Upnishad

SR No.: 007670
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1879
Total Pages: 1835
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 35 MB

Page 165

52
KHÂNDOGYA-UPANISHAD.
birth,' and 'there has been a birth' (words used at the Soma-sacrifice, and really meaning, “He will pour out the Soma-juice,' and 'he has poured out the Soma-juice'), that is his new birth. His death is the Avabhritha ceremony (when the sacrificial vessels are carried away to be cleansed).
6. Ghora Ângirasa, after having communicated this (view of the sacrifice) to Krishna, the son of Devăki —and he never thirsted again (after other knowledge)—said: 'Let a man, when his end ap
i The curious coincidence between Krishna Devakîputra, here mentioned as a pupil of Ghora Angirasa, and the famous Krishna, the son of Devakî, was first pointed out by Colebrooke, Miscell. Essays, II, 17%. Whether it is more than a coincidence, is difficult to say. Certainly we can build no other conclusions on it than those indicated by Colebrooke, that new fables may have been constructed elevating this personage to the rank of a god. We know absolutely nothing of the old Krishna Devakiputra except his having been a pupil of Ghora Angirasa, nor does there seem to have been any attempt made by later Brahmans to connect their divine Krishna, the son of Vasudeva, with the Krishna Devakiputra of our Upanishad. This is all the more remarkable because the author of the Sândilya-stras, for instance, who is very anxious to find a srauta authority for the worship of Krishna Vasudeva as the supreme deity, had to be satisfied with quoting such modern compilations as the Nârâyanopanishad, Atharvasiras, VI, 9, brahmanyo devakîputro brahmanyo madhusůdanah (see Sândilya-stras, ed. Ballantyne, p. 36, translated by Cowell, p. 51), without venturing to refer to the Krishna Devakîputra of the Khandogya-upanishad. The occurrence of such names as Krishna, Vasudeva, MadhusQ dana stamps Upanishads, like the Atmabodhaupanishad, as modern (Colebrooke, Essays, I, 101), and the same remark applies, as Weber has shown, to the Gopalatâpani-upanishad (Bibliotheca Indica, No. 183), where we actually find such names as Srikrishna Govinda, Gopiganavallabha, Devakyam gâtah (p. 38), &c. Professor Weber has treated these questions very fully, but it is not quite clear to me whether he wishes to go beyond Colebrooke and to admit more than a similarity of name between the pupil of Ghora Angirasa and the friend of the Gopis.
Digitized by Google