A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1928

c5.1928

VĀCH. ‘Speech.’ In the *Rig-veda*, Vāch appears to be the personification of speech by whom knowledge was communicated to man. Thus she is said to have “entered into the Rishis,” and to make whom she loves terrible and intelligent, a priest and a Rishi. She was “generated by the gods,” and is called “the divine Vāch,” “queen of the gods,” and she is described as “the melodious cow who milked forth sustenance and water,” “who yields us nourishment and sustenance.” The Brāhmanas associate her with Prajāpati in the work of creation. In the Taittirīya Brāhmana she is called “the mother of the Vedas,” and “the wife of Indra, who contains within herself all worlds.” In the Satapatha Brāhmana she is represented as entering into a sexual connection with Prajāpati, who, “being desirous of creating, connected himself with various spouses,” and among them, “through his mind, with Vāch,” from whom “he created the waters;” or, as this last sentence is differently translated, “He created the waters from the world [in the form] of speech (Vāch).” In the Kathaka Upanishad this idea is more distinctly formulated:—“Prajāpati was this universe. Vāch was a second to him. He associated sexually with her; she became pregnant; she departed from him; she produced these creatures; she again entered into Prajāpati.”