History of Sanskrit
Literature
(BY
ARTHUR
A. MACDONELL, M. A., Ph.D.
BODEN PROFESSOR OF
SANSKRIT)
ATHARVA-VEDA
199
O
dice, give play that profit brings,
Like
cows that yield abundant milk :
Attach
me to a streak ofgain,
As
with a string the bow is bound (vii. 5, 9).
A
certain number of hymns contain charms to secure
harmony,
to allay anger, strife, and discord, or to procure
ascendency
in the assembly. The following one is
intended
for the latter purpose :
O
assembly, we know thy name,
"
Frolic" 1
truly
by name thou art :
May
all who meet and sit in thee
Be
in their speech at one with me (vii. 1 2, 2).
A
few hymns consist of formulas for the expiation
of
sins, such as offering imperfect sacrifices and marrying
before
an elder brother, or contain charms for removing
the
defilement caused by ominous birds, and for
banishing
evil dreams.
If
waking, if asleep, I have
Committed
sin, to sin inclined,
May
what has been and what shall be
Loose
me asfrom a wooden post (vi. 115, 2).
A
short hymn (vi. 120), praying for the remission of
sins,
concludes with this stanza : ,
In
heaven, where our righteousfriends are blessed,
Having
cast off diseasesfrom their bodies,
From
lamenessfree and not defotmed in mernbers,
There
may we see our parents and our children.
Another
group of hymns has the person of the king
as
its centre. They contain charms to be used at a
royal
election or consecration, for the restoration of an
1
The word "frolic
"
alludes
to the assembly-house (sab/id) being a place
of
social entertainment, especially of gambling.
14
200
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
exiled
king, for the attainment of lustre and glory, and
in
particular for victory in battle. The following is a
specimen
of spells intended to strike terror into the
enemy
:
Arise
and arm, ye spectralforms,
Followed
by meteoricflames;
Ye
serpents, spirits of the deep,
Demons
of night, pursue thefoe / (xi. 10, i).
Here
is a stanza from a hymn (v. 21, 6) to the battledrum
meant
to serve the same purpose :
As
birds start back affrighted at the eagle's cry,
As
day and night they tre7nble at the lion7s roar:
So
thou, drum, shout out against our enemies,
Scare
them away in terror and confound their minds.
Among
the cosmogonic and theosophic hymns the
finest
is a long one of sixty-three stanzas addressed to
the
earth (xii. 1). I translate a few lines to give some
idea
of its style and contents :
The
earth, on whom, with clamour loud,
Men
that are mortal sing and dance,
On
whom theyfight in battlefierce :
This
earth shall drive awayfrom us ourfoemen,
And
she shall make usfreefroni all our rivals.
In
secret places holding treasure manifold,
The
earth shall riches give, andgems andgold to me ;
Gra?iting
wealth lavishly, the kindly goddess
Shall
goods abundantly bestow upon us.
The
four hymns of Book XIII. are devoted to the
praise
of Rohita, the " Red "
Sun,
as a cosmogonic
powrer.
In another (xi. 5) the sun is glorified as a
primeval
principle under the guise of a Brahman disciple
(brahtnachdriri).
Hn others Prana or Breath (xi. 4),
Kama or Love (ix. 2), and Kala or Time (xix.
53-54),
ATHARVA-VEDA
201
are
personified as primordial powersV There is one hymn
(xi.
7) in which even Ucchishta -(the remnant of the
sacrifice)
is deified as the Supreme Being ; except for
its
metrical form it belongs to the Brahmana type of
literature.
In
concluding this survey of the Atharva-veday I
would
draw attention to a hymn to Varuna (iv. 16),
which,
though its last two stanzas are ordinary Atharvan
spells
for binding enemies with the fetters of that deity,
in
its remaining verses exalts divine omniscience in a
strain
unequalled in any other Vedic poem. The following
three
stanzas are perhaps the best :
This
earth is all King Varuna's dominion,
And
that broad sky whose boundaries are distant.
The
loins of Varuna are these two oceans,
Yet
in this drop of water he is hidden.
He
that shouldflee afar beyond the heaven
Would
not escape. King Varuna's attention :
His
spies come hither,from the sky descending,
With
all their thousand eyes the earth surveying.
King
Varuna discerns all that's existent
Between
the earth and sky, and all beyond them;
The
winkings of'men's eyes by him are countedj
As
gamesters dice, so he lays, down his statutes.
CHAPTER
VIII
THE
BRAHMANAS
{Circa
800-500 B.C.)
The
period in which the poetry of the Vedic Samhitas
arose
was followed by one which produced a totally
different
literary type the theological treatises called
Brahmanas.
It is characteristic of the form of these
works
that they are composed in prose, and of their
matter
that they deal with the sacrificial ceremonial.
Their
main object being to explain the sacred significance
of
the ritual to those who are already familiar
with
the sacrifice, the descriptions they give of it are not
exhaustive,
much being stated only in outline or omitted
altogether.
They are ritual text-books, which, however,
in
no way aim at furnishing a complete survey of the
sacrificial
ceremonial to those who do not know it
already.
Their contents may be classified under the
three
heads of practical sacrificial directions (yidhi), explanations
(arthavdda),
exegetical, mythological, or polemical,
and
theological or philosophical speculations on
the
nature of things {upanishad). Even those which
have
been preserved form quite an extensive literature
by
themselves ; yet many others must have been lost,
as
appears from the numerous names of and quotations
from
Brahmanas unknown to us occurring in those which
are
extant. They reflect the spirit of an age in which
BRAHMANAS
203
all
intellectual activity is concentrated on the sacrifice,
describing
its ceremonies, discussing its value, speculating
on
its origin and significance. It is only reasonable
to
suppose that an epoch like this, which produced
no
other literary monuments, lasted for a considerable
time.
For though the Brahmanas are on the whole
uniform
in character, differences of age are traceable
in
them. Next to the prose portions of the Yajurvedasy
the
Panchavimca and the Taittiriya are proved by their
syntax
and vocabulary to be the most archaic of the
regular
Brahmanas. This conclusion is confirmed by
the
fact that the latter is, and the former is known to have
been,
accented. A more recent group is formed by the
Jaiminlya,
the Kaushitaki, and the Aitareya Brahmanas,
The
first of these is probably the oldest, while the third
seems,
on linguistic grounds at least, to be the latest of
the
three. The Qatapatha Brdhmana, again, is posterior
to
these. For it shows a distinct advance in matter;
its
use of the narrative tenses is later than that of the
Aitareya;
and its style is decidedly developed in comparison
with
all the above-mentioned Brahmanas. It
is,
indeed, accented, but in a way which differs entirely
from
the regular Vedic method. Latest of all are the
Gopatha
Brakmana of the Atharva and the short Brahmanas
of
the Samaveda.
In
language the Brahmanas are considerably more
limited
in the use of forms than the Rigveda. The subjunctive
is,
however, still employed, as well as a good
many
of the old infinitives. Their syntax, indeed, represents
the
oldest Indian stage even better than the Rigveda,
chiefly
of course owing to the restrictions imposed
by
metre on the style of the latter. The Brahmanas
contain
some metrical pieces (gdthds), which differ from
204
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
the
prose in which they are imbedded by certain peculiarities
of
their own and by a more archaic character.
Allied
to these is a remarkable poem of this period, the
SuparnddJiydyay
an attempt, after the age of living Vedic
poetry
had come to an end, to compose in the style of
the
Vedic hymns. It contains many Vedic forms, and
is
accented, but it betrays its true character not only by
its
many modern forms, but by numerous monstrosities
due
to unsuccessful imitation of the Vedic language.
A
further development are the Aranyakas or %i Forest
Treatises,"
the later age of which is indicated both by the
position
they occupy at the end of the Brahmanas and
by
their theosophical character. These works are generally
represented
as meant for the use of pious men
who
have retired to the forest and no longer perform
sacrifices.
According to the view of Professor Oldenberg,
they
are, however, rather treatises which, owing to
the
superior mystic sanctity of their contents, were intended
to
be communicated to the pupil by his teacher
in
the solitude of the forest instead of in the village.
In
tone and content the Aranyakas form a transition
to
the Upanishads, which are either imbedded in them,
or
more usually form their concluding portion. The
word
upa-ni-shad (literally "sitting down beside") having
first
doubtless meant " confidential session," came to signify
"
secret or esoteric doctrine," because these works
were
taught to select pupils (probably towards the end of
their
apprenticeship) in lectures from which the wider
circle
was excluded. Being entirely devoted to theological
and
philosophical speculations on the nature of things,
the
Upanishads mark the last stage of development in
the
Brahmana literature. As they generally come at
the
end of the Brahmanas, they are also called Veddnta
BRAHMANAS
OF THE RIGVEDA 205 ,
("end
of the Veda"), a term later interpreted to mean
"
final goal of the Veda." " Revelation
"
{gruti)
was
regarded
as including them, while the Sutras belonged
to
the sphere of tradition (smriti). The subject-matter
of
all the old Upanishads is essentially the same the
doctrine
of the nature of the Atman or Brahma (the
supreme
soul). This fundamental theme was expounded
in
various ways by the different Vedic schools, of which
the
Upanishads were originally the dogmatic text-books,
just
as the Brahmanas were their ritual text-books.
The
Aranyakas and Upanishads represent a phase
of
language which on the whole closely approaches to
classical
Sanskrit, the oldest Upanishads occupying a
position
linguistically midway between the Brahmanas
and
the Sutras.
Of
the two Brahmanas attached to the Rigveda, the
more
important is the Aitareya. The extant text consists
of
forty chapters (adhydya) divided into eight books
called
panchikds or "pentads," because containing five
chapters
each. That its last ten chapters were a later
addition
appears likely both from internal evidence and
from
the fact that the closely related dnkhdyana Brdhmana
contains
nothing corresponding to their subjectmatter,
which
is dealt with in the ^dnkhdyana Sutra.
The
last three books would further appear to have
been
composed at a later date than the first five, since
the
perfect in the former is used as a narrative tense,
while
in the latter it still has its original present force,
as
in the oldest Brahmanas. The essential part of this
Brahmana
deals with the soma sacrifice. It treats first
(1-16)
of the soma rite called Agnishtomay which lasts
one
day, then (17-18) of that called Gavdmayanay which
lasts
360 days, and thirdly (19-24) of the Dvddaqdha
206
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
or
"twelve days' rite." The next part (25-32), which
is
concerned with the Agnihotra or "
fire
sacrifice
"
and
other
matters, has the character of a supplement. The
last
portion (33-40), dealing with the ceremonies of the
inauguration
of the king and with the position of his
domestic
priest, bears similar signs of lateness.
The
other Brahmana of the Rigveda, which goes
by
the name of Kaushltaki as well as dnkhdyana, consists
of
thirty chapters. Its subject-matter is, on the
whole,
the same as that of the original part of the
Aitareya
(i.-v.), but is wider. For in its opening chapters
it
goes through the setting up of the sacred fire
(agni-ddhdna),
the daily morning and evening sacrifice
{agnihotra),
the new and full moon ritual, and the fourmonthly
sacrifices.
The Soma sacrifice, however, occupies
the
chief position even here. The more definite
and
methodical treatment of the ritual in the Kaushltaki
would
seem to indicate that this Brahmana was composed
at
a later date than the first five books of the
Aitareya.
Such a conclusion is, however, not altogether
borne
out by a comparison of the linguistic data of these
two
works. Professor Weber argues from the occurrence
in
one passage of Icana and Mahadeva as designations
of
the god who was later exclusively called (Jiva,
that
the Kaushltaki Brahmana was composed at about
the
same time as the latest books of the White Yajurveda
and
those parts of the Atharva-veda and of the
^atapatha
Brahmana in which these appellations of the
same
god are found.
These
Brahmanas contain very few geographical
data.
From the way, however, in which the Aitareya
mentions
the Indian tribes, it may be safely inferred
that
this work had its origin in the country of the
LEGEND
OF gUNAH^EPA 207
Kuru-Panchalas,
in which, as we have seen, the Vedic
ritual
must have been developed, and the hymns of
the
Rigveda were probably collected in the existing
Samhita.
From the Kaushltaki we learn that the study
of
language was specially cultivated in the north of
India,
and that students who returned from there were
regarded
as authorities on linguistic questions.
The
chief human interest of these Brahmanas lies
in
the numerous myths and legends which they contain.
The
longest and most remarkable of those found
in
the Aitareya is the story of (Junahcepa (Dog's-Tail),
which
forms the third chapter of Book VII. The childless
King
Haricchandra vowed, if he should have a son,
to
sacrifice him to Varuna. But when his son Rohita
was
born, he kept putting off the fulfilment of his
promise.
At length, when the boy was grown up, his
father,
pressed by Varuna, prepared to perform the
sacrifice.
Rohita, however, escaped to the forest, where
he
wandered for six years, while his father was afflicted
with
dropsy by Varuna. At last he fell in with a starving
Brahman,
who consented to sell to him for a hundred
cows
his son (Junahcepa as a substitute. Varuna agreed,
saying,
"A Brahman is worth more than a Kshatriya."
(Junahcepa
was accordingly bound to the stake, and
the
sacrifice was about to proceed, when the victim
prayed
to various gods in succession. As he repeated
one
verse after the other, the fetters of Varuna began
to
fall off and the dropsical swelling of the king to
diminish,
till finally (Junahgepa was released and Haricchandra
was
restored to health again.
The
style of the prose in which the Aitareya is composed
is
crude, clumsy, abrupt, and elliptical. The following
quotation
from the stanzas interspersed in the
208
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
story
of (Junahcepa may serve as a specimen of the
gdthds
found in the Brahmanas. These verses are
addressed
by a sage named Narada to King Haricchandra
on
the importance of having a son :
In
him a fatherpays a debt
And
reaches immortality,
When
he beholds the countenance
Ofa
son born to him alive.
Than
all thejoy which living things
Jn
watersfeel, in earth andfire,
The
happiness that in his son
Afatherfeels
is greaterfar.
At
all timesfathers by a son
Much
darkness, too, havepassed beyond:
In
him thefather's self is born,
He
wafts him to the other shore.
Food
is marts life and clothes affordprotection,
Goldgives
him beauty, marriages bring cattle;
His
wife's afriend, his daughter causes pity :
A
son is like a light in highest heaven.
To
the Aitareya Brdhmana belongs the Aitareya
Aranyaka.
It consists of eighteen chapters, distributed
unequally
among five books. The last two books are
composed
in the Sutra style, and are really to be regarded
as
belonging to the Sutra literature. Four parts can be
clearly
distinguished in the first three books. Book I.
deals
with various liturgies of the Soma sacrifice from a
purely
ritual point of view. The first three chapters of
Book
II., on the other hand, are theosophical in character,
containing
speculations about the world-soul under the
names
of Prana and Purusha. It is allied in matter to
the
Upanishads, some of its more valuable thoughts
recurring,
occasionally even word for word, in . the
BRAHMANAS
OF THE SAMAVEDA 209
Kaushltaki
Upanishad. The third part consists of the remaining
four
sections of Book II., which form the regular
Aitareya
Upanishad. Finally, Book III. deals with the
mystic
and allegorical meaning of the three principal
modes
in which the Veda is recited in the Samhitd, Pada
and
Krama Pdthas, and of the various letters of the
alphabet.
To
the Kaushltaki Brahmana is attached the Kaushltaki
Aranyaka.
It consists of fifteen chapters. The first
two
of these correspond to Books I. and V. of the Aitareya
Aranyaka,
the seventh and eighth to Book III., while the
intervening
four chapters (3-6) form the Kaushltaki
Upanishad.
The latter is a long and very interesting
Upanishad.
It seems not improbably to have been added
as
an independent treatise to the completed Aranyaka, as
it
is not always found in the same part of the latter work
in
the manuscripts.
Brahmanas
belonging to two independent schools of
the
Sdmaveda have been preserved, those of the Tandins
and
of the Talavakaras or Jaiminlyas. Though several
other
works here claim the title of ritual text-books, only
three
are in reality Brahmanas. The Brahmana of the
Talavakaras,
which for the most part is still unpublished,
seems
to consist of five books. The first three (unpublished)
are
mainly concerned with various parts of the
sacrificial
ceremonial. The fourth book, called the
Upanishad
Brahmana (probably
"
the Brahmana of
mystic
meanings "), besides all kinds of allegories of the
Aranyaka
order, two lists of teachers, a section about
the
origin of the vital airs (prdna) and about the sdvitri
stanza,
contains the brief but important Kena Upanishad.
Book
V., entitled Arsheya-Brdhmana, is a short enumeration
of
the composers of the Sdmaveda.
210
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
To
the school of the Tandins belongs the Panchavimqa
("
twenty-five fold"), also called Tandya or Praudha, Brahmana,
which,
as the first name implies, consists of twentyfive
books.
It is concerned with the Soma sacrifices in
general,
ranging from the minor offerings to those which
lasted
a hundred days, or even several years. Besides
many
legends, it contains a minute description of sacrifices
performed
on the SarasvatI and Drishadvatl. Though
Kurukshetra
is known to it, other geographical data
which
it contains point to the home of this Brahmana.
having
lain farther east. Noteworthy among its contents
are
. the so-called Vratya-Stomas, which are sacrifices
meant
to enable Aryan but non-Brahmanical Indians to
enter
the Brahmanical order. A point of interest in this
Brahmana
is the bitter hostility which it displays towards
the
school of the Kaushltakins. The Shadvirnca Brahmana,
though
nominally an independent work, is in
reality
a supplement to the Panchavimca, of which, as its
name
implies, it forms the twenty-sixth book. The last
of
its six chapters is called the Adbhuta Brahmana, which
is
intended to obviate the evil effects of various extraordinary
events
or portents. Among such phenomena are
mentioned
images of the gods when they laugh, cry, sing,
dance,
perspire, crack, and so forth.
The
other Brahmana of this school, the Chhandogya
Brahmana,
is only to a slight extent a ritual text-book.
It
does not deal with the Soma sacrifice at all, but only
with
ceremonies relating to birth and marriage or prayers
addressed
to divine beings. These are the contents of
only
the first two "lessons" of this Brahmana of the
Sama
theologians. The remaining eight lessons constitute
the
Chhandogya Upanishad.
There
are four other short works which, though bearBRAHMANAS
OF
THE YAJURVEDA 2ii
ing
the name, are not really Brahmanas. These are the
Sdmavidhdna
Brdhmatia, a treatise on the employment of
chants
for all kinds of superstitious purposes ; the Devatddhydya
Brahmana,
containing some statements about
the
deities of the various chants of the Sdmaveda ; the
Vamca
Brahmana, which furnishes a genealogy of the
teachers
of the Sdmaveda ; and, finally, the Samhitopanishad,
which,
like the third book of the Aitareya
Aranyaka,
treats of the way in which the Veda should
be
recited.
The
Brahmanas of the Sdmaveda are distinguished by
the
exaggerated and fantastic character of their mystical
speculations.
A prominent feature in them is the constant
identification
of various kinds of Sdmans or chants
with
all kinds of terrestrial and celestial objects. At the
same
time they contain much matter that is interesting
from
a historical point of view.
In
the Black Yajurveda the prose portions of the
various
Samhitas form the only Brahmanas in the Katha
and
the Maitrayanlya schools. In the Taittiriya school
they
form the oldest and most important Brahmana.
Here
we have also the Taittiriya Brahmana as an independent
work
in three books. This, however, hardly
differs
in character from the Taittiriya Samhitd, being
rather
a continuation. It forms a supplement concerned
with
a few sacrifices omitted in the Samhita, or handles,
with
greater fulness of detail, matters already dealt with.
There
is also a Taittiriya Aranyaka, which in its turn
forms
a supplement to the Brahmana. The last four of
its
ten sections constitute the two Upanishads of this
school,
vii.-ix. forming the Taittiriya Upanishad, and x.
the
Mahd-Ndrdyana Upanishad, also called the Ydjniki
Upanishad.
Excepting these four sections, the title of
212
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Brahmana
or Aranyaka does not indicate a difference
of
content as compared with the Samhita, but is due to
late
and artificial imitation of the other Vedas.
The
last three sections of Book III. of the Brahmana,
as
well as the first two books of the Aranyaka, originally
belonged
to the school of the Kathas, though they have
not
been preserved as part of the tradition of that school.
The
different origin of these parts is indicated by the
absence
of the change of y and v to iy and uv respectively,
which
otherwise prevails in the Taittirlya Brahmana and
Aranyaka.
In one of these Kathaka sections (Taitt. Br.
iii.
n), by way of illustrating the significance of the particular
fire
called ndchiketa, the story is told of a boy,
Nachiketas,
who, on visiting the House of Death, was
granted
the fulfilment of three wishes by the god of the
dead.
On this story is based the Kathaka Upanishad.
Though
the Maitrayani Samhita has no independent
Brahmana,
its fourth book, as consisting of explanations
and
supplements to the first three, is a kind of special
Brahmana.
Connected with this Samhita, and in the
manuscripts
sometimes forming its second or its fifth
book,
is the Maitrayana (also called Maitrayaniya and
Maitri)
Upanishad.
The
ritual explanation of the White Yajurveda is to
be
found in extraordinary fulness in the ^atapatha Brahmana,
the
u Brahmana of the Hundred Paths," so called
because
it consists of one hundred lectures (adhydyd).
This
work is, next to the Rigveda, the most important
production
in the whole range of Vedic literature. Its
text
has come down in two recensions, those of the
Madhyamdina
school, edited by Professor Weber, and of
the
Kanva school, which is in process of being edited by
Professor
Eggeling. The Madhyamdina recension conTHE
^ATAPATHA
BRAHMANA 213
sists
of fourteen books, while the Kanva has seventeen.
The
first nine of the former, corresponding to the original
eighteen
books of the Vdjasaneyi Samhitd, doubtless form
the
oldest part. The fact that Book XII. is called
madhyamay
or "middle one," shows that the last five
books
(or possibly only X.-XIII.) were at one time regarded
as
a separate part of the Brahmana. Book X.
treats
of the mystery of the fire-altar {agnirahasya), XI.
is
a sort of recapitulation of the preceding ritual, while
XII.
and XIII. deal with various supplementary matters.
The
last book forms the Aranyaka, the six concluding
chapters
of which are the Brihaddranyaka Upanishad.
Books
VI.-X. of the ^atapatha Brahmana occupy a
peculiar
position. Treating of the construction of the
fire-altar,
they recognise the teaching of Candilya as their
highest
authority, Yajnavalkya not even being mentioned;
while
the peoples who are named, the Gandharas, Salvas,
Kekayas,
belong to the north-west. In the other books
Yajnavalkya
is the highest authority, while hardly any
but
Eastern peoples, or those of the middle of Hindustan,
the
Kuru-Panchalas, Kosalas, Videhas, Srinjayas, are
named.
That the original authorship of the five Candilya
books
was different from that of the others is indicated
by
a number of linguistic differences, which the hand of
a
later editor failed to remove. Thus the use of the perfect
as
a narrative tense is unknown to the (Jandilya
books
(as well as to XIII.).
The
geographical data of the QatapatJia Brahmana
point
to the land of the Kuru-Panchalas being still the
centre
of Brahmanical culture. Janamejaya is here celebrated
as
a king of the Kurus, and the most renowned
Brahmanical
teacher of the age, Aruni, is expressly stated
to
have been a Panchala. Nevertheless, it is clear that
214
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
the
Brahmanical system had by this time spread to the
countries
to the east of Madhyadeca, to Kosala, with its
capital,
Ayodhya(Oudh), and Videha (Tirhut or Northern
Behar),
with its capital, Mithila. The court of King
Janaka
of Videha was thronged with Brahmans from
the
Kuru-Panchala country. The tournaments of argument
which
were here held form a prominent feature in
the
later books of the ^atapatha Brdhmana, The hero of
these
is Yajnavalkya, who, himself a pupil of Aruni, is
regarded
as the chief spiritual authority in the Brahmana
(excepting
Books VI.-X.). Certain passages of the Brahmana
render
it highly probable that Yajnavalkya was a
native
of Videha. The fact that its leading authority,
who
thus appears to have belonged to this Eastern
country,
is represented as vanquishing the most distinguished
teachers
of the West in argument, points to the
redaction
of the White Yajurveda having taken place in
this
eastern region.
The
^atapatha Brdhmana contains reminiscences of
the
days when the country of Videha was not as yet
Brahmanised.
Thus Book I. relates a legend in which
three
stages in the eastward migration of the Aryans can
be
clearly distinguished. Mathava, the king of Videgha
(the
'older form of Videha), whose family priest was
Gotama
Rahugana, was at one time on the Sarasvati.
Agni
Vaicvanara (here typical of Brahmanical culture)
thence
went burning along this earth towards the east,
followed
by Mathava and his priest, till he came to the
river
Sadanlra (probably the modern Gandak, a tributary
running
into the Ganges near Patna), which flows from
the
northern mountain, and which he did not burn over.
This
river Brahmans did not cross in former times,
thinking
"it has not been burnt over by Agni VaicvaTHE
(JATAPATHA
BRAHMANA 215
nara.*'
At that time the land to the eastward was very
uncultivated
and marshy, but now many Brahmans are
there,
and it is highly cultivated, for the Brahmans have
caused
Agni to taste it through sacrifices. Mathava the
Videgha
then said to Agni,
"
Where am I to abide ?
"
"To
the east of this river be thy abode," he replied.
Even
now, the writer adds, this river forms the boundary
between
the Kosalas (Oudh) and the Videhas (Tirhut).
The
Vajasaneyi school of the White Yajurveda evidently
felt
a sense of the superiority of their sacrificial
lore,
which grew up in these eastern countries. Blame
is
frequently expressed in the Qatapatha Brahmana of
the
Adhvaryu priests of the Charaka school. The latter
is
meant as a comprehensive term embracing the three
older
schools of the Black Yajurveda, the Kathas, the
Kapishthalas,
and the Maitrayanlyas.
As
Buddhism first obtained a firm footing in Kosala
and
Videha, it is interesting to inquire in what relation
the
^atapatha Brahmaiia stands to the beginnings of that
doctrine.
In this connection it is to be noted that the
words
Arhaty Qramanay and Pratibuddha occur here for
the
first time, but as yet without the technical sense which
they
have in Buddhistic literature. Again, in the lists of
teachers
given in the Brahmana mention is made with
special
frequency of the Gautamas, a family name used
by
the (Jakyas of Kapilavastu, among whom Buddha was
born.
Certain allusions are also suggestive of the beginnings
of
the Sankhya doctrine ; for mention is several
times
made of a teacher called Asuri, and according to
tradition
Asuri is the name of a leading authority for the
Sankhya
system. If we inquire as to how far the legends
of
our Brahmana contain the germs of the later epic
tales,
we find that there is indeed some slight connection*
15
216
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Janamejaya,
the celebrated king of the Kurus in the
Mahdbhdrata,
is mentioned here for the first time. The
Pandus,
however, who proved victorious in the epic
war,
are not to be met with in this any more than in the
other
Brahmanas ; and Arjuna, the name of their chief,
is
still an appellation of Indra. But as the epic Arjuna is
a
son of Indra, his origin is doubtless to be traced to this
epithet
of Indra. Janaka, the famous king of Videha, is
in
all probability identical with the father of Slta, the
heroine
of the Rdmdyana.
Of
two legends which furnished the classical poet
Kalidasa
with the plots of two of his most famous
dramas,
one is told in detail, and the other is at least
alluded
to. The' story of the love and separation of
Pururavas
and UrvacI, already dimly shadowed forth in
a
hymn of the Rigveda, is here related with much more
fulness
; while Bharata, son of Duhshanta and of the
nymph
Cakuntala, also appears on the scene in this
Brahmana.
A
most interesting legend which reappears in the
Mahdbhdratay
that of the Deluge, is here told for the
first
time in Indian literature, though it seems to be
alluded
to in the Atharva-veda, while it is known even
to
the Avesta. This myth is generally regarded as
derived
from a Semitic source. It tells how Manu
once
came into possession of a small fish, which asked
him
to rear it, and promised to save him from the
coming
flood. Having built a ship in accordance with
the
fish's advice, he entered it when the deluge arose,
and
was finally guided to the Northern Mountain by
the
fish, to whose horn he had tied his ship. Manu subsequently
became
the progenitor of mankind through
his
daughter.
brAhmana
OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA 217
v
The (^atapatha Brahmana is thus a mine of important
data
and noteworthy narratives. Internal evidence shows
it
to belong to a late period of the Brahmana age. Its
style,
as compared with the earlier works of the same
class,
displays some progress towards facility and clearness.
Its
treatment of the sacrificial ceremonial, which
is
essentially the same in the Brahmana portions of
the
Black Yajurveda, is throughout more lucid and
systematic.
On the theosophic side, too, we find the
idea
of the unity in the universe more fully developed
than
in any other Brahmana work, while its Upanishad
is
the finest product of Vedic philosophy.
To
the Atharva-veda is attached the Gopatlia BrdJimana,
though
it has no particular connection with that
Samhita.
This Brahmana consists of two books, the
first
containing -five chapters, the second six. Both parts
are
very late, for they were composed after the Vaitdna
Sutra
and practically without any Atharvan tradition.
The
matter of the former half, while not corresponding
or
following the order of the sacrifice in any ritual
text,
is to a considerable extent original, the rest being
borrowed
from Books XI. and XII. of the Qatapatha
Brahmana,
besides a few passages from the Aitareya.
The
main motive of this portion is the glorification of
the
Atharva-veda and of the fourth or brahman priest.
The
mention of the god Civa points to its belonging to
the
post-Vedic rather than to the Brahmana period. Its
presupposing
the Atharva-veda in twenty books, and containing
grammatical
matters of a very advanced type, are
other
signs of lateness. The latter half bears more the
stamp
of a regular Brahmana, being a fairly connected
account
of the ritual in the sacrificial order of the
Vaitdna
Qrauta Sutra; but it is for the most part a
2i
8 SANSKRIT LITERATURE
compilation.
The ordinary historical relation of Brahmana
and
Sutra is here reversed, the second book of the
Gopatha
Brdhmana being based on the Vaitdna Sutra,
which
stands to it practically in the relation of a Samhita.
About
two-thirds of its matter have already been shown
to
be taken from older texts. The Aitareya and Kaushitaki
Brdhmanas
have been chiefly exploited, and to a
less
extent the Maitrdyanl and Taittirlya Samhitds. A
few
passages are derived from the Qatapatha, and even
the
Panchavimca Brdhmana.
Though
the Upanishads generally form a part of the
Brahmanas,
being a continuation of their speculative side
{jndna-kdndd),
they really represent a new religion,
which
is in virtual opposition to the ritual or practical
side
(karma-kdnda). Their aim is no longer the obtainment
of
earthly happiness and afterwards bliss in the
abode
of Yama by sacrificing correctly to the gods, but
release
from mundane existence by the absorptionof the
individual
soul in the world-soul through correct knowledge.
Here,
therefore, the sacrificial ceremonial JKJS
become
useless and speculative knowledgejdl-important.
The
essential theme of the Upanishads is the nature
of
the world-soul. Their conception of it represents
the
final stage in the development from the world-man,
Purusha,
of the Rigveda to the world-soul, Atman ; from
the
personal creator, Prajapati, to the impersonal source
of
all being, Brahma. Atman in the Rigveda means no
more
than U breath
"
;
wind, for instance, being spoken
of
as the atman of Varuna. In the Brahmanas it came
to
mean "soul" or "self." In one of their speculations
the
prdnas or " vital airs," which are supposed to be
based
on the atman, are identified with the gods, and
so
an atman comes to be attributed to the universe.
THE
UPANISHADS 219
In
one of the later books of the atapatha Brahmana
(X.
vi. 3) this dtmatiy which has already arrived at
a
high degree of abstraction, is said to "pervade this
universe."
Brahma (neuter) in the Rigveda signified
nothing
more than "
prayer
"
or
" devotion." But
even
in the oldest Brahmanas it has come to have the
sense
of "universal holiness/' as manifested in prayer,
priest,
and sacrifice. In the Upanishads it is the holy
principle
which animates nature. Having a long subsequent
history,
this word is a very epitome of the
evolution
of religious thought in India. These two
conceptions,
Atman and Brahma, are commonly treated
as
synonymous in the Upanishads. But, strictly speaking,
Brahma,
the older term, represents the cosmical principle
which
pervades the universe, Atman the psychical
principle
manifested in man ; and the latter, as the
known,
is used to explain the former as the- unknown.
The
Atman under the name of the Eternal {aksharam)
is
thus described in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
(III.
viii. 8, 11) :
"
It is not largey and not minute ; not short, not long;
without
blood, withoutfat ; without shadow, without darkness
;
without wind, without ether ; not adhesive, not tangible
;
without smelly without taste; without eyesy earsy
voice,
or mind; without heaty breathy or mouth; without
personal
or family name ; unagingy undyingy without fear',
immortal,
dustless, not uncovered or covered; with nothing
before}
nothing behind, nothing within. It consumes no one
and
is consumed by no one. It is the unseen seery the unheard
hearery
the unthought thinker, the unknown knower.
TJiere
is no other seer, no other hearer, no other thinkery
no
other knower. That is the Eternal in which space (akaca)
is
woven and which is interwoven with it."
220
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
Here,
for the first time in the history of human
thought,
we find the Absolute grasped and proclaimed.
A
poetical account of the nature of the Atman is
given
by the Kathaka Upanishad in the following
stanzas
:
That
whence the suris orb rises up,
And
that in which it sinks again :
In
it the gods are all contained.
Beyond
it none can everpass (iv. 9).
*
Itsform
can never be to sight apparent,
Not
any one may with his eye behold it :
By
heart and mind and soul alone they grasp it,
And
those who know it thus become immortal (vi. 9).
Since
not by speech and not by thought,
Not
by the eye can it be reached :
How
else may it be understood
But
only when one says "it is" f (vi. 12).
The
place of the more personal Prajapati is taken
in
the Upanishads by the Atman as a creative power.
Thus
the Brihadaranyaka (I. iv.) relates that in the
beginning
the Atman or the Brahma was this universe.
It
was afraid in its loneliness and felt no pleasure.
Desiring
a second being, it became man and woman,
whence
the human race was produced. It then proceeded
to
produce male and female animals in a
similar
way ; finally creating water, lire, the gods, and
so
forth. The author then proceeds in a more exalted
strain
:
u
It {the Atmart) is here all-pervading dozvn to the tips
of
the nails. One does not see it any more than a razor
hidden
in its case or fire in its receptacle. For it does not
appear
as a whole. When it breathes, it is called breath ;
when
it speaks, voice ; when it hears, ear ; when it thinks,
mind.
These are merely the names of its activities. He
\A
MAIN
DOCTRINE OF THE UPANISHADS 221
who
worships the one or the other of these, has not {correct)
knowledge.
. . . One should worship it as the Self. For in
it
all these {breath, etc.) become one"
In
one of the later Upanishads, the Qvetacvatara
(iv.
10), the notion, so prominent in the later Vedanta
system,
that the material world is an illusion {mdyd), is
first
met -with. The world is here explained as an illusion
produced
by Brahma as a conjuror {mdyin). This notion
is,
however, inherent even in the oldest Upanishads.
It
is virtually identical with the teaching of Plato that
the
things of experience are only the shadow of the real
things,
and with the teaching of Kant, that they are
only
phenomena of the thing in itself.
The
great fundamental doctrine of the Upanishads is
the
identity of the individual atman with the world Atman.
It
is most forcibly expressed in a frequently repeated
sentence
of the Chhandogya Upanishad (vi. 8-16) :
"
This
whole
world consists of it : that is the Real, that is the Soul,
that
art thou, O Qvetaketu" In that famous formula,
"
That art thou "
{tat
tvam asi), all the teachings of the
Upanishads
are summed up. The Brihaddranyaka (I.
iv.
6) expresses the same doctrine thus :
"
Whoever knows
this,
*
I am brahma' (aham brahma asmi), becomes the All.
Even
the gods are not able to prevent him from becoming it.
For
he becomes their Self (atman)." k
This
identity was already recognised in the atapatha
Brahmana
(X. vi. 3) :
"
Even as the smallest granule of
millet,
so is this golden Purusha in the heart. . . . That self
of
the spirit is my self: on passingfrom hence I shall obtain
that
Self."
v
We find everywhere in these treatises a restless striving
to
grasp the true nature of the pantheistic Self, now
through
one metaphor, now through another. Thus
222
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
(Brih.
Up. II. iv.) the wise Yajnavalkya, about to renounce
the
world and retire to the forest, replies to the question
of
his wife, Maitreyl, with the words :
"
As a lump of salt
thrown
into the water would dissolve and could not be taken
out
again, while the water, wherever tasted, would be salt, so
is
this great being endless, unlimited, simply co7npacted of
cognition.
Arising out of these elements, it disappears again
in
them. After death there is no consciousness ;
"
for,
as he
further
explains, when the duality on which consciousness
is
based disappears, consciousness must necessarily
cease.
In
another passage of the same Upanishad (II. i. 20)
we
read : "Just as the spider goes out of itself by means of
its
thread, as tiny sparks leap out of the fire, so from the
Atman
issue all vital airs, all worlds, all gods, all beings."
Here,
again, is a stanza from the Mundaka (III. ii. 8) :
As
riversflow and disappear at last
In
ocean's waters, name andform renouncing,
So,
too, the sage, releasedfrom name andform,
Is
merged in the divine and highest spirit.
In
a passage of the Brihaddranyaka (III. vii.) Yajnavalkya
describes
the Atman as the " inner guide
"
{antarydmin)
:
"
Who is in all beings, differentfrom all beings, who
guides
all beings within, that is thy Self, the inward guide,
immortal"
The
same Upanishad contains an interesting conversation,
in
which King Ajatacatru of Kagi (Benares) instructs
the
Brahman, Balaki Gargya, that Brahma is not the
spirit
(purusha) which is in sun, moon, wind, and other
natural
phenomena, or even in the (waking) soul {atman),
but
is either the dreaming soul, which is creative, assuming
any
form at pleasure, or, in the highest stage, the
THEORY
OF TRANSMIGRATION 223
soul
in dreamless sleep, for here all phenomena have disappeared.
This
is the first and the last condition of
Brahma,
in which no world exists, all material existence
being
only the phantasms of the dreaming world-soul.
Of
somewhat similar purport is a passage of the
Chhdndogya
(viii. 7-12), where Prajapati is represented as
teaching
the nature of the Atman in three stages. The
soul
in the body as reflected in a mirror or water is first
identified
with Brahma, then the dreaming soul, and,
lastly,
the soul in dreamless sleep.
How
generally accepted the pantheistic theory must
have
become by the time the disputations at the court of
King
Janaka took place, is indicated by the form in which
questions
are put. Thus two different sages in the
Brihadaranyaka
(iii. 4, 5) successively ask Yajnavalkya
in
the same words :
"
Explain
to us the Brahma which is
manifest
and not hiddeny the Atman that dwells in everything:'
With
the doctrine that true knowledge led to supreme
bliss
by the absorption of the individual soul in Brahma
went
hand in hand the theory of transmigration (samsard).
That
theory is developed in the oldest tlpanishads
;
it must have been firmly established by the
time
Buddhism arose, for Buddha accepted it without
question.
Its earliest form is found in the atapatha
Brahmana}
where the notion of being born again after
death
and dying repeatedly is coupled with that of retribution.
Thus
it is here said that those who have correct
knowledge
and perform a certain sacrifice are born again
*
after death for immortality, while those who have not
such
knowledge and do not perform this sacrifice are
reborn
again and again, becoming the prey of Death.
The
notion here expressed does not go beyond repeated
224
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
births
and deaths in the next world. It is transformed
to
the doctrine of transmigration in the Upanishads by
supposing
rebirth to take place in this world. In the
Brihaddranyaka
we further meet with the beginnings of the
doctrine
of karma, or u
action,"
which regulates the new
birth,
and makes it depend on a man's own deeds. When
the
body returns to the elements, nothing of the individuality
is
here said to remain but the karma, according
to
which a man becomes good or bad. This is, perhaps,
the
germ of the Buddhistic doctrine, which, though denying
the
existence of soul altogether, allows karma to
continue
after death and to determine the next birth.
The
most important and detailed account of the
theory
of transmigration which we possess from Vedic
times
is supplied by the Chhdndogya Upanishad. The
forest
ascetic possessed of knowledge and faith, it is here
said,
after death enters the devaydna, the "path of the
gods,"
which leads to absorption in Brahma, while the
householder
who has performed sacrifice and good works
goes
by the pitriydna or u
path
of the Fathers "
to
the
moon,
where he remains till the consequences of his actions
are
exhausted. He then returns to earth, being first born
again
as a plant and afterwards as a man of one of the
three
highest castes. Here we have a double retribution,
first
in the next world, then by transmigration in this.
The
former is a survival of the old Vedic belief about the
future
life. The wicked are born again as outcasts
(ckandalas),
dogs or swine.
The
account of the Brihaddranyaka (VI. ii. 15-16) is
similar.
Those who have true knowledge and faith pass
through
the world of the gods and the sun to the world
of
Brahma, whence there is no return. Those who practise
sacrifice
and good works pass through the world of
THE
LEGEND OF NACHIKETAS 225
the
Fathers to the moon, whence they return to earth,
being
born again as men. Others become birds, beasts,
and
reptiles.
The
view of the Kaushitaki Upanishad (i. 2-3) is
somewhat
different. Here all who die go to the moon,
whence
some go by the "path of the Fathers" to
Brahma,
while others return to various forms of earthly
existence,
ranging from man to worm, according to the
quality
of their works and the degree of their knowledge.
The
Kdthaka, one of the most remarkable and
beautiful
of the Upanishads, treats the question of life
after
death in the form of a legend. Nachiketas, a young
Brahman,
visits the realm of Yama, who offers him the
choice
of three boons. For the third he chooses the
answer
to the question, whether man exists after death
or
no. Death replies :
"
Even the gods have doubted
about
this ; it is a subtle point ; choose another boon."
After
vain efforts to evade the question by offering
Nachiketas
earthly power and riches, Yama at last yields
to
his persistence and reveals the secret. Life and death,
he
explains, are only different phases of development.
True
knowledge, which consists in recognising the
identity
of the individual soul with the world soul, raises
its
possessor beyond the reach of death :
When
every passion vanishes
That
nestles in the human heart,
Then
man gains immortality,
Then
Brah?na is obtained by him (vi. 14).
The
story of the temptation of Nachiketas to choose
the
goods of this world in preference to the highest
knowledge
is probably the prototype of the legend of
the
temptation of Buddha by Mara or Death. Both by
resisting
the temptation obtain enlightenment.
226
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
It
must not of course be supposed that the Upanishads,
either
as a whole or individually, offer a complete
and
consistent conception of the world logically developed.
They
are rather a mixture of half-poetical,
half-philosophical
fancies, of dialogues and disputations
dealing
tentatively with metaphysical questions. Their
speculations
were only later reduced to a system in the
Vedanta
philosophy. The earliest of them can hardly
be
dated later than about 600 B.C., since some important
doctrines
first met with in them are presupposed by
Buddhism.
They may be divided chronologically, on
internal
evidence, into four classes. The oldest group,
consisting,
in chronological order, of the Brihaddranyaka,
Chhdndogya,
Taittirlyay Aitareya, Kaushitaki, is written
in
prose which still suffers from the awkwardness of
the
Brahmana style. A transition is formed by the
Kena,
which is partly in verse and partly in prose, to
a
decidedly later class, the Kdthaka, led, (^vetdevatara,
Mundaka,
Mahdndrdyanay which are metrical, and in
which
the Upanishad doctrine is no longer developing,
but
has become fixed. These are more attractive from
the
literary point of view. Even those of the older class
acquire
a peculiar charm from their liveliness, enthusiasm,
and
freedom from pedantry, while their language
often
rises to the level of eloquence. The third class,
comprising
the Pracna} Maitrdyanlya, and Mdiidukya,
reverts
to the use of prose, which is, however, of a
much
less archaic type than that of the first class, and
approaches
that of classical Sanskrit writers. The fourth
class
consists of the later Atharvan Upanishads, some
of
which are composed in prose, others in verse.
The
Aitareyay one of the shortest of the Upanishads
(extending
to only about four octavo pages), consists of
THE
KAUSHITAKI UPANISHAD 227
three
chapters. The first represents the world as a
creation
of the Atman (also called Brahma), and man as
its
highest manifestation. It is based on the Purusha
hymn
of the Rigveda, but the primeval man is in the
Upanishad
described as having been produced by the
Atman
from the waters which it created. The Atman
is
here said to occupy three abodes in man, the senses,
mind,
and heart, to which respectively correspond the
three
conditions of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep.
The
second chapter treats of the threefold birth of the
Atman.
The end of transmigration is salvation, which
is
represented as an immortal existence in heaven. The
last
chapter dealing with the nature of the Atman states
that
" consciousness (prajna) is Brahma."
The
Kaushitaki Upanishad is a treatise of considerable
length
divided into four chapters. The first deals with
the
two paths traversed by souls after death in connection
with
transmigration ; the second with Prana or life
as
a symbol of the Atman. The last two, while discussing
the
doctrine of Brahma, contain a disquisition about the
dependence
of the objects of sense on the organs of
sense,
and of the latter on unconscious life {prana) and
conscious
life {prajnatma). Those who aim at redeeming
knowledge
are therefore admonished not to seek after
objects
or subjective faculties, but only the subject of
cognition
and action, which is described with much
power
as the highest god, and at the same time as the
Atman
within us.
The
Upanishads of the Samaveda start from the
saman
or chant, just as those of the Rigveda from the
uktha
or hymn recited by the Hotri priest, in order, by
interpreting
it allegorically, to arrive at a knowledge of
the
Atman or Brahma. The fact that the Upanishads
228
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
have
the same basis, which is, moreover, largely treated
in
a similar manner, leads to the conclusion that the
various
Vedic schools found a common body of oral
tradition
which they shaped into dogmatic texts-books
or
Upanishads in their own way.
Thus
the Chhdndogyay which is equal in importance,
and
only slightly inferior in extent, to the Brihaddranyaka,
bears
clear traces, like the latter, of being made up of
collections
of floating materials. Each of its eight chapters
forms
an independent whole, followed by supplementary
pieces
often but slightly connected with the
main
subject-matter.
The
first two chapters consist of mystical interpretations
of
the sdman and its chief part, called Udgltha
("loud
song"). A supplement to the second chapter
treats,
among other subjects, of the or.igin of the syllable
omy
and of the three stages of religious life, those of the
Brahman
pupil, the householder, and the ascetic (to
which
later the religious mendicant was added as a
fourth).
The third chapter in the main deals with
Brahma
as the sun of the universe, the natural sun
being
its manifestation. The infinite Brahma is further
described
as dwelling, whole and undivided, in the heart
of
man. The way in which Brahma is to be attained
is
then described, and the great fundamental dogma
of
the identity of Brahma with the Atman (or, as we
might
say, of God and Soul) is declared. The chapter
concludes
with a myth which forms a connecting link
between
the cosmogonic conceptions of the Rigveda and
those
of the law-book of Manu. The fourth chapter,
containing
discussions about wind, breath, and other
phenomena
connected with Brahma, also teaches how
the
soul makes its way to Brahma after death.
THE
CHHANDOGYA UPANISHAD 229
The
first half of chapter v. is almost identical with
the
beginning of chapter vi. of the Brihadaranyaka. It
is
chiefly noteworthy for the theory of transmigration
which
it contains. The second half of the chapter is
important
as the earliest statement of the doctrine that
the
manifold world is unreal. The sat by desire produced
from
itself the three primary elements, heat, water,
food
(the later number being five ether, air, fire, water,
earth).
As individual soul (jiva-dtman) it entered into
these,
which, by certain partial combinations called
"
triplication,"
became various products (vikdrd) or phenomena.
But
the latter are a mere name. Sat is the
only
reality, it is the Atman :
"
Thou art that." Chapter
vii.
enumerates sixteen forms in which Brahma may
be
adored, rising by gradation from namanf "name,"
to
bhumany
"
infinity,"
which is the all-in-all and the
Atman
within us. The first half of the last chapter discusses
the
Atman in the heart and the universe, as well as
how
to attain it. The concluding portion of the chapter
distinguishes
the false from the true Atman, illustrated
by
the three stages in which it appears in the material
body,
in dreaming, and in sound sleep. In the latter
stage
we have the true Atman, in which the distinction
between
subject and object has disappeared.
To
the Sdmaveda also belongs a very short treatise
which
was long called the Talavakara Upanishad, from the
school
to which it was attached, but later, when it became
separated
from that school, received the name of Kena,
from
its initial word. It consists of two distinct parts.
The
second, composed in prose and much older, describes
the
relation of the Vedic gods to Brahma, representing
them
as deriving their power from and entirely
dependent
on the latter. The first part, which is metrical
230
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
and
belongs to the period of fully developed Vedanta
doctrine,
distinguishes from the qualified Brahma, which
is
an object of worship, the unqualified Brahma, which
is
unknowable :
To
it no eye can penetrate,
Nor
speech nor thought can ever reach :
It
rests unknown; we ca?mot see
How
any one may teach it us.
The
various Upanishads of the Black Yajurveda all
bear
the stamp of lateness. The Maitrayana is a prose
work
of considerable extent, in which occasional stanzas
are
interspersed. It consists of seven chapters, the
seventh
and the concluding eight sections of the sixth
forming
a supplement. The fact that it retains the
orthographical
and euphonic peculiarities of the Maitrayana
school,
gives this Upanishad an archaic appearance.
But
its many quotations from other Upanishads,
the
occurrence of several late
t
words, the developed
Sankhya
doctrine presupposed by it, distinct references
to
anti-Vedic heretical schools, all combine to render the
late
character of this work undoubted. It is, in fact, a
summing
up of the old Upanishad doctrines with an
admixture
of ideas derived from the Sankhya system
and
from Buddhism. The main body of the treatise
expounds
the nature of the Atman, communicated to
King
Brihadratha of the race of Ikshvaku (probably
identical
with the king of that name mentioned in the
Rdmdyana),
who declaims at some length on the misery
and
transitoriness of earthly existence. Though pessimism
is
not unknown to the old Upanishads, it is much
more
pronounced here, doubtless in consequence of
Sankhya
and Buddhistic influence.
The
subject is treated in the form of three ques tions.
THE
MAITRAYANA UPANISHAD 231
The
answer to the first, how the Atman enters the body,
is
that Prajapati enters in the form of the five vital airs in
order
to animate the lifeless bodies created by him. The
second
question is, How does the supreme soul become
the
individual soul (bhutdtman) ? This is answered rather
in
accordance with the Sankhya than the Vedanta
doctrine.
Overcome by the three qualities of matter
(prakriti),
the Atman, forgetting its real nature, becomes
involved
in self-consciousness and transmigration. The
third
question is, How is deliverance from this state
of
misery possible ? This is answered in conformity
with
neither Vedanta nor Sankhya doctrine, but in a
reactionary
spirit. Only those who observe the old
requirements
of Brahmanism, the rules of caste and
the
religious orders (dcramas), are declared capable of
attaining
salvation by knowledge, penance, and meditation
on
Brahma. The chief gods, that is to say,
the
triad of the Brahmana period, Fire, Wind, San,
the
three abstractions, Time, Breath, Food, and the three
popular
gods, Brahma, Rudra (i.e. (Jiva), and Vishnu are
explained
as manifestations of Brahma.
The
remainder of this Upanishad is supplementary,
but
contains several passages of considerable interest.
We
have here a cosmogonic myth, like those of the
Brahmanas,
in which the three qualities of matter, Tamas,
Rajas,
Sattva, are connected with Rudra, Brahma, and
Vishnu,
and which is in other respects very remarkable
as
a connecting link between the philosophy of the
Rigveda
and the later Sankhya system. The sun is further
represented
as the external, and prdna (breath) as
the
internal, symbol of the Atman, their worship being
recommended
by means of the sacred syllable om, the
three
"utterances" {vydhritis) bhur, bhuvah, svart and the
16
232
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
famous
Sdvitri stanza. As a means of attaining Brahma
we
find a recommendation of Yoga or the ascetic practices
leading
to a state of mental concentration and
bordering
on trance. The information we here receive
of
these practices is still undeveloped compared with
the
later system. In addition to the three conditions
of
Brahma, waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, mention
is
made of a fourth (turiyd) and highest stage. The
Upanishad
concludes with the declaration that the Atman
entered
the world of duality because it wished to taste
both
truth and illusion.
Older
than the Maitrdyana, which borrows from
them,
are two other Upanishads of the Black Yajurveda
y
the Kdthaka and the (^vetdcvatara. The former
contains
some 120 and the latter some no stanzas.
The
Kdthaka deals with the legend of Nachiketas,
which
is told in the Kathaka portion of the Taittiriya
Brdhmana,
and a knowledge of which it presupposes.
This
is indicated by the fact that it begins with the
same
words as the Brahmana story. The treatise
appears
to have consisted originally of the first only
of
its two chapters. For the second, with its more
developed
notions about Yoga and its much more pronounced
view
as to the unreality of phenomena, looks
like
a later addition. The first contains an introductory
narrative,
an account of the Atman, of its embodiment
and
final return by means of Yoga, The second chapter,
though
less well arranged, on the whole corresponds
in
matter with the first. Its fourth section, while discussing
the
nature of the Atman, identifies both soul
{purusha)
and matter (prakriti) with it. The fifth section
deals
with the manifestation of the Atman in the
world,
and especially in man. The way in which it at
THE
QVETACVATARA UPANISHAD 233
the
same time remains outside them in its full integrity
and
is not affected by the suffering of living beings, is
strikingly
illustrated by the analogy of both light and
air,
which pervade space and yet embrace every object,
and
of the sun, the eye of the universe, which remains
free
from the blemishes of all other eyes outside of it.
In
the last section Yoga is taught to be the means
of
attaining the highest goal. The gradation of mental
faculties
here described is of great interest for the history
of
the Sankhya and Yoga system. An unconscious contradiction
runs
through this discussion, inasmuch as
though
the Atman is regarded as the all-in-all, a sharp
contrast
is drawn between soul and matter. It is the
contradiction
between the later Vedanta and the Sankhya-
Yoga
systems of philosphy.
According
to its own statement, the Qvetacvatara
Upanishad
derives its name from an individual author,
and
the tradition which attributes it to one of the
schools
of the Black Yajurveda hardly seems to have
a
sufficient foundation. Its confused arrangement, the
irregularities
and arbitrary changes of its metres, the
number
of interpolated quotations which it contains,
make
the assumption likely that the work in its present
form
is not the work of a single author. In its
present
form it is certainly later than the Kdthakaf since
it
contains several passages which must be referred to
that
work, besides many stanzas borrowed from it
with
or without variation. Its lateness is further indicated
by
the developed theory of Yoga which it contains,
besides
the more or less definite form in which it exhibits
various
Vedanta doctrines either unknown to or
only
foreshadowed in the earlier Upanishads. Among
these
may be mentioned the destruction of the world
234
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
by
Brahma at the end of a cosmic age {kalpa)y
as
well as its periodic renewal out of Brahma, and
especially
the explanation of the world as an illusion
(mdya)
produced by Brahma. At the same time the
author
shows a strange predilection for the personified
forms
of Brahma as Savitri, Icana, or Rudra. Though
(^iva
has not yet become the name of Rudra, its frequent
use
as an adjective connected with the latter shows
that
it is in course of becoming fixed as the proper
name
of the highest god. In this Upanishad we meet
with
a number of the terms and fundamental notions
of
the Sankhya, though the point of view is thoroughly
Vedantist
; matter (prakriti), for instance, being represented
as
an illusion produced by Brahma.
To
the White Yajurveda is attached the longest, and,
beside
the Chhdndogya, the most important of the Upanishads.
It
bears even clearer traces than that work of
being
a conglomerate of what must originally have been
separate
treatises. It is divided into three parts, each
containing
two chapters. The last part is designated,
even
in the tradition of the commentaries, as a supplement
(Khila~kdnda)y
a statement fully borne out by the
contents.
That the first and second parts were also
originally
independent of each other is sufficiently
proved
by both containing the legend of Yajnavalkya
and
his two wives in almost identical words throughout.
To
each of these parts (as well as to Book x. of the
(^atapatha
Brdhmand) a successive list {vamcd) of teachers
is
attached. A comparison of these lists seems to justify
the
conclusion that the first part (called Madhukdndd)
and
the second ( Ydjnavalkya-kd?idd) existed during nine
generations
as independent Upanishads within the school
of
the White Yajurveda, and were then combined by a
THE
BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD 235
teacher
named Agnivecya; the third part, which consists
of
all kinds of supplementary matter, being subsequently
added.
These lists further make the conclusion
probable
that the leading teachers of the ritual tradition
(Brahmanas)
were different from those of the philosophical
tradition
(Upanishads).
Beginning
with an allegorical interpretation of the
most
important sacrifice, the Agvamedha (horse-sacrifice),
as
the universe, the first chapter proceeds to deal with
prdna
(breath) as a symbol of soul, and then with the
creation
of the world out of the Atman or Brahma,
insisting
on the dependence of all existence on the Supreme
Soul,
which appears in every individual as his self.
The
polemical attitude adopted against the worship of
the
gods is characteristic, showing that the passage belongs
to
an early period, in which the doctrine of the
superiority
of the Atman to the gods was still asserting
itself.
The next chapter deals with the nature of the Atman
and
its manifestations, purusJia and prdna.
The
second part of the Upanishad consists of four
philosophical
discussions, in which Yajnavalkya is the
chief
speaker. The first (iii. 1-9) is a great disputation,
in
which the sage proves his superiority to nine successive
interlocutors.
One of the most interesting conclusions
here
arrived at is that Brahma is theoretically
unknowable,
but can be comprehended practically. The
second
discourse is a dialogue between King Janaka and
Yajnavalkya,
in which the latter shows the untenableness
of
six definitions set up by other teachers as to the
nature
of Brahma ; for
,
instance, that it is identical
with
Breath or Mind. He finally declares that the
Atman
can only be described negatively, being intangible,
indestructible,
independent, immovable.
236
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
The
third discourse (iv. 3-4) is another dialogue
between
Janaka and Yajnavalkya. It presents a picture
of
the soul in the conditions of waking, dreaming, deep
sleep,
dying, transmigration, and salvation. For wealth
of
illustration, fervour of conviction, beauty and elevation
of
thought, this piece is unequalled in the Upanishads
or
any other work of Indian literature. Its literary
effect
is heightened by the numerous stanzas with which
it
is interspersed. These are, however, doubtless later
additions.
The dreaming soul is thus described :
Leaving
its lower nest in breattts protection,
And
upwardfrom that nest, immortal, soaring,
Where'er
it lists it roves about immortal,
The
golden-pinioned only swan of spirit (IV. iii. 13).
//
roves in dream condition up and downward,
Divinely
many shapes and forms assuming (ib. 14).
Then
follows an account of the dreamless state of the
soul
:
As
a falcon or an eagle, having flown about in the air,
exhaustedfolds
together its wings and prepares to alight, so
the
spirit hastes to that condition in which, asleep, it feels no
desire
and sees no dream (19).
This
is its essential form, in which it rises above desire,
is
freefrom evil and withoutfear. For as one embraced by
a
beloved woman wots not of anything without or within,
so
also the soul embraced by the cognitional Self wots not of
anything
without or within (21).
With
regard to the souls of those who are not saved,
the
view of the writer appears to be that after death
they
enter a new body immediately and without any
intervening
retribution in the other world, in exact
accordance
with their intellectual and moral quality.
THE
BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD 237
As
a caterpillar, when it has reached the point of a leaf,
makes
a new beginning and draws itself across, so the soul,
after
casting off the body and letting go ignorance, makes a
new
beginning and draivs itself across (IV. iv. 3).
As
a goldsmith takes the material of an image and
hammers
out of it another newer and more beautiful form,
so
also the soul after casting off the body and letting go
ignorance,
createsfor itselfanother newer and more beautiful
form,
either that of the Fathers or the Gandharvas or the
Gods,
or Prajapati or Brahma, or other beings (IV. iv. 4).
But
the vital airs of him who is saved, who knows
himself
to be identical with Brahma, do not depart, for
he
is absorbed in Brahma and is Brahma.
As
a serpent's skin, dead and cast off, lies upon an anthill,
so
his body then lies ; but that which is bodiless and
immortal,
the life, is pure Brahma, is pure light (IV. iv. 7).
The
fourth discourse is a dialogue between Yajnavalkya
and
his wife Maitreyl, before the former, about
to
renounce the world, retires to the solitude of the
forest.
There are several indications that it is a secondary
recension
of the same conversation occurring in a
previous
chapter (II. iv.).
The
first chapter of the third or supplementary
part
consists of fifteen sections, which are often quite
short,
are mostly unconnected in matter, and appear to
be
of very different age. The second chapter, however,
forms
a long and important treatise (identical with that
found
in the Chhandogyd) on the doctrine of transmigration.
The
views here expressed are so much at variance with
those
of Yajnavalkya that this text must have originated
in
another Vedic school, and have been loosely attached
to
this Upanishad owing to the peculiar importance of
238
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
its
contents. The preceding and following section, which
are
connected with it, and are also found in the Chhdndogya,
must
have been added at the same time.
.
Not only is the longest Upanishad attached to the
White
Yajurveda, but also one of the very shortest,
consisting
of only eighteen stanzas. This is the led,
which
is so called from its initial word. Though forming
the
last chapter of the Vdjasaneyi Samhitd, it belongs
to
a rather late period. It is about contemporaneous
with
the latest parts of the Brihaddrariyaka, is more
developed
in many points than the Kathaka, but seems
to
be older than the Qvetdcvatara. Its leading motive
is
to contrast him who knows himself to be the same
as
the Atman with him who does not possess true
knowledge.
It affords an excellent survey of the fundamental
doctrines
of the Vedanta philosophy.
A
large and indefinite number of Upanishads is attributed
to
the Atharva-veda, but the most authoritative
list
recognises twenty-seven altogether. They are for
the
most part of very late origin, being post-Vedic, and,
all
but three, contemporaneous with the Puranas. One
of
them is actually a Muhammadan treatise entitled the
Alia
Upanishad ! The older Upanishads which belong to
the
first three Vedas were, with a few exceptions like the
vetdcvatara,
the dogmatic text-books of actual Vedic
schools,
and received their names from those schools,
being
connected with and supplementary to the ritual
Brahmanas.
The Upanishads of the Atharva-veda, on the
other
hand, are with few exceptions like the Mandukya
and
the Jdbala, no longer connected with Vedic schools,
but
derive their names from their subject-matter or
some
other circumstance. They appear for the most
part
to represent the views of theosophic, mystic, ascetic,
UPANISHADS
OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA 239
or
sectarian associations, who wished to have an Upanishad
of
their own in imitation of the old Vedic schools.
They
became attached to the Atharva-veda not from any
internal
connection, but partly because the followers of
the
Atharva-veda desired to become possessed of dogmatic
text-books
of their own, and partly because the
fourth
Veda was not protected from the intrusion of
foreign
elements by the watchfulness of religious guilds
like
the old Vedic schools.
The
fundamental doctrine common to all the Upanishads
of
the Atharva-veda is developed by most of
them
in various special directions. They may accordingly
be
divided into four categories which run chronologically
parallel
with one another, each containing
relatively
old and late productions. The first group,
as
directly investigating the nature of the Atman, has
a
scope similar to that of the Upanishads of the other
Vedas,
and goes no further than the latter in developing
its
main thesis. The next group, taking the fundamental
doctrine
for granted, treats of absorption in the
Atman
through ascetic meditation {yoga) based on the
component
parts of the sacred syllable om. These
Upanishads
are almost without exception composed
in
verse and are quite short, consisting on the average
of
about twenty stanzas. In the third category the
life
of the religious mendicant (sannyasiri), as a practical
consequence
of the Upanishad doctrine, is recommended
and
described. These Upanishads, too, are short, but
are
written in prose, though with an admixture of verse.
The
last group is sectarian in character, interpreting
the
popular gods (Jiva (under various names, such as
Igana,
Mahegvara, Mahadeva) and Vishnu (as Narayana
and
Nrisimha or "
Man-lion")
as personifications
240
SANSKRIT LITERATURE
of
the Atman. The different Avatars of Vishnu are
here
regarded as human manifestations of the Atman.
The
oldest and most important of these Atharvan
Upanishads,
as representing the Vedanta doctrine most
faithfully,
are the Munddka, the Pracna, and to a less
degree
the Mandukya. The first two come nearest to
the
Upanishads of the older Vedas, and are much
quoted
by Badarayana and (^ankara, the great authorities
of
the later Vedanta philosophy. They are the only
original
and legitimate Upanishads of the Atharva. The
Mundaka
derives its name from being the Upanishad
of
the tonsured (munda), an association of ascetics who
shaved
their heads, as the Buddhist monks did later.
It
is one of the most popular of the Upanishads, not
owing
to the originality of its contents, which are for the
most
part derived from older texts, but owing to the purity
with
which it reproduces the old Vedanta doctrine, and
the
beauty of the stanzas in which it is composed. It
presupposes,
above all, the Chhdndogya Upanishad, and in
all
probability the Brihadaranyaka, the Taittirlya, and the
Kathaka.
Having several important passages in common
with
the ^vetacvatara and the Brihanndrdyana of the Black
Yajurveda,
it probably belongs to the same epoch,
coming
between the two in order of time. It consists
of
three parts, which, speaking generally, deal respectively
with
the preparations for the knowledge of
Brahma,
the doctrine of Brahma, and the way to
Brahma.
The
Pragna Upanishad, written in prose and apparently
belonging
to the Pippalada recensi
on of the
Atharva-veda,
is so called because it treats, in the form
of
questions (pracnd) addressed by six students of
Brahma
to the sage Pippalada, six main points of the
UPANISHADS
OF THE ATHARVA-VEDA 241
Vedanta
doctrine. These questions concern the origin
of
matter and life {prdna) from Prajapati ; the superiority
of
life {prdna) above the other vital powers ; the
nature
and divisions of the vital powers ; dreaming and
dreamless
sleep ; meditation on the syllable 0111 ; and
the sixteen parts of man.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations to Brahmsree Sreeman Arthur A. Macdonell and also my humble greatulness to great Devotees , Philosophic Scholars for the collection)
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