OR SACRED WRITINGS OF THE HINDUS. 439 



or Vqjasaiieyt brdhman'a upanishad, but more com- 

 monly cited as the Vrihad eranyaca *. The great- 

 est part of it is in dialogue ; and Ya'jnyawalcya 

 is the principal speaker. As an Upanishad, it pro- 

 perly belongs to the Cdmva S'dchd : at least, it is 

 so cited by Vidya'ran'ya, in his paraphrase of 

 Upanishads before-mentioned. There does not, 

 however, appear to be any material variation in it, 

 as received by the Mdd'hyandina school : unless in 

 the divisions of chapters and sections ; and in the 

 lists of successive teachers, by whom it was handed 

 down f. 



To convey some notion of the scope and style 

 of this Upanishad, I shall, here, brietly indicate 

 some of the most remarkable passages ; and chiefly 

 those which have been paraphrased by Vidya'- 

 ran'ya. A few others have been aheady cited ; 

 and the following appears likewise to deserve no- 

 tice. 



Towards the beginning of the Vr1,had dran'yaca, 

 a passage, concerning the origin of fire hallowed 

 for an Aswamtd'ha, opens thus : ' Nothing existed 

 in this world, before [the production of mind] : 

 this universe was encircled by death eager to de- 

 vour; for death is the devourer. He framed mind, 

 being desirous of himself becoming endued with 

 a soul.' 



* Besides three copies of the *ext, and two transcripts of S'an- 

 CARa's commentary, I have, also in duplicate, anotlier very ex- 

 cellent commentary by Nitya'nand' a srama, which is en- 

 titled Mitdcshard; and a metrical paraphrase of S'ancara's 

 gloss, by Sure's'war'a'cha'rya, as well as annotations in prose 

 by Ananda giri. 



t This is the Upanishad, to which Sir William Jones re- 

 fers, in his preface to the translation of the Institutes of Menu : 

 p. viii. 



Ff 4 



