Summary
Critical Essay
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Extract
The Yajnavalkya cycle in the Brhad Aranyaka Upanisad.
INTRODUCTION
ANY ATTEMPT TO TRACE the textual testimony regarding the doctrine of karman and reincarnation in the early Upanisads must sooner or later recognize that there are two, apparently contradictory, traditions. The one that has been discussed more widely is found in Brhad Aranyaka Upanisad (1) (BAU) 6.2, Chandogya Upanisad (ChU) 5.3-10, and Kausitaki (Brahmana) Upanisad (KU) 1. According to this tradition, the doctrine was first proclaimed by ksatriyas to brahmins. Whatever the correct interpretation of the "ksatriya attribution" of these texts, (2) it must be reconciled with the fact that there is another early Upanisadic passage on karman and reincarnation, BAU 4.3-4, which is associated with Yajnavalkya, the brahmistha of brahmins, and which makes no mention of a ksatriya origin of the doctrine. In trying to evaluate the relative significance of the "ksatriya" and the "brahmin" versions, and the apparent conflict between them, it is important to keep in mind the very different nature of these versions qua texts. All three of the ksatriya versions are fairly simple, presenting the doctrine as something novel and giving a rather rudimentary outline of the relationship between karman and reincarnation. Moreover, the explicit exposition of the doctrine is more or less tacked on to elements that are evidently derived from Jaiminiya Brahmana 1.45-46 and its continuation in 1.49-50. (3) The Yajnavalkya version, by contrast, presents a much more elaborate discussion that appears to be independent from any specific earlier texts. The fact that it cites a large number of earlier slokas that deal with the doctrine suggests that when this text was composed the doctrine of karman and reincarnation had been established for a considerable time. Moreover, the passage ends in an elaborate sastric argument which further establishes it as a mature text: two purvapaksin theories on karman and reincarnation are refuted by a final siddhantin argument to the effect that release from rebirth only co...See the full content of this document
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