Abstract: It has become a general premise of indology that the poetry of the Samhitas,
the ritualistic prose of the Brahmanas and the philosophical outpourings of the
Upanishads, their development and content are chronologically and qualitatively
exclusive of each other i.e. they represent successive stages of Vedic
literature, history and philosophy. On closer look, the view fails to hold
either in the concern of composition, compilation or even of concept. One safe path
across this chronological obscurity is to search out the references to
historical personalities, contemporary or reminiscent, contained within these texts.
The line of teachers of Vedantic philosophy recorded in Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad VI.5 offers a unique opportunity in this regard.
Keywords: Tura Kavaseya, Upanishads,
Aitareya, Kausitaki, Shatapatha, Kavasa Ailusa, Brihadaranyaka, Sudasa, Somaka,
Sahadeva, Janamejaya, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda.
The story of philosophy, no doubt, begins
with the Upanishads. In them are contained man’s first search and first answers
to things beyond the perceptional and phenomenal. And the Brihadaranyaka(the
great forest) is one of the most important of this class of texts. We also see,
curiously, that the central concepts of the Upanishads such as ‘Brahman’
already appear in a developed form in texts assumed to be long anterior to the
formative phase of the upanishadic thought. Of special note is the occurrence
of the concept of the personal Brahman in the Kausitaki Brahmana(XXI.1) and
even more astonishingly of the the neuter Brahman in the Aitareya[1]. This is anomalous,
considering that the upanishadic literature and philosophy are given dates no
earlier than 800-600BCE by most scholars[2].
Is it possible that the upanishadic
literature is quite older? That it’s oldest traditions may be contemporary,
parallel and yet complected with the Brahmana texts? That the historical
philosophers in the upanishads also appear and play a role in the Brahmana
literature? We may attempt to test this scenario using the list of teachers
named in the Brihadaranyaka Vi.5- (omitting verse 2) [3]
“1.Now
the line of teachers : The son of Pautimati (received it) from the son of
Katyayani. He from the son of Gautami. The son of Gautami from the son of
Bharadvaji. He from the son of Parasari. The son of Parasari from the son of
Aupasvasti. He from the son of another Parasari. He from the son of Katyayani.
The son of Katyayani from the son of Kausiki. The son of Kausiki from the son
of Alambi and the son of Vaiyaghrapadi. The son of Vaiyaghrapadi from the son
of Kanvi and the son of Kapi. The son of Kapi-
3·
From Yajnavalkya. Yajnavalkya from Uddalaka. Uddalaka from Aruva. He from
Upavesi. Upavesi from Kusri. Kusri from Vajasravas. He from Jihvavat, the son
of Badhyoga. He from Asita, the son of Varsagana. He from Harita Kasyapa. He
from Silpa Kasyapa. This one from Kasyapa, the son of Nidhruva. He from Vac.
She from Ambhini....”
4·
The same up to the son of Samjivi. The son of Samjivi from Mandukayani.
Mandukayani from Mandavya. He from
Kautsa. Kautsa from Mahitthi. He from Vamakakshayana. He from Sandilya.
Sandilya from Vatsya. Vatsya from Kusri. Kusri from Yajnavacas, the son of
Rajastamba. He from Tura, the son of Kavasi... .”
It would be easy to argue that since there
are over 60 generations here and no reason whatsoever to doubt their veracity,
the origins of the philosophy must reach into the first half of the 2nd
millennium BCE, taking the arbitrary lower limit ourselves. But that would be
grossly inadequate to greater purpose and woefully wasteful of the numerous
opportunities yielded by this unique constellation of names.
We shall take no less than Tura Kavaseya
himself for our inquiry. The first teacher as per upanishadic testimony itself.
Who was he? When and where did he live? What did he do? Where else does he find
mention?
- -He was the purohita of
King Janamejaya of the Kuru kingdom in the region of Haryana. Aitareya Brahmana
IV.27.9, VII.34.9, 8.21 etc. attests to this.
- - Janamejaya is the king of
singular importance in the AB[4]. Tura Kavaseya anointed him during his royal
consecration.
- -The Shatapatha Brahmana
lists his name as the first teacher at the close of its section on Agnicayana,
implying that he was a major figure in the origination of this ritual
attributed to the Kurus [5].
- -His is mentioned even in
the Rig Veda khila 1.9.6 of the Baskala recension [6].
“Assist us in the offering ceremony. O
profound [Ashvins], with the powers by which [you urged on] Dadhyanc, O bulls,
by which [you urged on] makha's Tura Kavaseya, by which you urged on poetic inspiration, O you two who grant protection
close by”
- -He may have also left his
subtle signatures (such as du´rah
kava´syah) in the apri hyms of
the Yajur Veda [7]
- - His near ancestor Kavasa
Ailusa, whose daughter may have been the ‘Kavasi’ of the Brihadaranyaka, is the
reputed author of hymns 30-34 of RV 10. The story of Kavasa who rose to fame
despite his low birth is given in the Kausitaki(xii. 3) and Aitareya (ii. 19) [8]
- - Another Kavasa appears in
RV 7.18, described therein as an old man, as an antagonist of Sudasa in the
battle of the ten kings. He dies in the battle. It is unclear if the two
Kavasas are one and the same. Theodore leaves scope for their distinctness.
Pargiter argues they are one and the same person on the fact of their near
textual contemporaneity [9]. Talageri concludes that this Kavasa is of
Proto-Iranian allegiance and very likely of Parthava royalty, identifying him
further with ‘Kavi’ thus yielding a full name of ‘Kavi Kavasa’ who may be
further identified with Kavi Kavata, the founder of the pre-Avestan dynasty of
Kavyan or Kayanian kings [10].
What is to be made of all these
references? What thread can connect these dots meaningfully?At the very least,
the evident influence of one man in such varied texts as the Rig Veda, Yajur
Veda, Aitareya Brahmana and even in the early Upanishad age leaves the general
premise stated earlier highly suspect. The three traditions developed
contemporaneously for a considerable span of time. The fact that Tura appears
only in the Khilani serves to reaffirm that those 98 hymns contain material
tracing back to the early Kuru age. The AB confirms this with Janamejaya
Pariksita. The text strongly suggests that the monistic philosophy of the
Upanishads is already developed even in its remote age, that Tura Kavaseya may
well indeed be one of its founding fathers along with others such as Mahidasa
Aitareya [11]. The Brahmana literature dealt primarily with rituals, thus
delegating to the later compilers of the Upanishads the charge of systematizing
to a degree the philosophy propounded.
Janamejaya
Pariksita of the AB requires a clarification. He is not, as assumed by many scholars including Theodore, the ‘post- Rig
vedic’ Janamejaya of the Mahabharata. He is an earlier king, generationally
very close to Sudasa of mandala 7. There were two father-son duos with the same
names in the same Kuru dynasty, a fact well noted by Pargiter [12]. There is
nothing unusual about it, considering that we may well have two Kavasas in the
same period too. We may appreciate AB vii. 46 testifying that this Janamejaya
lived at a time when the memory of Sudasa, Somaka and Sahadeva was still very
much alive, unlike the Janamejaya of the Mahabharata where the Rig Vedic heroes
are forgotten. Janamejaya II of the Puranas is the great grandson of Samvarana
who would have been contemporary to Sudasa[13].
“This
also Tura Kāvaseya proclaimed to Janamejaya Päriksita; this Parvata and Närada
proclaimed to Somaka Sähadevya, to Sahadeva Sārijaya, Babhru Daivāvrdha, Bhima of Vidarbha, Nagnajit of
Gandhāra; this Agni proclaimed to Sanaçruta Arimdama and to Kratuvid Jānaki;
this Vasistha proclaimed to Sudās Paijavana.”
This piece of
evidence yields credence to the puranic genealogies. It also shows that the oldest extant Brahmana is separated from one
of the oldest mandalas only by 3-5 generations give or take.
The appearance of
Kavasa Ailusa in book ten warns us against assuming all the hymns and authors
of the book belong to the ‘late Rig vedic age’. Though it has obvious and
emergent literary and linguistic features, we must not accuse the book in
entirety of unusual posteriority. Stricter criterion must be found before doing
so to any part of it, especially if the author is known to have lived far back
in time. Other explanations may exist for the features, such as later
incorporation after redactions and editions.
Let us acknowledge as we conclude that
prose did not arise out of poetry, that philosophy did not arise out of prose.
Let us admire the ancient Vedic mind which conjured all three independently and
did so proficiently.
References-
1. Harvard
oriental series: Volume 25- Rig veda Brahmanas: The Aitareya and Kausitaki
Brahmanas of the Rig Veda(1920) Translator: Arthur Berriedale, University of
Edinburg. Editor:Charles Rockwell, Harvard university press. Massachusetts.. pg 27
2. Patrick Olivelle(2014), The early
Upanishads, Oxford university press. Austin, Texas. pg 12-13
3. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad with the
commentary of Sankaracharya, translated by Swami Madhavananda(First edition,
1934, fourteenth reprint 2011), published by Swami Bodhasarananda, Advaitha
Ashrama, Champawat, Uttarkhand.
4. Harvard oriental series: Volume 25- Rig
veda Brahmanas: The Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas of the Rig Veda(1920)
Translator: Arthur Berriedale, University of Edinburg. Editor:Charles Rockwell,
Harvard university press. Massachusetts.pg 30
5. The Satapatha Brahmana according to the
text of Madhyandina school translator: J Eggeling-Oxford:Clarendon
press,1882-1900.3 Verse.6.5.9
6. Kuru kings, Tura Kavaseya, and the
-tvaya gerund by Theodore Proferes( Article in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, university of London. 66(02):210 -
219 · June 2003, pg 216)
7. Ibid. pg 214
8. Harvard oriental series: Volume 25- Rig
veda Brahmanas: The Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas of the Rig Veda(1920)
Translator: Arthur Berriedale, University of Edinburg. Editor:Charles Rockwell,
Harvard university press. Massachusetts..pg 25
9. Ancient Indian Historical Tradition
by F. E. Pargiter(1922)London, Oxford university press. Humphrey Milford,
publisher. pg 172
10. Rig Veda:A historical analysis:
Srikant Talageri(2000) publisher: Aditya
Prakashan, New Delhi (pg
246)
11. Harvard oriental series: Volume 25-
Rig veda Brahmanas: The Aitareya and Kausitaki Brahmanas of the Rig Veda(1920)
Translator: Arthur Berriedale, University of Edinburg. Editor:Charles Rockwell,
Harvard university press. Massachusetts..pg 28.
12. Ancient Indian Historical Tradition
by F. E. Pargiter(1922)London, Oxford university press. Humphrey Milford,
publisher. pg 114
13. Ibid. Dynastic lists pg 148
https://www.academia.edu/38827959/In_search_of_the_origins_of_philosophy
Nice blog
ReplyDeletePlease follow hindustandetails@blogspot.com
DeleteMind blown
ReplyDeleteThis, my dear, is real history. God bless your efforts.
ReplyDelete