives."

And then the hymn says something the Rigveda never says. It reports that the thing is done.

"We have sent the Gandharva away from this place. The god has gone to the farthest region, and we have come where people live long."

Elsewhere this Veda calls the Gandharva lord of the world, with his home in the sky. It also knows a charm to drive Gandharvas off with a strong-smelling herb called goat's horn. He is honoured here, and he is feared here too.