Upanishads · Gopāla-tāpanī Uttara 12
॥
Devanāgarī
तासां मध्ये श्रेष्ठा गान्धर्वीत्युवाच ।
तं ह वै ताभिरेवं विचार्य
Transliteration (IAST)
tāsāṁ madhye śreṣṭhā gāndharvītyuvāca |
taṁ ha vai tābhirevaṁ vicārya
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
तासाम् मध्येtāsām madhyeamong them; out of their number
श्रेष्ठाśreṣṭhāthe best; the foremost
गान्धर्वीgāndharvīGāndharvī; she named Gāndharvī
इति उवाचiti uvācasaid; spoke
तम् ह वैtam ha vaito him; to him precisely
ताभिः एवम् विचार्यtābhiḥ evam vicāryahaving taken counsel with them thus; having considered together with them
Translation
And the best among them, Gāndharvī, having taken counsel with the rest, addressed him.
Version
226fea3da6c2 · published Jul 28, 2026, 2:30:24 PM UTC
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A name is given: Gāndharvī — she whom tradition identifies with Rādhā. She is called śreṣṭhā, "the best among them", and it is she who puts the chief question.
How she does it matters: tābhiḥ evaṁ vicārya — "having taken counsel with the rest". She does not speak for herself but first considers with them all. Pre-eminence here is not speaking instead of others but voicing the common perplexity more exactly than anyone.
The name Gāndharvī means "belonging to the gandharvas", the celestial singers; commentators connect it with the art of song and with the sweetness that distinguishes her among the rest.
In the Pūrva-tāpanī the chief interlocutor was Brahmā, the creator of the world; here it becomes a cowherd woman. The book pursues this line consistently: the highest knowledge is given not by rank but by love.
Her question will sound in the next mantra and will be the most direct in the whole book: how can this be — Kṛṣṇa a brahmacārin, and Durvāsā a faster?