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DECEMBER, 1928]
KATHAKA UPANISAD
KATHAKA UPANISAD.
TRANSLATED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. BY PROF. JARL CHARPENTIER, UPSALA.
(Continued from page 207.)
FIRST ADHYAYA.
221
Valli I.
Usan Vajasravasa 54 forsooth gave away all his earthly possessions. His was a son, Naci ketas55 by name (1). While the sacrificial gifts were taken away56 longing57 took possession of him though he was only a young boy58. And he thought to himself: (2)
"These (cows) have drunk water, chewed grass, given milk and are barren59; verily, bliss are those worlds to which he goes who gives such ones away." (3)
54 Usan generally is translated by 'in zeal' (Wh.), with zeal' (H.), gern' (B.) etc., which gives no sense. For, if the man gave away all his possessions it is quite obvious that he did it willingly or even with zeal. Weber, Oldenberg and Geldner have thus rightly seen in it a proper name. I would suggest that this text (as well as Taitt. Br.) did originally read Uså ha vai Vâjasravasaḥ etc., i.e., the name was originally Usan, which was identical with the Avestan Usan (nom. Usa, cf. Bartholomæ Altiran. Wb. 406). When this was later misunderstood it was altered into the senseless Ufan ha vai etc. On Vâjadravasa cf. Weber, Ind. Stud., ii, 201 sq.
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55 On this name cf. supra p. 205.
56 Another translation is attempted by Hillebrandt, ZDMG., lxviii, 580. But H. has slightly misunderstood the situation, and we need not follow him here.
57 Sraddha invariably is translated by 'faith' or 'Glaube' (just as in v. 13 éraddadhäna is translated by who have faith'). But even the very artificial explanations show that there is something wrong in such a translation; and faith in our sense of the word has got nothing to do with the feelings of the young Naciketas. Longing for a happier world, to which both the giver and the gifts are to proceed, is what he feels. Sraddha, according to the dictionaries, has this sense only in the epics and the classical literature, but this is by no means sure. Simply to translate the word by 'faith' in texts like the Rigveda is certainly wrong, as it creates in modern readers an impression which is totally foreign to the Vedic hymns. It is quite true that the Latin credo and etymologically connected words in the Celtic languages mean to trust, to believe,' but this proves nothing for fraddha; nor does the Avestan zraz-da- always mean the same. The original sense of Srad-dha- is, of course, to put one's heart upon a thing,' which may just as well mean
'to long for as 'to trust.'
53 The commentary on Taitt. Br. iii, 12, 8, 1 explains kumara bupanayanayogyavayaska, which is certainly correct, As Naciketas was a Brahman boy he consequently ought to have been about eight years of age (cf. Hillebrandt, Ritualliteratur, p. 50 sq.)
59 indriya originally has a very concrete sense, viz., that of potentia virilis; (cf., e.g., Maitr. S. IV, 7, 4); later on it also means power of procreation in both sexes. Consequently nirindriya when used of a man means impotens, whon of a woman sterilis, barren. To translate nirindriyâh by deren Sinne befriedigt sind, as does Professor Sieg (Festgobe R.v. Garbe, p. 129) is grammatically and etymologically impossible.
60 Curiously enough I have found no single translator who has understood this passage correctly. Hillebrandt, for example, looked upon the first line of the verse as being wholly senseless, and in his transla. tion simply left it out (Aus Brahmanas u. Upanisaden p. 117); and we need not go further into the various interpretations as none of them is satisfactory. We must read, instead of the senseless ananda in the second line, ânawlânâma te lokah, bliss verily are those worlds. The idea is this: the barren (nirindriya) cow is the vasd, the vacca sterilis, which is the sacrificial gift (daksind) especially apt to be given to the Brahmans. Ample materials concerning this opinion are found in a work by the late Professor Johansson, Etymologisches u. Wortgeschichtliches (posthumously edited by the present writer, Upsala, 1927), p. 60 sq. Consoquently, the Sacrificer (Yajamana) who gives away such cows goes to heaven, to the realm of bliss (cf. R.V. ix, 113. 11:yátrânandas ca módâs ca múlah pramúda âsate | ká masya yátráptáh ka mál etc. I venture to think that in this way the passage becomes wholly sensible. The parallels to the first words quoted by Hume, Thirteen Principal Upanishads, p. 341 n. 2, are without any importance.
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