Śruti / The twelve Upaniṣads / Kauṣītaki and Maitrī · 12 of 12

12. Two later books

Kauṣītaki and Maitrī (कौषीतकि · मैत्री)

The twelfth title is two books. They are not always counted inside the ten, and they are not the same book. No Sanskrit line of either is sat here.

The Kauṣītaki (कौषीतकि), also called Śāṅkhāyana (शाङ्खायन) in the school-name, belongs to the Ṛgveda. It stands in the Kauṣītaki Āraṇyaka, and as commonly printed it has four adhyāyas. Citra Gāṅgyāyani (चित्र गाङ्ग्यायनि) teaches Śvetaketu and his father the two paths after death, the path of the gods and the path of the fathers, and the person who goes further than either to Brahman. The famous teaching is Indra's to Pratardana (प्रतर्दन). Pratardana is offered a boon and asks Indra to choose what is most helpful. Indra identifies himself with breath and with the conscious self, and tells the king to know him so. The claim is reported in that English. The Sanskrit line is not sat.

The Maitrī (मैत्री), also called Maitrāyaṇīya (मैत्रायणीय), belongs to the black Yajurveda, to the Maitrāyaṇīya śākhā. It is later, and it is composite. Seven lessons are often printed, and the printed text is uneven: an early dialogue, then chapters that add yoga and a more sectarian theology. King Bṛhadratha (बृहद्रथ) sets his son on the throne and goes to the forest. He asks Śākāyanya (शाकायन्य) for what is worth knowing. The body is described harshly, as impure, aging, and without a stay. The self is then taught as distinct from that body. Later chapters speak of the syllable, of the breaths, and of a lord in a voice closer to the Śvetāśvatara than to Yājñavalkya.

The breakthrough, taking the two together as this list asks, is the width of the summit. One book, from the Ṛgveda, has Indra say that the conscious breath is what a king should know. The other, from the black Yajurveda, has a king leave a throne because the body cannot hold a life, and then hears a teaching that later hands were willing to extend. The ten remain the famous set. These two show what the edge of the set sounds like when the lists disagree.

नेपालीमा

बाह्रौँ शीर्षक दुई पुस्तक हो। कौषीतकि ऋग्वेदको हो, कौषीतकि आरण्यकभित्र, चार अध्याय। चित्र गाङ्ग्यायनिले मृत्युपछिका दुई बाटा भने। इन्द्रले प्रतर्दनलाई भने, म नै प्राण र चेतन आत्मा हुँ। त्यो दाबी अंग्रेजीमा छ। संस्कृत पङ्क्ति बसालिएको छैन।

मैत्री कृष्ण यजुर्वेदको मैत्रायणीय शाखा हो। पछिल्लो र मिश्रित। सात प्रपाठक प्रायः छापिन्छन्, पाठ समथर छैन। राजा बृहद्रथले राज छोडे र शाकायन्यलाई सोधे। शरीरको वर्णन कठोर भाषामा छ। आत्मा त्यो शरीरभन्दा भिन्न हो। पछिल्ला अध्यायले योग र सम्प्रदायको ईश्वर-कथा थप्छन्। दशको समूह प्रसिद्ध हो। यी दुई त्यस समूहको किनार हुन्।

Where it sits

The verse shelf of the three sat books is the Upaniṣads. The one-sitting map of the Vedas and of these twelve is the Śruti portal. The first of the twelve is the Īśā.