The Samnyasa Upanisads: Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation

337 Pages·2006·13.115 MB·English

by  Olivelle, Patrick

S A M N Y A SA U P A N I S A DS
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SAMNYASA
U P A N I S A DS
Hindu Scriptures
on Asceticism
and Renunciation
Translated with Introduction and Notes by
PATRICK OLIVELLE
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1992
Oxford University Press
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Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1992 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
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without the prior permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Upanishads. English. Selections.
Samnyasa Upanisads : Hindu scriptures on asceticism and renunciation
translated with introduction and notes by Patrick Olivelle.
p. cm. Translated from Sanskrit.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-507044-5
ISBN 0-19-507045-3 (pbk.)
i. Sannyasi—Early works to 1800.
2. Asceticism—Hinduism—Early works to 1800.
I. Olivelle, Patrick. II. Title.
BLi 124.54. £5 1992 294.5'9218—dc2O
9I-H353
135798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For Meera
prajam anu prajayase
tad u te martydmYtam
In your offspring you are born again;
That, O mortal, is your immortality.
TB 1.5.5.6
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Preface
Now that this task is complete, it is my duty to pay my debts
to individuals and institutions who made it possible; would that
all my duties were as pleasant! The Department of Religious
Studies and the Office for Research of Indiana University at
Bloomington supported this project with a variety of grants.
Few institutions provide a better environment for personal
growth and scholarly endeavors. My gratitude is heightened as
I prepare to leave them after a seventeen-year association to
join the University of Texas at Austin.
The Wolfson College of Oxford University provided unpar-
alleled resources and a beautiful environment during 1977—1978
and 1981 — 1982 to conduct research. The Bhandarkar Oriental
Research Institute in Poona and the Theosophical Society in
Adyar, Madras, were generous in accommodating even my most
unreasonable requests. Research at Oxford and in India was
supported by generous grants from the National Endowment
for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the
American Institute of Indian Studies.
We owe an intellectual debt to all those from whose labors
we profit. They are too numerous to name; some of them will
appear frequently in the footnotes and the bibliography. To
two of them, however, I owe a special debt of gratitude. This
VII
Preface
translation would have been much poorer but for the many
works of Professor Joachim Friedrich Sprockhoff listed in the
bibliography. Over innumerable cups of tea at his home I learned
a great deal from the late Dr. V. V. Bhide—about the Vedic
ritual, about the intricacies of Mimamsa exegesis, but most of
all about the way Brahmin pandits think and write. His un-
timely death is a great loss to Indological studies.
Mary Jane Gormley read all the translations and helped me
with more than commas and colons. Ross Vemeer assisted me
in compiling the index. Anne Feldhaus read an early draft of
the introduction; it is the better for it. Cynthia Read's patience
is matched only by that of my wife, Suman; to both a heartfelt
thank you. To Meera this book is dedicated; contrary to Vedic
theologians, she has proven that a daughter does indeed bring
unsurpassable delight to a father and is "a light in the highest
heaven."
Bloomington, Ind. P.O.
April 1991
viii
Contents
Note on the Translations, xiii
INTRODUCTION
1. The Samnyasa Upanisads, 3
1.1 Editions, Translations, and Studies, 6
1.2 Dates, 8
1.3 Context: Brahmanical Literature on Renunciation, n
2. Renunciation and Society:
The Inner Conflict of Tradition, 19
2. i Vedic Theology: Sacrifice and Marriage, 23
2.2 Socioeconomic Changes in Sixth-Century India, 29
2.3 Rival Views of Religious Life, 33
2.4 The Emergence of a New World, 39
2.5 The Householder and the Celibate, 42
2.6 When Two Worlds Meet: Conflict and Compromise, 46
IX