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Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1In the Trika#dasesha, upanishad is explained by samipasadana, sitting down near a person !. Such a word, however, would have been applicable, it would seem, to any other portion of the Veda as well as to the chapters called Upanishad, and it has never been explained how its meaning came thus to be restricted. It is still more strange that upanishad, in the sense of session or assembly, has never, so far as I am aware, been met with. Whenever the word occurs, it has the meaning of doctrine, secret doctrine, or is simply used as the title of the philosophic treatises which constitute the gfid4nakavda, the knowledge portion, as opposed to the karmak4zda, the work or ceremonial portion, of the Veda. . Native philosophers seem never to have thought of deriving upanishad from sad, to sit down. They derive it either from the root sad, in the sense of destruction, supposing these ancient treatises to have received their name because they were intended to destroy passion and ignorance by means of divine revelation®?, or from the root sad, in the sense of approaching, because a knowledge of Brahman comes near to us by means of the Upanishads, or because we approach Brahman by their help. Another explanation proposed by Sankara in his commentary on the Taittirtyaupanishad II, 9, is that the highest bliss is contained in the Upanishad (param sreyo ’sy4m nishannam). These explanations seem so wilfully perverse that it is difficult to understand the unanimity of native scholars. We ought to take into account, however, that very general tendency among half-educated people, to acquiesce in any etymology which accounts for the most prevalent meaning of a word. The Aranyakas abound in 1 Panini I, 4, 79, has upanishatkritya. * M. M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 318; Colebrooke, Essays, I, 92; Regnaud, Matériaux, p. 7. INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi such etymologies, which probably were never intended as real etymologies, in our sense of the word, but simply as plays on words, helping to account somehow for their meaning. The Upanishads, no doubt, were meant to destroy ignorance and passion, and nothing seemed more natural therefore than that their etymological meaning should be that of destroyers}. The history and the genius of the Sanskrit language leave little doubt that upanishad meant originally session, particularly a session consisting of pupils, assembled at a respectful distance round their teacher. With upa alone, sad occurs as early as the hymns of the Rig-veda, in the sense of approaching respectfully ? :-— Rig-veda IX, 11, 6. Namasa it upa sidata, ‘approach him with praise.’ See also Rig-veda X, 73, 11; I, 65, 1. In the Aandogya-upanishad VI, 13, 1, a teacher says to his pupil, atha m4 pratar upasidath4Z, ‘come to me (for advice) to-morrow morning.’
2:-— Rig-veda IX, 11, 6. Namasa it upa sidata, ‘approach him with praise.’ See also Rig-veda X, 73, 11; I, 65, 1. In the Aandogya-upanishad VI, 13, 1, a teacher says to his pupil, atha m4 pratar upasidath4Z, ‘come to me (for advice) to-morrow morning.’ In the same Upanishad VII, 8, 1, a distinction is made between those who serve their teachers (pariéarita), and those who are admitted to their more intimate society (upasatt4, comm. samipaga/, antarangas, priya). Again, in the AAandogya-upanishad VII, 1, we read of a pupil approaching his teacher (upasasdda or upasasada), and of the teacher telling him to approach with what he knows, i.e. to tell him first what he has learnt already (yad vettha tena mopasida §). In the Sftras (Gobhiliya Grzhya-sitra II, 10, 38) upasad is the recognised term for the position assumed by a pupil with his hands folded and his eyes looking up to the teacher who is to instruct him. It should be stated, however, that no passage has yet been met with in which upa-ni-sad is used in the sense of pupils approaching and listening to their teacher. In the 1 The distinction between possible and real etymologies is as modern as that between legend and history. * See M. M.’s History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 318. 5 See also Khand. Up. VI, 7, 2. [3] f Ixxxii UPANISHADS. only passage in which upanishasd4da occurs (Ait. Ar. II, 2, 1), it is used of Indra sitting down by the side of Visvamitra, and it is curious to observe that both MSS. and commentaries give here upanishasasd4da, an entirely irregular form. The same is the case with two other roots which are used almost synonymously with sad, viz. 4s and vis. We find upa+4s used to express the position which the pupil occupies when listening to his teacher, e.g. PA. ITI, 4, 72, updsito gurum bhavan, ‘thou hast approached the Guru,’ or upasito gurur bhavata, ‘the Guru has been approached by thee.” We find pari+upa-+ 4s used with regard to relations assembled round the bed of a dying friend, KA#and. Up. VI, 15; or of hungry children sitting round their mother, and likened to people performing the Agnihotra sacrifice (KAand. Up. V, 24, 5). But I have never met with upa-ni-as in that sense. We likewise find upa-vis used in the sense of sitting down to a discussion (K 4nd. Up. I, 8, 2), but I have never found upa+ni+vis as applied to a pupil listening to his teacher. The two prepositions upa and ni occur, however, with pat, to fly, in the sense of flying down and settling near a person, K#and. Up. IV, 7,2; FV, 8,2. And the same prepositions joined to the verb sri, impart to it the meaning of sitting down beneath a person, so as to show him respect : Brth. Ar. I, 4,11. ‘Although a king is exalted, he sits down at the end of the sacrifice below the Brahman,’ brahmaivantata upanisrayati.
3Up. IV, 7,2; FV, 8,2. And the same prepositions joined to the verb sri, impart to it the meaning of sitting down beneath a person, so as to show him respect : Brth. Ar. I, 4,11. ‘Although a king is exalted, he sits down at the end of the sacrifice below the Brahman,’ brahmaivantata upanisrayati. Sad, with upa and ni, occurs in upanishddin only, and has there the meaning of subject, e.g. Satap. Brahm. IX, 4, 3, 3, kshatrdya tad visam adhast4d upanishddinim karoti, ‘he thus makes the Vis (citizen) below, subject to the Kshatriya.’ 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. Ixxxiii shad, besides being the recognised title of certain philosophical 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. HI, 1, 6, 3. ‘For this Upanishad, i.e. in order to obtain the information about the true meaning of Sasmhita, Tarukshya served as a cowherd for a whole year.’ Taitt. Up. I, 3. ‘We shall now explain the Upanishad of the Samhita.’ Ait. Ar. IIT, 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 K#and. 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 Samans in this wise.’ Kihand. Up. VIII, 8, 4. When Indra and Virokana 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 f2 Ixxxiv UPANISHADS. Devas or Asuras, will follow this doctrine (upanishad), will perish.’
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1In the Trika#dasesha, upanishad is explained by samipasadana, sitting down near a person !. Such a word, however, would have been applicable, it would seem, to any other portion of the Veda as well as to the chapters called Upanishad, and it has never been explained how its meaning came thus to be restricted. It is still more strange that upanishad, in the sense of session or assembly, has never, so far as I am aware, been met with. Whenever the word occurs, it has the meaning of doctrine, secret doctrine, or is simply used as the title of the philosophic treatises which constitute the gfid4nakavda, the knowledge portion, as opposed to the karmak4zda, the work or ceremonial portion, of the Veda. . Native philosophers seem never to have thought of deriving upanishad from sad, to sit down. They derive it either from the root sad, in the sense of destruction, supposing these ancient treatises to have received their name because they were intended to destroy passion and ignorance by means of divine revelation®?, or from the root sad, in the sense of approaching, because a knowledge of Brahman comes near to us by means of the Upanishads, or because we approach Brahman by their help. Another explanation proposed by Sankara in his commentary on the Taittirtyaupanishad II, 9, is that the highest bliss is contained in the Upanishad (param sreyo ’sy4m nishannam). These explanations seem so wilfully perverse that it is difficult to understand the unanimity of native scholars. We ought to take into account, however, that very general tendency among half-educated people, to acquiesce in any etymology which accounts for the most prevalent meaning of a word. The Aranyakas abound in 1 Panini I, 4, 79, has upanishatkritya. * M. M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 318; Colebrooke, Essays, I, 92; Regnaud, Matériaux, p. 7. INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi such etymologies, which probably were never intended as real etymologies, in our sense of the word, but simply as plays on words, helping to account somehow for their meaning. The Upanishads, no doubt, were meant to destroy ignorance and passion, and nothing seemed more natural therefore than that their etymological meaning should be that of destroyers}. The history and the genius of the Sanskrit language leave little doubt that upanishad meant originally session, particularly a session consisting of pupils, assembled at a respectful distance round their teacher. With upa alone, sad occurs as early as the hymns of the Rig-veda, in the sense of approaching respectfully ? :-— Rig-veda IX, 11, 6. Namasa it upa sidata, ‘approach him with praise.’ See also Rig-veda X, 73, 11; I, 65, 1. In the Aandogya-upanishad VI, 13, 1, a teacher says to his pupil, atha m4 pratar upasidath4Z, ‘come to me (for advice) to-morrow morning.’
2:-— Rig-veda IX, 11, 6. Namasa it upa sidata, ‘approach him with praise.’ See also Rig-veda X, 73, 11; I, 65, 1. In the Aandogya-upanishad VI, 13, 1, a teacher says to his pupil, atha m4 pratar upasidath4Z, ‘come to me (for advice) to-morrow morning.’ In the same Upanishad VII, 8, 1, a distinction is made between those who serve their teachers (pariéarita), and those who are admitted to their more intimate society (upasatt4, comm. samipaga/, antarangas, priya). Again, in the AAandogya-upanishad VII, 1, we read of a pupil approaching his teacher (upasasdda or upasasada), and of the teacher telling him to approach with what he knows, i.e. to tell him first what he has learnt already (yad vettha tena mopasida §). In the Sftras (Gobhiliya Grzhya-sitra II, 10, 38) upasad is the recognised term for the position assumed by a pupil with his hands folded and his eyes looking up to the teacher who is to instruct him. It should be stated, however, that no passage has yet been met with in which upa-ni-sad is used in the sense of pupils approaching and listening to their teacher. In the 1 The distinction between possible and real etymologies is as modern as that between legend and history. * See M. M.’s History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 318. 5 See also Khand. Up. VI, 7, 2. [3] f Ixxxii UPANISHADS. only passage in which upanishasd4da occurs (Ait. Ar. II, 2, 1), it is used of Indra sitting down by the side of Visvamitra, and it is curious to observe that both MSS. and commentaries give here upanishasasd4da, an entirely irregular form. The same is the case with two other roots which are used almost synonymously with sad, viz. 4s and vis. We find upa+4s used to express the position which the pupil occupies when listening to his teacher, e.g. PA. ITI, 4, 72, updsito gurum bhavan, ‘thou hast approached the Guru,’ or upasito gurur bhavata, ‘the Guru has been approached by thee.” We find pari+upa-+ 4s used with regard to relations assembled round the bed of a dying friend, KA#and. Up. VI, 15; or of hungry children sitting round their mother, and likened to people performing the Agnihotra sacrifice (KAand. Up. V, 24, 5). But I have never met with upa-ni-as in that sense. We likewise find upa-vis used in the sense of sitting down to a discussion (K 4nd. Up. I, 8, 2), but I have never found upa+ni+vis as applied to a pupil listening to his teacher. The two prepositions upa and ni occur, however, with pat, to fly, in the sense of flying down and settling near a person, K#and. Up. IV, 7,2; FV, 8,2. And the same prepositions joined to the verb sri, impart to it the meaning of sitting down beneath a person, so as to show him respect : Brth. Ar. I, 4,11. ‘Although a king is exalted, he sits down at the end of the sacrifice below the Brahman,’ brahmaivantata upanisrayati.
3Up. IV, 7,2; FV, 8,2. And the same prepositions joined to the verb sri, impart to it the meaning of sitting down beneath a person, so as to show him respect : Brth. Ar. I, 4,11. ‘Although a king is exalted, he sits down at the end of the sacrifice below the Brahman,’ brahmaivantata upanisrayati. Sad, with upa and ni, occurs in upanishddin only, and has there the meaning of subject, e.g. Satap. Brahm. IX, 4, 3, 3, kshatrdya tad visam adhast4d upanishddinim karoti, ‘he thus makes the Vis (citizen) below, subject to the Kshatriya.’ 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. Ixxxiii shad, besides being the recognised title of certain philosophical 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. HI, 1, 6, 3. ‘For this Upanishad, i.e. in order to obtain the information about the true meaning of Sasmhita, Tarukshya served as a cowherd for a whole year.’ Taitt. Up. I, 3. ‘We shall now explain the Upanishad of the Samhita.’ Ait. Ar. IIT, 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 K#and. 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 Samans in this wise.’ Kihand. Up. VIII, 8, 4. When Indra and Virokana 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 f2 Ixxxiv UPANISHADS. Devas or Asuras, will follow this doctrine (upanishad), will perish.’
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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