20 This would be plausible enough, though the number of passages in the Rgveda where Vac seems certainly to refer to thunder is not great. The identification would fit in the Indra/Vrtra myth, the scene of which is the atmosphere; for, if the lightning is Indra's weapon (vajra) , the sound that accompanies the lightning might also be regarded as having a magic potency, But if the thunder is actually the origin of Vac^ personification, Dirghatamas gives no sign of accepting that view. For him Vac does not reside in the atmospherer Her place is at the peak of the universe: "On the top of yonder sky, they say, is Vac, who knows all but does not enter all" (mantpdyante div6 amtAsya prsthS viSvavidam vacam dvl^oamznv'am^ RV 1.164<10).3 This would be in the upper half of heaven, which is separated from the lower half by the vault (naka; see Macdonelly op. cito, p. 8f ), which the Sun does not enter, for it is restricted to the "lower" part (^pare drpitam^ RV 1«164.12), possibly because it is mortal, dying every evening, and only the immortal attain to Vac's abode;, as RV 1 164 45 makes clear: "Vac was divided in four parts« These those Brahmans with insight (and hence immortality; see RV 1.164 22-25) know. Three parts, which are hidden, mortals do not activate; the^fourth part they speak"^{catvapt vak pdrimita padani tani oidw br^hmana ye manlsindh / guha trwi nthita nSngayanti twtyam v^o6 manusy'a vadantt^ RV 1,164.45) 4 Va(> is presented by Dirghatamas as the supreme authority in the universe She is the mistress of the aksava of the vc, "the (creative) syllable, on which the gods in highest heaven have all taken their seat — what will he who does not know it accomplish by means of the TO?" (rc^ cksdr^ para^ vy^man ydsmin deva ddhi viS^e r^iseddh / yds tdn n& ueda kirn /"^ kap^^yati yd It tad vidus td imf sdm ^sate, RV 1.164»39). Dirghatamas offers no explanation of her origin, but he calls her the "One Real" ('ekam sd^ in 1 16^ 46 and it is apparently she whom in an earlier btanza 81.164.6), again using the neuter gender, he calls simply "the One" (ekam}. She is self-existent, the Absolute, dependent upon nothing outside herself, as is also the neuter "That One" (tdd Skarri) oi RV 10 129.2,3 Dirghatamas also gives no description of Vac's qualities, nor does he tell us wherein lies her metaphysical powere Dirghatamas tells us that Vac, whom he speaks of as a buffalo cow, lowed^and thus fashioned the tumultuous chaotic floods {gauvlp mimaya sa^ Km', tdksatz^ RV 1 164 41), a statement standing in contrast to that- of RV 10 129 3 concerning the beginning of things, where the text tells u& that the unillumined flood (sing ) of chaos existed at the beginning and That One breathed (came into existence) by its own potentiality (d^r^ ^p^ak^tam salzldm . ^n making ay ataikam) . After Vac had fashioned the floods, the (heavenly) -oceans flowed forth from her, in consequence of which the four directions exist, and then the aksdpa flowed^forth; on it this entire universe has its existence (tdsyah samudm ddh^ 1.1 ksamntz t^a j^yan^i ppadt6a6 odtasrdh / tdtah ksaraty ak^avam tad pi^vam zSpa j wii RV 1*164.42) <. Thus by the sounds she uttered Vac produced the material of the universe, which was, however, chaotic, unorganized, when it was produced* But, Dirghatamas avers, she had also produced the ak^dra^ the instrument with which the unorganized material was to be organized. To make use of the aksdra and with it perform the first sacrifice, which was that of creation, the "heroes" {^fpdh} took over (RV 1 164 43^. Who the "heroes" were and what their origin Dirghatamas does not state. On the basis of RV 10e72, which is