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 91

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UPANISHADS.
only passage in which upanishasåda occurs (Ait. År. 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 upanishasasáda, an entirely irregular form.
The same is the case with two other roots which are used almost synonymously with sad, viz. às and vis. We find upa +ås used to express the position which the pupil occupies when listening to his teacher, e.g. Pån. III, 4, 72, upasito gurum bhavân, 'thou hast approached the Guru,' or upasito gurur bhavata, 'the Guru has been approached by thee.' We find pari+upa+as used with regard to relations assembled round the bed of a dying friend, Khand. Up. VI, 15; or of hungry children sitting round their mother, and likened to people performing the Agnihotra sacrifice (Khånd. 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 (Khand. 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, Khând. Up. IV, 7,2; IV, 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 : Brih. År. I, 4, 11. Although a king is exalted, he sits down at the end of the sacrifice below the Brahman,' brahmaivântata upanisrayati.
Sad, with upa and ni, occurs in upanishadin only, and has there the meaning of subject, e.g. Satap. Bråhm. IX, 4, 3, 3, kshatrầya tad visain adhastâd upanishadinim 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
1 Mahâbhârata, Sântiparva, 1613.
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