MUNDAKA-UPANISHAD.

FIRST MUNDAKA.

FIRST KHANda.

I. BRAHMA was the first of the Devas, the maker of the universe, the preserver of the world. He told the knowledge of Brahman, the foundation of all knowledge, to his eldest son Atharva1.

2. Whatever Brahmâ told Atharvan, that knowledge of Brahman Atharvan formerly told to Angir; he told it to Satyavâha Bhâradvâga, and Bhâradvâga told it in succession to Angiras.

3. Saunaka, the great householder, approached Angiras respectfully and asked: 'Sir, what is that through which, if it is known, everything else becomes known?'

4. He said to him: 'Two kinds of knowledge must be known, this is what all who know Brahman tell us, the higher and the lower knowledge.'

5. The lower knowledge is the Rig-veda, Yagurveda, Sâma-veda, Atharva-veda, Sikshâ (phonetics), Kalpa (ceremonial), Vyâkarana (grammar), Nirukta (etymology), Khandas (metre), Gyotisha (astronomy)2;

1 The change between Atharva and Atharvan, like that between Nakiketas and Nâkiketa, shows the freedom of the phraseology of the Upanishad, and cannot be used for fixing the date of the constituent elements of the Upanishad.

2 Other MSS. add here itihâsa-purâna-nyâya-mîmâmsâ-dharmasâstrâni.

but the higher knowledge is that by which the Indestructible (Brahman) is apprehended.'

6. 'That which cannot be seen, nor seized, which has no family and no caste1, no eyes nor ears, no hands nor feet, the eternal, the omnipresent (allpervading), infinitesimal, that which is imperishable, that it is which the wise regard as the source of all beings.'

7. 'As the spider sends forth and draws in its thread, as plants grow on the earth, as from every man hairs spring forth on the head and the body, thus does everything arise here from the Indestructible.'

8. The Brahman swells by means of brooding (penance) 2; hence is produced matter (food); from matter breath3, mind, the true, the worlds (seven), and from the works (performed by men in the worlds), the immortal (the eternal effects, rewards, and punishments of works).'

1 I translate varna by caste on account of its conjunction with gotra. The commentator translates, 'without origin and without qualities.' We should say that which belongs to no genus or species.

2 I have translated tapas by brooding, because this is the only word in English which combines the two meanings of warmth and thought. Native authorities actually admit two roots, one tap, to burn, the other tap, to meditate; see commentary on Parâsara-smriti, p. 39b (MS. Bodl.), Tapah krikkhrakandrâyanâdirûpenâhâravarganam. Nanu Vyâsena tapo 'nyathâ smaryate, tapah svadharma-vartitvam saukam sanganibarhanam iti; nâyam doshah, krikkhrâder api svadharmaviseshât. Tapa samtâpa ity asmâd dhâtor utpannasya tapah-sabdasya dehasoshane vrittir mukhyâ.... Yat tu tatraivoktam, ko 'yam mokshah katham tena samsâram pratipannavân ity âlokanam arthagñâs tapah samsanti panditâ iti so 'nya eva tapahsabdah, tapa âlokana ity asmâd dhâtor utpannah.

3

4

Hiranyagarbha, the living world as a whole. Comm.

Satya, if we compare Kath. VI, 7 and III, 10, seems to mean buddhi. Here it is explained by the five elements.

9. From him who perceives all and who knows all, whose brooding (penance) consists of knowledge, from him (the highest Brahman) is born that Brahman', name, form2, and matter (food).'

1 Hiranyagarbha. Comm.

2 Nâmarûpam, a very frequent concept in Buddhistic literature.

SECOND KHANDA.

1. This is the truth: the sacrificial works which they (the poets) saw in the hymns (of the Veda) have been performed in many ways in the Tretâ age. Practise them diligently, ye lovers of truth, this is your path that leads to the world of good works 4!

2. When the fire is lighted and the flame flickers, let a man offer his oblations between the two portions of melted butter, as an offering with faith.

3. If a man's Agnihotra sacrifice is not followed

In the beginning of the second Khanda the lower knowledge is first described, referring to the performance of sacrifices and other good deeds. The reward of them is perishable, and therefore a desire is awakened after the higher knowledge.

• The Tretâ age is frequently mentioned as the age of sacrifices. I should prefer, however, to take tretâ in the sense of trayî vidyâ, and santata as developed, because the idea that the Tretâ age was distinguished by its sacrifices, seems to me of later origin. Even the theory of the four ages or yugas, though known in the Ait. Brahmana, is not frequently alluded to in the older Upanishads. See Weber, Ind. Stud. I, p. 283.

" The termination tha for ta looks suspiciously Buddhistic; see 'Sanskrit Texts discovered in Japan,' J. R. A. S. 1880, p. 180.

Svakrita and sukrita are constantly interchanged. They mean the same, good deeds, or deeds performed by oneself and believed to be good.

At the Agnihotra, the first of all sacrifices, and the type of many others, two portions of âgya are sacrificed on the right and left side of the Âhavanîya altar. The place between the two is called the Âvâpasthâna, and here the oblations to the gods are to be offered. There are two oblations in the morning to Surya and Pragâpati, two in the evening to Agni and Pragâpati. Other sacrifices, such as the Darsa and Pûrnamâsa, and those mentioned in verse 3, are connected with the Agnihotra.