The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation

700 Pages·2008·37.64 MB·English

by  Patrick Olivelle

THE EARLY UPANISADS
SOUTH ASIA RESEARCH
Series Editor
Richard Lariviere
A Publication Series of
The University of Texas Center for Asian Studies
and Oxford University Press
THE EARLY UPANISADS
Annotated Text and Translation
Patrick Olivelle
INDIAN EPIGRAPHY
A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit,
and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages
Richard Saloman
A DICTIONARY OF OLD MARATHI
Anne Feldhaus
DONORS, DEVOTEES, AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD
Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu
Leslie C. Orr
THE EARLY UPANISADS
ANNOTATED TEXT AND TRANSLATION
Patrick Olivelle
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
1998
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta
Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul
Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai
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and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1998 by Patrick Olivelle
The Introduction, Translation, and Notes to the Translation
first appeared in slightly different form as an Oxford World's Classics paperback
entitled Upanisads, Copyright © 1996 by Patrick Olivelle.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Upanishads. English
The early Upanisads : annotated text and
translation / Patrick Olivelle.
p. cm. — (South Asia research)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-512435-9
I. Olivelle, Patrick. II. Title.
III. Series: South Asia research (New York, N.Y)
BL1124.52.E5 1998
294.5'9218—dc21 98-17677
3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For
Ludo Rocher
and
Richard Gombrich
And in memory of
Thomas Burrow
and
R. C. Zaehner

Preface
In the summer of 1996, after the publication of my translation of the Upanisads in
the Oxford University Press series World's Classics, the thought occurred to me to
produce an edition of the Upanisads containing both the text and the translation, as
well as variant readings and scholarly conjectures. I consulted with my two col-
leagues, Richard Lariviere and Gregory Schopen, who enthusiastically endorsed the
project and encouraged me to publish the volume in the new series South Asia Re-
search published jointly by the Center for Asian Studies at the University of Texas
at Austin and by Oxford University Press, New York. I want to thank Richard (the
editor of the series), Gregory, and Cynthia Read (executive editor at OUP in charge
of this series) for their support and encouragement. Insightful comments and criti-
cisms of the two outside readers were very useful and deeply appreciated. Anna
Shtutina read the entire Sanskrit text and the variant readings given in the notes; I
thank her for her patience and diligence. I want to thank the editors of World's Clas-
sics for permission to reproduce here much of the material published in that edition.
My gratitude to the many individuals, especially Joel Brereton, who helped me in
the preparation of the translation has already been acknowledged in the preface to
that edition. Madhav Deshpande created the beautiful fonts in which this book is
set.
It may be useful to say a few words about some of the decisions and compro-
mises that have gone into the preparation of this volume. The translation and the
introduction as originally published in World's Classics were intended for a nonspe-
cialist audience. I had the choice of completely reworking them for the more spe-
cialized readership of the current edition. Given the constraints of time imposed on
me by other research projects and academic responsibilities, I decided against it.
Such a reworking would have postponed this volume almost indefinitely. I hope that
even the readers of this volume will find the present translation and introduction of
some use in their exploration of the Upanisads. Another desideratum would have
been a Sanskrit word index. I started working on one, but once again constraints of
time made me decide against it. Readers can find an exhaustive index in Vishva
Bandhu (1945) and useful lists in Limaye and Vadekar (1958) and Jacob (1891). I
go into greater detail regarding specific decisions involving the edition and the
translation in my notes on the edition and on the translation. My hope, however, is
that even though I have fallen short of my own ideal of what a scholarly edition
Preface
of the Upanisads should be, this volume will spur further scholarly interest in these
important documents of India's religious and cultural history.
The publication of this volume was aided by a University Cooperative Society
Subvention Grant awarded by The University of Texas at Austin and a subvention
from the Marlene and Morton Meyerson Endowment for South Asian Studies of the
University of Texas at Austin.
It is always the family that bears the brunt of a project such as this. My wife,
Suman, not only provided comfort and encouragement but also proofread the entire
manuscript several times. She has an eye for the detail and caught many errors, es-
pecially in the Sanskrit text. My daughter, Meera, was the model of patience as I
stared at a computer screen for hours on end. They provided an environment of love
and peace.
Austin, Texas P. O.
April 1998
viii
Contents
Abbreviations, xi
Note on the Edition, xv
Note on the Translation, xx
Introduction, 3
The Social Background of the Upanisads, 4
The Literary History of the Upanisads, 7
Vedic Rituals, 16
Vedic Cosmologies, 19
Human Physiology and Psychology, 22
Cosmic Connections, 24
1. Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, 29
2. Chandogya Upanisad, 166
3. Taittiriya Upanisad, 288
4. Aitareya Upanisad, 315
5. Kausitaki Upanisad, 324
6. Kena Upanisad, 363
7. Katha Upanisad, 372
8. Isa Upanisad, 405
9. Svetasvatara Upanisad, 413
10. Mundaka Upanisad, 434
11. Prasna Upanisad, 457
12. Mandukya Upanisad, 473