14 Mr. ColebrookS on the Philosojihy of the Hindus. 



miswdnara is fire : and it is therefore questioned, whether the element of 

 fire be not here meant, or the regent of fire, that is, the conscious, informing 

 deity of it, or a particular deity described as having an igneous body, or 

 animal heat designated as alvine fire ; and whether likewise dtman intends 

 the living, individual soul, or the supreme being. ITie answer is, that the 

 junction of both general terms limits the sense, and restricts the purport of 

 the passage to the single object to which both terms are applicable : it 

 relates, then, to the supreme being.* 



Under this section the author twice cites Jaimini :t once for obviating 

 any difiiculty or apparent contradiction in this place, by taking the term in 

 its literal and etymological sense (universal guide of men), instead of the 

 particular acceptation of fire ; and again, as justifying, by a parallel passage 

 in another veda,X an epithet intimating the minute size of the being in 

 question {prudes' a-mdtra), a span long.§ On this last point other ancient 

 authors are likewise cited : one, As'marat'hya, who explains it as the result 

 of shrinking or condensation ; the other, Badari, as a fruit of imagination or 

 mental conception.il Reference is also made to another s'dc'hd of the veda,*^ 

 wheie the infinite, supreme soul, is said to occupy the spot between the 

 eye-brows and nose. 



' That on which heaven and earth and the intermediate transpicuous region 

 are fixt, mind, with the vital airs (or sensitive organs), know to be the one 

 soul (^dtman): reject other doctrines. This alone is the bridge of im- 

 mortality,'** In this passage of an upanishad of the At'harvana, Brahme is 

 intended, and not any other supposed site (dyataiia) of heaven, earth, &c. 



In a dialogue between Nareda and Sanatcumara, the (bltumaii) "great" 

 one, proposed as an object of inquiry for him who desires unlimited 

 happiness, since there is no bliss in that which is finite and small, is briefly 

 defined. ' He is great, in whom nought else is seen, heard, or known : 

 but that wherein ought else is seen, heard, or known, is small.'tt Here 

 the supreme being is meant ; not breath (prdn'a), which had been previously 

 mentioned as greatest, in a climax of enumerated objects. 



* Ch'hdndogyu, 6. Br. S'utr. 1. 2. § 7. (S. 24, 32.) 



f lb. S. 28 and 31. \ Vajasaneyi brahmana. 



§ By an oversight, the expression relative to diminutive dimension was omitted in tlie trans- 

 lated passage. || Br. Sutr. 1. 2. 29. 30. 



f Jabala. *♦ Mun'd'aca. Br. Sutr. 1. 3. § 1. (S. 1, 7.) 



ft Ch'hand'ogya, 7. Bhumavidya. Br. Sutr. 1. 3. § 2. (S. 8, 9.) 



