CHAPTER - III
04. The Home Of The Gandharva And Soma
The Gandharva (sing.) is almost always associated with div, usually translated as heaven, sky. In ṚV, Viśvāvasu is called divyo gandharvo,15 the gandharva of div. In Atharvaveda (II.2.1-5), divya Gandharva is praised as the lord of living beings. In ŚB V. 1.1.16 divya gandharva Ketapū is invoked.
The devas, as is indicated by their name, traced their origin to div, the heavenly region. Thus both the Gandharva by his association with div and the devas hailed from a common region, heavenly or otherwise. As already noted, the word deva could be used in the case of things terrestrial and of great excellence in ṚV times. Further the people called Gāndhāris are mentioned in ṚV. Probably, gandharva was their deity and the word was also used to indicate the priest of that deity. The country of gandharvas as described in Rāmāyaṇa (VII. 100.10-11) was located on both the banks of the Indus.
According to the inscriptions of Darius, Ga(n)dara is mentioned as one of the countries under his sway. Ga(n)dara is identified as the region of Kabul valley as far as Peshawar,16 which nearly confirms the Rāmāyaṇa tradition. “Zimmet considers that they (i.e. Gāndhāris) were settled in Vedic times on the south bank of the Kubhā upto its mouth in the Indus and for some distance down the east side of the Indus itself.”17 Thus the eastern boundary of the Gāndhāra-deśa seems to be fairly wellknown.
The Soma is almost invariably associated with div. He is called the mountain living bull who is being milked by the seers on the firmament of heaven.18 The Soma plant is said to be growing on the mountains, parvatāvṛdh (ṚV IX.46.1) and in AV III.21.10 mountains are said to be somapṛṣṭhas, soma-backed. Varuṇa (and not Indra) is said to be in heaven, div; in IX.61.10 the whole Soma plant (andhas) is said to have come from div and to have been brought by the eagle (ṚV V.45.9, IX.68.6, X.144.5). Soma, the intoxicating juice is said to be the child of heaven (ṚV IX.38.5). Soma flows with his stream to the dear places of heaven (IX. 19.8). In IX.85.9 he is said to occupy div. Soma is also called Maujavata, a product of Mujavant (ṚV X.34.1). The location of this mountain is uncertain, though Hillebrandt and Zimmer would like to identify it with one of the lower hills of the southwest of Kashmir. Soma, the juice, is called pītu, the beverage, mada, intoxicating draught, anna, food.
Madhu, honey or mead is especially applied to Soma. Madhu is the equivalent of Soma and is associated with amṛta as it is used in ṚV X. 123.3, 4. In VS VI.34, Soma is used in close connection with the immortal consorts i.e. the water which is poured on the Soma and in ŚB IX.5.1.8, Soma is explicitly equated with amṛta, nectar: tadyattadamṛtam somaḥ saḥ, that which is this nectar is this Soma.
Thus the Soma drink is often referred to as the best milk/juice (pīyūṣa, which has obtained the meaning of nectar i.e. amṛta in later tradition) of div in several places in ṚV.19 Soma is also said to have the quality of bestowing immortality—as is said in ṚV VIII.48.3, we drank the Soma (and) became immortal.20 It is conceivable that the drink which is attributed this quality may be called after it. The Gandharva is said to guard the place of Soma in ṚV IX.83.4. Thus the gandharvas, Soma and the devas seem to come from a common region viz. div.
In the case of the gandharvas, there is little doubt that they occupied the Kabul valley and southern part; the western boundary of their kingdom might have extended further than can be proved now. It is
also likely that the devas, while sharing the common region, did not live in the immediate vicinity of the gandharvas who had close contacts with the asuras, the dānavas and others indicated by various genealogies and names mentioned, e.g. Haṛsa in Harivaṃśa21 is also a dänava and a son of Aṃṣṭā who is mother of gandharvas. Asurä appears to be a name of an apsara. Although this evidence may sound flimsy, their contacts and relations with Asuras and the others, the enemies of the devas, are amply borne out by their later transformation into mythic beings. The enmity is also reflected in some of the hymns from AV discussed above.
If the Avestan tradition in relation to Soma is considered, it might give a rough idea of the farthest extension of the region of div. According to Avestan tradition also, the Haoma grows chiefly on the mountains and primarily on Haraiti i.e. Elburz to the south of Caspian sea. From the heights of Haraiti, holy birds bore him everywhere. This myth happens to coincide, as already shown, with Soma in ṚV and might thus be an older one inherited by the devas from the gandharvas. The mention of the messenger of Varuṇa in ṚV X. 123.6 brings in the asuras. This may be taken to be the original home of Soma from where it spread through an unknown agency in the hoary past. In fact, the attribution to the bird may be a suggestion of the remote antiquity of this myth and the use of Soma.
This may be of help in establishing the original home of the gandharvas. The locality of Elburz may have been the place from where the gandharvas hailed. The gandharvas appear to have discovered first the secret of soma.
Thus div might have extended from the banks of Indus to the boundary of Iran upto the Elburz mountains (?), and probably to the north of Merv, if Merv is equivalent of Meru which is considered in later Hindu tradition as the centre of the world, that is the world of the devas. The conflict between the devas and the asuras symbolically depicted in later mythology as the churning of the ocean in which Meru serves as the churning rod, the king of serpents, viz. Śeṣa as the rope, kūrma, tortoise, steadies the rod and the devas deprive the asuras of the Amṛta and other things which are churned out.
Meru and Amṛta are the two important symbols. Meru seems to be at a superficial consideration same as Merv and Amṛta is the Soma which the devas snatched away from the gandharvas.
In ŚB XIII.4.3.7, 8, the gandharvas are said to be the subjects of Varuṇa. They are described as having beauteous form and Atharvan was said to be their Veda. The apsaras are described as the subjects of Soma Vaiṣṇava and Aṅgiras, their Veda. This tradition may appear to be partially valid when considered in the light of the fact that the Atharvaveda is also known as atharvāṅgirasau and that it was admitted into the Vedic fold comparatively late. Scholars have also recognised portions of greater antiquity in AV than ṚV itself. The reasons for associating the apsaras with Soma Vaiṣṇava are not quite clear.
05. Chapter
01. Yakṣas
Y
AKSA now means a semi-divine yet a fearful superhuman being. Monier-Williams describes the later concept of Yakṣa as: “A class of semi-divine beings...though generally regarded as beings of a benevolent and inoffensive disposition...they are occasionally classed with Piśācas and other malignant spirits and sometimes said to cause demoniacal possessions.”1Yakṣu as a clan name occurs in the ṚV. Many of the names of the tribes or clans referred to in ṚV end in u as e.g. Pūru,2 Śigru,3 Śimyu,4 and appear to be loanwords into Sanskrit. Probably these are the names of the tribes or communities as they were known or as they called themselves. As such they were borrowed in Sanskrit. Yakṣa might represent the later sanskritized form of Yakṣu, a non-Sanskrit word. A similar example may be found in the case of mleccha, the Pali equivalent of which is milakkhu which appears to be yet another original name. The u-ending has been changed into Sanskrit to a. Thus it is likely that the later term yakṣa was in its original form Yakṣu.
The earliest reference to Yakṣus as people is found in ṚV VII. 18.9. They are referred to as yaksavaḥ, the Yakṣus, who along with the Ajas and the Śigrus paid tribute to Indra with the heads of their horses. The term also occurs in singular as an epithet in ṚV VII. 18.6: “Turvaśa, Yakṣu was the foresacrifice [puroḍāś]. The Matsyas who were seated on the wealth like the fish in water, the Bhṛgus and the Druhyus afforded willing following. The friend has helped him thoroughly, who was his friend amongst the two opponents.” The verse forms a part of the description of the battle between the ten kings. There is little doubt that Yakṣu is used as an epithet of Turvaśa who is described as puroḍāś and translated by Geldner as foresacrifice. In the context of the preceding and following verses, this translation of puroḍāś appears unsuitable for obvious reason that the context is not of the sacrifice and hence the literal translation of puroḍāś suggested above i.e. one who was previously a das, mariner seems to be justified. Yakṣu Turvaśa was a dāś, i.e. a mariner and may have been the chief of Yakṣus, the people referred to in v. 19 of the same hymn. The Yakṣus fought against Sudās on the side of the ten kings who were routed by Sudās aided by Indra and his priest Vasiṣṭha. This enmity is reflected in their being turned into mythic beings in later tradition.4a
Yakṣa occurs in a few other places in ṚV and AV where it does not seem to refer to people.
Moreover the later form yakṣa is available in these cases.
ṚV V.70.4 (a hymn addressed to Mitra and Varuṇa): ‘O you of inconceivable insight, may we not experience the secret [heimlichkeit, yakṣa] of anybody in our person neither in progeny (children) nor in relatives.”
In the previous verse Rudra is invoked to extend his protection in order to be able to compete bodily with the dasyus and the verse under discussion invokes protection from the yakṣas of anybody.
No direct evidence is available to identify these yakṣas with those of the yakṣas of the dasyus. But it
appears that the yakṣa from whom the invocateur seeks protection belonged to somebody else.
ṚV VII.61.5 reads as: “O you bulls, both of you are unfailing. Those strokes of your selves in which one neither sees a sign (citra) nor wonder [wunder, yakṣa] follow the dishonesties of man. To you two, secrets have not remained unknown.” (This hymn too is addressed to Mitrāvaruṇa.)
ṚV IV.3.13: “Do not go to the secret [heimlichkeit, yakṣa] of a dishonourable person or of a deceiving inmate or a friend. Do not plague on us the offence of a dishonest brother, O Agni; may we not taste fully the impact of roguish friend.”
ṚV X.88.13: “The seers, worthy of sacrifice and the gods created this agni Vaiśvānara, the ageless, the oldest, never failing, the wandering star, the strong and the great (high) seer of secrets (geheimnisses, yakṣa sy a).”
Agni is called the great seer of yaksa which is meant complimentarily, an extraordinary capacity to see the yakṣa.
ṚV I.190.4: “His call penetrates to heaven, to earth. As a racer, (draws the wagon), may the clever one who bears the secret (geheimniss, yakṣa), draw (?) (the gods ?), when these (arrows) of Bṛhaspatī just like the arrows for the wild go to the heavenly (gods) changing just like serpents.”
The verse seems to be difficult and it is not clear to which incident the invocateur is alluding to, although it is clear that he is praying to yakṣabhṛt viceta, the yakṣa-carrymg clever one,—reminiscent of pataṅgo vācam manasā bibharti (Ṛ X. 177.2)—to protect or sustain him (yaṃsat, subj. of √yama, to sustain, to hold, support), thereby acknowledging his superior powers.6
Yakṣa has been interpreted by Säyaṇa on the basis of its derivation from √yaj, to sacrifice, worship etc. Geldner has tried to make out a strong case for yakṣa, geheimniss, heimlish, secret, wunder, wonder, as reflected in his translations.
The dictionary meaning of √yakṣ (“perhaps a Desd. of a √yah, from which yahu and yahva”) is to be quick, speed on.7 Yahu means restless, swift, mighty, strong and is paraphrased by Sāyaṇa as mahat and yahva, restless, swift, active (applied to Indra, Agni and Soma in ṚV). Thus perhaps the usage of yakṣa in ṚV VII.61.5 may be interpreted as follows: “O you bulls, both of you are unfailing.
Those strokes of yours in which one neither sees anything spectacular (or special) (citra) nor (anything) speedy (quick, hasty) follow dishonesties of man etc.” By saying that the punishments meted out by Mitra and Varuṇa are not speedy, the poet means to compliment them for their balanced treatment of the offender.