construction made of them, but sought to explain it as having emanated from one great being who is sometimes described as one with the universe and surpassing it, and at other times as being separate from it; the agnostic spirit which is the mother of philosophic thought is seen at times to be so bold as to express doubts even on the most fundamental questions of creation-"Who knows whether this world was ever created or not?" Secondly, the growth of sacrifices has helped to establish the unalterable nature of the law by which the (sacrificial) actions produced their effects of themselves. It also lessened the importance of deities as being the supreme masters of the world and our fate, and the tendency of henotheism gradually diminished their multiple character and advanced the monotheistic tendency in some quarters. Thirdly, the soul of man is described as being separable from his body and subject to suffering and enjoyment in another world according to his good or bad deeds; the doctrine that the soul of man could go to plants, etc., or that it could again be reborn on earth, is also hinted at in certain passages, and this may be regarded as sowing the first seeds of the later doctrine of transmigration. The self (ätman) is spoken of in one place as the essence of the world, and when we trace the idea in the Brāhmaṇas and the Āranyakas we see that atman has begun to mean the supreme essence in man as well as in the universe, and has thus approached the great Atman doctrine of the Upanisads.

4

CHAPTER III

THE EARLIER UPANIȘADS1. (700 B.C.-600 B.C.)

The place of the Upaniṣads in Vedic literature. THOUGH it is generally held that the Upaniṣads are usually attached as appendices to the Aranyakas which are again attached to the Brāhmaṇas, yet it cannot be said that their distinction as separate treatises is always observed. Thus we find in some cases that subjects which we should expect to be discussed in a Brāhmaṇa are introduced into the Aranyakas and the Āraṇyaka materials are sometimes fused into the great bulk of Upanisad teaching. This shows that these three literatures gradually grew up in one

1 There are about 112 Upaniṣads which have been published by the "NirnayaSāgara" Press, Bombay, 1917. These are 1 Íśā, 2 Kena, 3 Katha, 4 Praśna, 5 Muņdaka, 6 Māṇḍūkya, 7 Taittirīya, 8 Aitareya, 9 Chandogya, 10 Bṛhadaranyaka, II Śvetāśvatara, 12 Kausītaki, 13 Maitreyi, 14 Kaivalya, 15 Jābāla, 16 Brahmabindu, 17 Hamsa, 18 Āruņika, 19 Garbha, 20 Nārāyaṇa, 21 Nārāyaṇa, 22 Paramahamsa, 23 Brahma, 24 Amṛtanāda, 25 Atharvaśiras, 26 Atharvaśikhā, 27 Maitrāyaṇī, 28 Bṛhajjābāla, 29 Nṛsimhapūrvatāpini, 30 Nṛsimhottaratapinī, 31 Kālāgnirudra, 32 Subāla, 33 Kṣurikā, 34 Yantrikā, 35 Sarvasāra, 36 Nirālamba, 37 Śukarahasya, 38 Vajrasūcikā, 39 Tejobindu, 40 Nādabindu, 41 Dhyanabindu, 42 Brahmavidyā, 43 Yogatattva, 44 Ãtmabodha, 45 Nāradaparivrājaka, 46 Triśikhibrāhmaṇa, 47 Sītā, 48 Yogacūḍāmaņi, 49 Nirvāņa, 50 Maņdalabrāhmaṇa, 51 Dakṣiņāmûrtti, 52 Sarabha, 53 Skanda, 54 Tripadvibhutimahānārāyaṇa, 55 Advayatāraka, 56 Rāmarahasya, 57 Rāmapūrvatāpinī, 58 Rāmottaratāpinī, 59 Vasudeva, 60 Mudgala, 61 Sandilya, 62 Paingala, 63 Bhikṣuka, 64 Mahā, 65 Šāriraka, 66 Yogaśikhā, 67 Turiyatita, 68 Samnyasa, 69 Paramahamsaparivrājaka, 70 Akṣamālā, 71 Avyakta, 72 Ekākṣara, 73 Annapūrnā, 74 Sūrya, 75 Akṣi, 76 Adhyātma, 77 Kuṇḍika, 78 Sāvitrī, 79 Ātman, 80 Pāśupatabrahma, 81 Parabrahma, 82 Avadhūta, 83 Tripurātāpini, 84 Devi, 85 Tripurā, 86 Katharudra, 87 Bhāvanā, 88 Rudrahrdaya, 89 Yogakundali, 90 Bhasmajābāla, 91 Rudrākṣajābāla, 92 Gaṇapati, 93 Jābāladarśana, 94 Tārasāra, 95 Mahāvākya, 96 Pañcabrahma, 97 Prāṇāgnihotra, 98 Gopālapūrvatāpinī, 99 Gopā. lottaratapini, 100 Kṛṣṇa, 101 Vājñavalkya, 102 Varaha, 103 Śāṭhyāyanīya, 104 Hayagrīva, 105 Dattatreya, 106 Garuḍa, 107 Kalisantaraṇa, 108 Jābāli, 109 Saubhagyalakṣmi, 110 Sarasvatirahasya, 111 Bahvṛca, 112 Muktika.

The collection of Upanisads translated by Dara shiko, Aurangzeb's brother, contained 50 Upanisads. The Muktika Upanisad gives a list of 108 Upanisads. With the exception of the first 13 Upaniṣads most of them are of more or less later date. The Upanisads dealt with in this chapter are the earlier ones. Amongst the later ones there are some which repeat the purport of these, there are others which deal with the Śaiva, Śākta, the Yoga and the Vaiṣṇava doctrines. These will be referred to in connection with the consideration of those systems in Volume II. The later Upanisads which only repeat the purport of those dealt with in this chapter do not require further mention. Some of the later Upanisads were composed even as late as the fourteenth or the fifteenth century.

CH. III] The place of the Upanisads in Vedic literature 29

process of development and they were probably regarded as parts
of one literature, in spite of the differences in their subject-matter.
Deussen supposes that the principle of this division was to be
found in this, that the Brāhmaṇas were intended for the house-
holders, the Aranyakas for those who in their old age withdrew
into the solitude of the forests and the Upanisads for those who
renounced the world to attain ultimate salvation by meditation.
Whatever might be said about these literary classifications the
ancient philosophers of India looked upon the Upanisads as being
of an entirely different type from the rest of the Vedic literature
as dictating the path of knowledge (jñāna-mārga) as opposed
to the path of works (karma-märga) which forms the content
of the latter. It is not out of place here to mention that the
orthodox Hindu view holds that whatever may be written in the
Veda is to be interpreted as commandments to perform certain
actions (vidhi) or prohibitions against committing certain others
(nişedha). Even the stories or episodes are to be so interpreted
that the real objects of their insertion might appear as only to
praise the performance of the commandments and to blame the
commission of the prohibitions. No person has any right to argue
why any particular Vedic commandment is to be followed, for no
reason can ever discover that, and it is only because reason fails
to find out why a certain Vedic act leads to a certain effect that
the Vedas have been revealed as commandments and prohibitions
to show the true path of happiness. The Vedic teaching belongs
therefore to that of the Karma-marga or the performance of Vedic
duties of sacrifice, etc. The Upaniṣads however do not require
the performance of any action, but only reveal the ultimate truth V
and reality, a knowledge of which at once emancipates a man,
Readers of Hindu philosophy are aware that there is a very strong
controversy on this point between the adherents of the Vedanta
(Upanisads) and those of the Veda. For the latter seek in analogy
to the other parts of the Vedic literature to establish the principle
that the Upanisads should not be regarded as an exception, but
that they should also be so interpreted that they might also be
held out as commending the performance of duties; but the
former dissociate the Upanisads from the rest of the Vedic litera-
ture and assert that they do not make the slightest reference to
any Vedic duties, but only delineate the ultimate reality which
reveals the highest knowledge in the minds of the deserving.

Śankara the most eminent exponent of the Upanisads holds that they are meant for such superior men who are already above worldly or heavenly prosperities, and for whom the Vedic duties have ceased to have any attraction. Wheresoever there may be such a deserving person, be he a student, a householder or an ascetic, for him the Upanisads have been revealed for his ultimate emancipation and the true knowledge. Those who perform the Vedic duties belong to a stage inferior to those who no longer care for the fruits of the Vedic duties but are eager for final emancipation, and it is the latter who alone are fit to hear the Upanisads1.

The names of the Upanisads; Non-Brahmanic influence.

The Upanisads are also known by another name Vedānta, as they are believed to be the last portions of the Vedas (veda-anta, end); it is by this name that the philosophy of the Upanisads, the Vedanta philosophy, is so familiar to us. A modern student knows that in language the Upanisads approach the classical Sanskrit; the ideas preached also show that they are the culmination of the intellectual achievement of a great epoch. As they thus formed the concluding parts of the Vedas they retained their Vedic names which they took from the name of the different schools or branches (śākhā) among which the Vedas were studied2. Thus the Upaniṣads attached to the Brāhmaṇas of the Aitareya and Kausītaki schools are called respectively Aitareya and Kauṣitaki Upanisads. Those of the Tāṇḍins and Talavakāras of the Sama-veda are called the Chandogya and Talavakāra (or Kena) Upanisads. Those of the Taittiriya school of the Yajurveda

1 This is what is called the difference of fitness (adhikāribheda). Those who perform the sacrifices are not fit to hear the Upanisads and those who are fit to hear the Upaniṣads have no longer any necessity to perform the sacrificial duties.

2 When the Samhitā texts had become substantially fixed, they were committed to memory in different parts of the country and transmitted from teacher to pupil along with directions for the practical performance of sacrificial duties. The latter formed the matter of prose compositions, the Brahmaņas. These however were gradually liable to diverse kinds of modifications according to the special tendencies and needs of the people among which they were recited. Thus after a time there occurred a great divergence in the readings of the texts of the Brāhmaṇas even of the same Veda among different people. These different schools were known by the name of particular Śākhās (e.g. Aitareya, Kauṣitaki) with which the Brāhmaṇas were associated or named. According to the divergence of the Brahmaņas of the different Śākhās there occurred the divergences of content and the length of the Upanisads

associated with them.

V

form the Taittirīya and Mahānārayaṇa, of the Katha school the Kāṭhaka, of the Maitrāyaṇī school the Maitrāyaṇī. The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanisad forms part of the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa of the Vājasaneyi schools. The Īsā Upaniṣad also belongs to the latter school. But the school to which the Svetāśvatara belongs cannot be traced, and has probably been lost. The presumption with regard to these Upanisads is that they represent the enlightened views of the particular schools among which they flourished, and under whose names they passed. A large number of Upanisads of a comparatively later age were attached to the Atharva-Veda, most of which were named not according to the Vedic schools but according to the subject-matter with which they dealt1.

It may not be out of place here to mention that from the frequent episodes in the Upanisads in which the Brahmins are described as having gone to the Kṣattriyas for the highest knowledge of philosophy, as well as from the disparateness of the Upanisad teachings from that of the general doctrines of the Brāhmaṇas and from the allusions to the existence of philosophical speculations amongst the people in Pāli works, it may be inferred that among the Kṣattriyas in general there existed earnest philosophic enquiries which must be regarded as having exerted an important influence in the formation of the Upanisad doctrines. There is thus some probability in the supposition that though the Upanisads are found directly incorporated with the Brāhmaṇas it was not the production of the growth of Brahmanic dogmas alone, but that non-Brahmanic thought as well must have either set the Upanisad doctrines afoot, or have rendered fruitful assistance to their formulation and cultivation, though they achieved their culmination in the hands of the Brahmins.

Brāhmaṇas and the Early Upanisads.

The passage of the Indian mind from the Brahmanic to the Upanisad thought is probably the most remarkable event in the history of philosophic thought. We know that in the later Vedic hymns some monotheistic conceptions of great excellence were developed, but these differ in their nature from the absolutism of the Upanisads as much as the Ptolemaic and the Copernican 1 Garbha Upanisad, Ātman Upaniṣad, Praśna Upaniṣad, etc. There were however some exceptions such as the Māṇḍūkya, Jābāla, Paingala, Śaunaka, etc.

T