Sometimes nishad is used by the side of upanishad, and so far as we can judge, without any difference of meaning!.
All we can say therefore, for the present, is that upani-
" Mahabharata, Santiparva, 1613.
INTRODUCTION. lxxxiii
shad, besides being the recognised title of certain philo- sophical treatises, occurs also in the sense of doctrine and of secret doctrine, and that it seems to have assumed this meaning from having been used originally in the sense of session or assembly in which one or more pupils receive instruction from a teacher. |
Thus we find the word upanishad used in the Upanishads themselves in the following meanings:
1. Secret or esoteric explanation, whether true or false.
2. Knowledge derived from such explanation.
3. Special rules or observances incumbent on those who have received such knowledge.
4. Title of the books containing such knowledge.
I. Ait. Ar. III, 1, 6, 3. ‘For this Upanishad, i.e. in order
to obtain the information about the true meaning of Sam-
hita, Tarukshya served as a cowherd for a whole year.’
Taitt. Up. I, 3. ‘We shall now explain the Upanishad of the Samhita.’
Ait. Ar. III, 2,5,1. ‘Next follows this Upanishad of the
whole speech. True, all these are Upanishads of the whole
speech, but this they declare especially.’
Talav. Up. IV,7. ‘As you have asked me to tell you the
Upanishad, the Upanishad has now been told you. We
have told you the Brahmi Upanishad, i.e. the true meaning
of Brahman.
In the Afand. Up. III, 11, 3, after the meaning of
Brahman has been explained, the text says: ‘To him who
thus knows this Brahma upanishad (the secret doctrine of
Brahman) the sun does not rise and does not set.’ In the
next paragraph brahma itself is used, meaning either
Brahman as the object taught in the Upanishad, or, by a
slight change of meaning, the Upanishad itself.
Khand. Up. I, 13, 4. ‘Speech yields its milk to him who
knows this Upanishad (secret doctrine) of the Sdmans in
this wise.’
Khand. Up. VIII, 8, 4. When Indra and Virofana had
both misunderstood the teaching of Pragdpati, he says:
‘They both go away without having perceived and without
having known the Self, and whoever of these two, whether
Ixxxiv UPANISHADS.
Devas or Asuras, will follow this doctrine (upanishad), will perish.’
II. In the K/and. Up. I. 1, after the deeper meaning of
the Udgitha or Om has been described, the advantage of
knowing that deeper meaning is put forward, and it is said
that the sacrifice which a man performs with knowledge,
with faith, and with the Upanishad, i.e. with an under-
standing of its deeper meaning, is more powerful.
III. In the Taittiriya-upanishad, at the end of the second chapter, called the Brahmanandavalli, and again at the end of the tenth chapter, the text itself says: Ity upanishad, ‘this is the Upanishad, the true doctrine.’
IV. In the Kaushitaki-upanishad II, 1, 2, we read: ‘ Let
him not beg, this is the Upanishad for him who knows this.’
Here upanishad stands for vrata or rahasya-vrata, rule.
WORKS ON THE UPANISHADS.
Anquetil Duperron, Oupnek’hat, 1801, 1802. See page clii.
Rammohun Roy, Translation of Several Principal Books,
Passages, and Texts of the Veds. Second edition. London,
1832.
Translation of the Moonduk-Oopunishud of the Uthurvu Ved, p. 23.
Translation of the Céna Upanishad, one of the Chapters of the Sama Véda, 41.
: itelinien of the Kut’h-Oopunishud of the Ujoor-Ved, p. 55. Translation of the Ishopanishad, one of the Chapters of the Yajur Véda, p. 81.
H. T. Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, in three volumes, 1873.
K. J. H. Windischmann, Die Philosophie im Fortgange der Weltgeschichte, 1827-34.
F. W. Windischmann, Sancara, seu de theologumenis Vedanticorum, 1833.
E. Roer, The Taittiriya, Aitareya, Svetasvatara, Kena
fsa, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, and Mazdikya Upanishads
translated ; Bibliotheca Indica. Calcutta, 1853.
Rajendralal Mitra, The AZandogya Upanishad, with
extracts from the commentary of Sankara; Bibliotheca
Indica. Calcutta, 1862.
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxv
E. B. Cowell, The Kaushitaki - brahmawa - upanishad,
edited with an English translation; Bibliotheca Indica.
Calcutta, 1861.
E. B. Cowell, The Maitri Upanishad, edited with an, English translation ; Bibliotheca Indica. Calcutta, 1870.
A. Weber, Die Vagrasfki des Asvaghosha. Berlin, 1860.
A. Weber, Die Rama-tapaniya Upanishad. Berlin, 1864.
A. Weber, Analyse der in Anquetil du Perron’s Uber-
setzung enthalten Upanishad; Indische Studien, vol. i,
p- 247 et seq.
A. E. Gough, The Philosophy of the Upanishads; Cal- cutta Review, CX XXI.
P. Regnaud, Matériaux pour servir a | histoire de la Phi- losophie de l’Inde. Paris, 1876.
Editions of the Upanishads, their commentaries and glosses have been published in the Tattvabodhini patrika, and by Poley (who has also translated several Upani- shads into French), by Roer, Cowell, Rajendralal Mitra, Harakandra Vidyabhdshawa, Visvanatha Sadstri, Rama- maya Tarkaratna, and others. For fuller titles see Gilde- meister, Bibliotheca Sanscrita, and E. Haas, Catalogue of Sanskrit and Pali Books in the British Museum, s. v. Upa- nishads.
Ixxxvi UPANISHADS.
THE KHANDOGYA-UPANISHAD.
Tue KhAdndogya-upanishad belongs to the Sama-veda. Together with the Brzhad-aravyaka, which belongs to the Yagur-veda, it has contributed the most important ma- terials to what may be called the orthodox philosophy of India, the Vedanta}, i.e. the end, the purpose, the highest object of the Veda. It consists of eight adhyayas or lec- tures, and formed part of a K/andogya-brahmaza, in which it was preceded by two other adhyayas. While MSS. of the Khandogya-upanishad and its commentary are fre- quent, no MSS. of the whole Brahmava has been met with in Europe. Several scholars had actually doubted its ex- istence, but Rajendralal Mitra ?, in the Introduction to his translation of the AAdndogya-upanishad, states that in India ‘MSS. of the work are easily available, though as yet he has seen no commentary attached to the Brahmaza portion of any one of them.’ ‘ According to general accep-
1 Vedanta, as a technical term, did not mean originally the last portions of the Veda, or chapters placed, as it were, at the end of a volume of Vedic literature, but the end, i.e. the object, the highest purpose of the Veda. There are, of course, passages, like the one in the Taittiriya-drazyaka (ed- Rajendralal Mitra, p. 820), which have been misunderstood both by native and European scholars, and where vedanta means simply the end of the Veda :—yo vedadau svarah prokto vedante 4a pratish¢hita/, ‘the Om which is pronounced at the beginning of the Veda, and has its place also at the end of the Veda.’ Here vedanta stands simply in opposition to vedddau, and it is impossible to translate it, as Sdyaza does, by Vedanta or Upanishad. Vedanta, in the sense of philosophy, occurs inthe Taittiriya-arazyaka (p. 817),in a verse of the Narayamiya- upanishad, repeated in the Muzdaka-upanishad III, 2, 6, and elsewhere, vedantavigianasuniszitarthaZ, ‘those who have well understood the object of the knowledge arising from the Vedanta,’ not ‘from the last books of the Veda;’ and Svetasvatara-up. VI, 22, vedante paramam guhyam, ‘the highest mystery in the Vedanta.’ Afterwards it is used in the plural also, e. g. Kshurikopanishad, 10 (Bibl. Ind. p. 210), pudariketi vedanteshu nigadyate, ‘it is called pusdarika in the Vedantas,’ i.e. in the AA&ndogya and other Upanishads, as the com- mentator says, but not in the last books of each Veda. A curious passage is found in the. Gautama-sitras XIX, 12, where a distinction seems to be made between Upanishad and Vedanta. Sacred Books, vol. ii, p. 272.
* Khandogya-upanishad, translated by Rajendralal Mitra, Calcutta, 1862, Introduction, p. 17.
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxvii
tation,’ he adds, ‘the work embraces ten chapters, of which the first two are reckoned to be the Brahmaza, and the rest is known under the name of A/andogya-upanishad. In their arrangement and style the two portions differ greatly, and judged by them they appear to be productions of very different ages, though both are evidently relics of pretty remote antiquity. Of the two chapters of the K Zandogya- brahmaza_', the first includes eight siktas (hymns) on the ceremony of marriage, and the rites necessary to be ob- served at the birth of acchild. The first sikta is intended to be recited when offering an oblation to Agni on the occasion of a marriage, and its object is to pray for pros- perity in behalf of the married couple. The second prays for long life, kind relatives, and a numerous progeny. The third is the marriage pledge by which the contracting parties bind themselves to each other. Its spirit may be guessed from a single verse. In talking of the unanimity with which they will dwell, the bridegroom addresses his bride, “ That heart of thine shall be mine, and this heart of mine shall be thine’.’’ The fourth and the fifth invoke Agni, Vayu, Xandramas, and Sirya to bless the couple and ensure healthful progeny. The sixth is a-mantra for offering an oblation on the birth of a child ; and the seventh and the eighth are prayers for its being healthy, wealthy, and powerful, not weak, poor, or mute, and to ensure a profusion of wealth and milch-cows. The first sikta of the second chapter is addressed to the Earth, Agni, and Indra, with a prayer for wealth, health, and prosperity; the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth are mantras for offer- ing oblations to cattle, the manes, Sarya, and divers minor deities. The seventh is a curse upon worms, insects, flies, and other nuisances, and the last, the concluding mantra of the marriage ceremony, in which a general blessing is invoked for all concerned.’
After this statement there can be but little doubt that
1 It begins, Om, deva savitak, pra suva yagilam pra suva yagiiapatim bhagaya. The second begins, yah prakyam disi sarparaga esha te balih.
2 Yad etad dhvidayam tava tad astu hyzdayam mama, Yad idam hv:dayam mama tad astu hrzdayam tava.
Ixxxvi UPANISHADS.
THE KHANDOGYA-UPANISHAD.
Tue KhAndogya-upanishad belongs to the Sama-veda. Together with the Brzhad-aravyaka, which belongs to the Yagur-veda, it has contributed the most important ma- terials to what may be called the orthodox philosophy of India, the Vedanta !, i.e. the end, the purpose, the highest object of the Veda. It consists of eight adhyayas or lec- tures, and formed part of a K#andogya-brahmama, in which it was preceded by two other adhyayas. While MSS. of the Khandogya-upanishad and its commentary are fre- quent, no MSS. of the whole Brahmava has been met with in Europe. Several scholars had actually doubted its ex- istence, but Rajendralal Mitra ?, in the Introduction to his translation of the AAandogya-upanishad, states that in India ‘MSS. of the work are easily available, though as yet he has seen no commentary attached to the Brahmaza portion of any one of them.’ ‘ According to general accep-
1 Vedanta, as a technical term, did not mean originally the last portions of the Veda, or chapters placed, as it were, at the end of a volume of Vedic literature, but the end, i.e. the object, the highest purpose of the Veda. There are, of course, passages, like the one in the Taittiriya-drazyaka (ed- Rajendralal Mitra, p. 820), which have been misunderstood both by native and European scholars, and where vedanta means simply the end of the Veda :—yo vedadau svarah prokto vedante 4a pratish¢hitah, ‘the Om which is pronounced at the beginning of the Veda, and has its place also at the end of the Veda.’ Here vedanta stands simply in opposition to vedadau, and it is impossible to translate it, as Sayaza does, by Vedanta or Upanishad. Vedanta, in the sense of philosophy, occurs inthe Taittiriya-arazyaka (p. 817), in a verse of the Narayaziya- upanishad, repeated in the Muzdaka-upanishad III, 2, 6, and elsewhere, vedantavigfianasunis&itarthaZ, ‘those who have well understood the object of the knowledge arising from the Vedanta,’ not ‘from the last books of the Veda;’ and Svetasvatara-up. VI, 22, vedante paramam guhyam, ‘the highest mystery in the Vedanta.’ Afterwards it is used in the plural also, e. g. Kshurikopanishad, 10 (Bibl. Ind. p. 210), pudariketi vedanteshu nigadyate, ‘ it is called pusdarika in the Vedantas,’ i.e. in the Ahindogya and other Upanishads, as the com- mentator says, but not in the last books of each Veda. A curious passage is found in the. Gautama-sitras XIX, 12, where a distinction seems to be made between Upanishad and Vedanta. Sacred Books, vol. ii, p. 272.
* Khandogya-upanishad, translated by Rajendralal Mitra, Calcutta, 1862, Introduction, p. 17.