The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v1.c19.s2.8

v1.c19.s2.8

In the later Saṁhitās the account of the Gandharvas is fuller, but not essentially different: there is now a class which can be mentioned beside the gods, Fathers, and Asuras; they have a definite world of their own like the gods or the Fathers, to which a man may attain;⁷ the number is sometimes twenty-seven, which is the number of the Nakṣatras, or even 6333.⁸ Celestial traits are still numerous:⁹ his abode is in heaven, Rohiṇī and the stars of the moon's orbit are brought into connexion with the Gandharva; he is mentioned with such deities as Agni, sun, moon, and wind, and in the post-Vedic literature the Fata Morgana are connected with the Gandharva.¹⁰ But the Soma myth is especially developed. We learn that the Gandharvas kept Soma for the gods, but, allowing it to be stolen, were punished by exclusion from drinking it.¹¹ Viçvāvasu has to be eluded by Soma in eagle form, a fact which no doubt explains the hostility of Indra to the Gandharva in the eighth book of the Rigveda.¹ Soma is stated to have been stolen by Viçvāvasu or at least to have lived among the Gandharvas, but the gods by the bribe of Vāc, ‘speech’, were able to induce them to give him up,² the Gandharvas being fond of women, while Vāc agreed to come back when her former owners called her, a fact which is an interesting parallel to the legend which makes the Soma seller lose the price paid to him for the Soma. The connexion with the waters appears in the mention of his abode with the Apsarases in the waters in the Atharvaveda.³ That text also states that the Gandharva knows plants, doubtless the Soma, and that the odour of the earth arises to him, probably an idea due to folk etymology with *gandha*, odour.