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The Open Court. a Tateekly Jottenal s The Open Court. A TaTEEKLY JOtTENAL DEVOTED TO THE RELIGION OF SCIENCE. One Dollar per Year. No. 476. (Vol. X.—41.) CHICAGO, OCTOBER 8, 1896. I \ Single Copies, 5 Cents Copyright by The Opkm Court Publishing Co.—Reprints are permitted only on condition of giving full credit to author and publisher. THE UPANISHADS AND THE BRAHMANS. way, quite recently, and to discuss it in any fulness would be out of place here ; but its results, as far as BY CHARLES JOHNSTON. they touch on the question of the origin of the Upani- "Thinking sacrifices and offerings are shads, can easily be summarised. best, these fools know not the better way." I think I may say that it is conclusively proved —Mundaka Upanishad. that there are at least four clearly distinguished races It has always been accepted as one of the estab- in India, whose character is primarily marked by dif- lished truths of Oriental studies, that the Upanishads ference of color. We are not particularly concerned contain the wisdom of the Brahmans ; the teaching with two of these races, the black race and the yellow of the Upanishads, the system of the Vedanta, and race ; but, as regards the others, it has been quite Brahmanism are constantly regarded as synonymous clearly shown that the pure nucleus of the Brahman terms. This assumption is exactly the contrary of the caste is a white race, while the true Rajputs belong truth, as I hope to show; yet the error which led to it to a red race, quite distinct in every ethnical charac- was a very natural one. ter from the race of the white Brahmans. It has never When the Western world first came into contact been doubted that the Brahmans of to-day, as far as with the spiritual life of India, at the end of last cen.- their pure nucleus is concerned, are identical in race tury, the foreground of the Indian world was held by with the Brahmans of ancient India, who first consol- the Brahman caste ; the sacred books were in the idated into a hereditary caste at the close of the Vedic hands of the Brahmans ; Sanskrit, the key to the sa- age. But it has only quite recently been shown that of to- in color, cred books, could only be learned from the Brahmans ; the Rajputs day are identical race, char- and, finally, the Brahmans themselves confidently as- acter, and even name, with the Rajaputras, Rajanyas, serted that the wisdom of the sacred books was pecu- or Kshattriyas of Ancient India. We must therefore liarly their own, and without doubt were profoundly fix our regard on two races in Ancient India : the red convinced of the truth of their assertion. It was very Rajputs or Rajanyas, and the white Brahmans. What natural, therefore, that everything we received from I hope to demonstrate, with regard to the Upanishads, the Brahmans, amongst other things, the Upanishads, is, that all that is most characteristic in their teaching, should be regarded as having originated among the the heart and soul of Indian philosophy, originated Brahmans ; and it was not less natural that this opin- with the red Rajputs ; and that this teaching was ion should continue to be held. It is true that, in the adopted by the white Brahmans from the Rajputs, Upanishads themselves, there is a series of passages the record of this adoption being contained, quite of quite unmistakable import, which point to quite clearly, in the Upanishads themselves. The ancient another origin, to quite another relation between the spiritual dignity of the Rajanyas, or Kshattriyas, has real authors of the teaching of the Upanishads and long been recognised by scholars. I need only men- the Brahman caste; yet these passages have been tion what has been written on the subject by Gold- consistently overlooked, or rather their real bearing stiicker, Muir, Max Muller, and Cowell.^ It is uni- has not been grasped, for the very sufficient reason versally recognised that many of the hymns of the that an insight into this real bearing can only be Rig-Veda were composed by Rajanya seers, and the reached along a line which students of Sanskrit were thrice-holy Gayatri, the most sacred verse in all the very unlikely to follow, and, as a matter of fact, failed Vedas, claims as its author Vishvamitra, prince of to follow. Kanouj, whom the Brahmanas speak of as a Rajaputra,, This line of study is the examination of the eth- that is, a Rajput. nical character of the Indian races to-day; and, more And the peculiar relation of the Upanishads to the especially, the ethnical character of two races, the 1 Goldsttlcker, Literary Remains, I., p. 311. Muir, Original Sanskrit pure Brahmans and the pure Rajputs. This study Texts, I., p. 266 ff. Max MQller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 79 flE. Max MOUer, Chips from a German IVorkskof.U., liift. Cowell, Etphinstone' has only been entered upon, in a strict and scientific History of India, Bk. IV., App. vii. ; 5o8o THE OPEN COURT. in the fifth chapter of the Rajanyas or Kshattriyas has also been recognised. The parallel passage ' of this higher Chhandogya Upanishad puts the matter even more Thus Cowell writes : ' The great teachers knowledge are not Brahmans but Kshattriyas, and strongly: "Never before thee does this teaching go Brahmans are continually represented as going to the to the Brahmans, but among all peoples it was the "^ alone." Shankaracharya great Kshattriya kings to become their pupils. And doctrine of the Kshattriya Deussen points out that the original possessors of the comments thus: "Before thee, this teaching went initiated wisdom of the Upanishads "were not the priestly not to the Brahmans, nor were the Brahmans in formerly all peoples this was caste devoted to ceremonial, but far rather the caste this wisdom ; among again find in the the teaching at the initiation of pupils of the Kshat- of the Kshattriyas : again and we Upanishads the position that the Brahman begs the triya race. For so long a time this teaching was Kshattriya for teaching."^ All this becomes enor- handed down in succession among the Kshattriyas." mously more important, when we know that we have The word used again implies the analogue of apos- of to deal, not with a difference of caste or social status tolic succession. It is a remarkable confirmation only, but with a difference of race. the truth of this narrative that the teaching of rebirth But we may best illustrate the matter by translat- through conservation of moral energy, and the teach- ing certain passages in the Upanishads themselves. ing of liberation are not, as a matter of fact, found Perhaps the most remarkable is one in the sixth chap- anywhere in the hymns of the Rig-Veda, and it is ter of Brhad Aranyaka Upanishad. The actors in the well known that on the hymns of this Veda, the Yajur drama are King Pravahana, who is expressly called a and the Sama-Veda are based ; so that we can still Rajanya or Rajput, and the two Brahmans Uddalaka verify the fact that Uddalaka, the Brahman, though and his son Shvetaketu. These two Brahmans are learned in all the hymns, was yet ignorant of the learned in the Rig-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the teaching of rebirth and the teaching of liberation. We Sama-Veda, and fully initiated in the mysteries of the now know that this wisdom really belonged to another are compelled to confess race, the race of the Red Rajputs, who imparted it to Brahmanical caste ; yet they their entire ignorance of the answers of five questions the White Brahmans, after the three Vedas were com- put to them by the Rajput king. It has hardly been plete. sufficiently noted hitherto that these questions imply These passages are enough to prove that what is the whole doctrine of reincarnation or rebirth, and the best in Indian wisdom does not belong to the Brah- continuity of moral energies, or "works": and the mans at all ; but we may point to further passages in complementary doctrine of liberation from rebirth, the Upanishads to show how widely they recognise and finally realised oneness with the eternal ; two doc- this. Thus, in the fourth chapter of Kaushitaki Brah- trines rightly held to be the head and heart of Indian mana Upanishad, the Kshattriya or Rajput king Aja- wisdom. These two doctrines the Brahmans were en- tashatru imparts divine knowledge to the Brahman tirely ignorant of, though learned in the three Vedas, Gargya, son of Balaka; the same story is found in and they are imparted to the Brahman Uddalaka by the fourteenth chapter of the Shatapatha Brahmana, the Rajput king, with the following very remarkable or the second chapter of Brhad Aranyaka Upanishad words: "This wisdom never hitherto dwelt in any and all versions of this narrative incidentally recog- Brahman, yet I will declare it to thee." The Com- nise the fame of another Rajanya, King Janaka, as a mentary of Shankaracharya explains the sentence thus: teacher of divine things. There are a number of " This teaching asked for by thee, before being given shorter references to the same fact scattered through to thee, never dwelt in any Brahman, and thou also the Upanishads, but it would hardly be in place to knowest that this teaching was always handed down collect and translate them all here ; what we have in succession among the Kshattriyas," that is, the given is more than enough to prove our position con- Rajputs. The word used is one which specially refers clusively.
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