The Katha Upanishad (, ), is an ancient Hindu text and one of the mukhya (primary) Upanishads, embedded in the last eight short sections of the school of the Krishna Yajurveda.Johnston, Charles (1920-1931). The Mukhya Upanishads. Kshetra Books. (Reprinted in 2014).Paul Deussen. Sixty Upanishads of the Veda. Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass. . pages 269-273 It is also known as Upanishad, and is listed as number 3 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.
The Katha Upanishad consists of two chapters (Adhyāyas), each divided into three sections (Vallis). The first Adhyaya is considered to be of older origin than the second. The Upanishad has the legendary story of a little boy, Nachiketa – the son of Sage Vajasravasa, who meets Yama (the king of the dead). Their conversation evolves to a discussion of the nature of man, knowledge, Atman (Self) and moksha (liberation).
The chronology of Katha Upanishad is unclear and contested, but it is generally considered to belong to the later Upanishads, dated to the 5th to first centuries BCE.
The Kathaka Upanishad is an important ancient Sanskrit corpus of the Vedanta sub-schools, and an influential Śruti to the diverse schools of Hinduism. It asserts that "Atman (Self) exists", teaches the precept "seek Self-knowledge, which is Highest Bliss", and expounds on this premise like the other primary Upanishads of Hinduism. The detailed teachings of Katha Upanishad have been variously interpreted, as Dvaita (dualistic)Ariel Glucklich (2008), The Strides of Vishnu: Hindu Culture in Historical Perspective, Oxford University Press, , page 70, Quote: "The Upanishadic age was also characterized by a pluralism of worldviews. While some Upanishads have been deemed 'monistic', others, including the Katha Upanishad, are dualistic. Monism holds that reality is one – Brahman – and that all multiplicity (matter, individual Selfs) is ultimately reducible to that one reality. The Katha Upanishad, a relatively late text of the Black Yajurveda, is more complex. It teaches Brahman, like other Upanishads, but it also states that above the 'unmanifest' (Brahman) stands Purusha, or 'Person'. This claim originated in Samkhya (analysis) philosophy, which split all of reality into two coeternal principles: spirit (purusha) and primordial matrix (prakriti)." and as Advaita (non-dualistic).SH Nasr (1989), Knowledge and the Sacred: Revisioning Academic Accountability, State University of New York Press, , page 99, Quote: "Emerson was especially inebriated by the message of the Upanishads, whose nondualistic doctrine contained so lucidly in the Katha Upanishad, is reflected in his well known poem Brahma".Kathopanishad, in The Katha and Prasna Upanishads with Sri Shankara's Commentary, Translated by SS Sastri, Harvard College Archives, pages 1-3
It is among the most widely studied Upanishads. Katha Upanishad was translated into Persian in the 17th century, copies of which were then translated into Latin and distributed in Europe.Philip Renard (1995), Historical bibliography of Upanishads in translation, Journal of Indian philosophy, vol 23, issue 2, pages 223-246 Other philosophers such as Arthur Schopenhauer praised it, Edwin Arnold rendered it in verse as "The Secret of Death", and Ralph Waldo Emerson credited Katha Upanishad for the central story at the end of his essay Immortality, as well as his poem "Brahma".R White (2010), Schopenhauer and Indian Philosophy, International Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 50, issue 1, pages 57-76
Etymology Katha (Sanskrit: कठ) literally means "distress".KaTha Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Germany Katha is also the name of a sage, credited as the founder of a branch of the Krishna Yajur-veda, as well as the term for a female pupil or follower of Kathas school of Yajurveda.
Nachiketa, the boy and a central character in the Katha Upanishad, similarly, has closely related words with roots and meanings relevant to the text. Paul Deussen suggests Na kṣiti and Na aksiyete, which are word plays of and pronounced similar to Nachiketa, means "non-decay, or what does not decay", a meaning that is relevant to second boon portion of the Nachiketa story. Similarly, Na jiti is another word play and means "that which cannot be vanquished", which is contextually relevant to the Nachiketa's third boon. Both Whitney and Deussen independently suggest yet another variation to Nachiketa, with etymological roots that is relevant to Katha Upanishad: the word Na-ciketa also means "I do not know, or he does not know".WD Whitney, Translation of the Katha-Upanishad, Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 21, page 91 Some of these Sanskrit word plays are incorporated within the Upanishad's text.
Chronology The chronology of Katha Upanishad is unclear and contested by scholars.Stephen Phillips (2009), Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy, Columbia University Press, , Chapter 1 All opinions rest on scanty evidence, an analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies.
Richard King and A.L. Basham date the Katha Upanishad's composition roughly to the 5th century BCE, chronologically placing it after the first Buddhist Pali canons.Richard King (1995), Ācārya, Gauḍapāda - Early Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism: the Mahāyāna context of the Gauḍapādīya-kārikā, SUNY Press, , pages 51-58A.L. Basham in Paul Williams, ed., Buddhism: Buddhist origins and the early history of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. Taylor & Francis, 2005, (page 61). Olivelle assigns the Katha Upanishad together with the Kena, Isha, Svetasvatara, and Mundaka, dating it to the first centuries BCE. Paul Deussen too considers Katha Upanishad to be a post-prose, yet earlier stage Upanishad composed about the time Kena and Isha Upanishads were, because of the poetic, mathematical metric structure of its hymns.S Sharma (1985), Life in the Upanishads, , pages 17-19
Stephen Phillips notes the disagreement between modern scholars. Phillips places the Katha Upanishad chronologically after Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isha, Taittiriya, Aitareya and Kena, but before Mundaka, Prasna, Mandukya, Svetasvatara and Maitri Upanishads, as well as before the earliest Buddhist Pali and Jaina canons. Winternitz considers the Kathaka Upanishad as pre-Buddhist, pre-Jaina literature.M Winternitz (2010), History of Indian Literature, Vol 1, Motilal Banarsidass,
Structure The Katha Upanishad has two chapters (adhyāyas), each with three sections (valli), thus a total of six sections. The first section has 29 verses, the second section 25 verses, and the third section has 17. The second chapter opens with the fourth section of the Katha Upanishad, which has 15 verses, while the fifth valli also has 15 verses. The final section has 17 verses.
The first chapter with the first three vallis is considered older because the third section ends with a structure in Sanskrit that is typically found at the closing of other Upanishads. Additionally, the central ideas are repeated and expanded upon in the last three sections, which makes up the second chapter. This, however, does not imply a significant gap between the two chapters, both chapters are considered ancient, and from 1st millennium BCE.
The origin of the story of the little boy named Nachiketa, contained in Katha Upanishad is of a much older origin.WD Whitney, Translation of the Katha-Upanishad, Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 21, pages 88- 112 Nachiketa is mentioned in the verses of chapter 3.11 of Taittiriya Brahmana, both as a similar story, and as the name of one of five fire arrangements for rituals, along with Savitra, Caturhotra, Vaisvasrja and Aruna Agni.Radhakrishnan, S. (1994). The Principal Upanishads. New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers India. p. 593.
The style and structure suggests that some of the verses in Katha Upanishad, such as 1.1.8, 1.1.16-1.1.18, 1.1.28, among others, are non-philosophical, do not fit with the rest of the text, and are likely to be later insertion and interpolations.The Upanishads - Part II, Dover Publications, , pages xxi-xxv, and page 5 with footnote 1
Content
1st Valli
The Story of Nachiketa The Upanishad opens with the story of Vajasravasa, also called Aruni Auddalaki Gautama,(1962), Katha Upanishad, in The Upanishads - Part II, Dover Publications, , page 1 with footnote 1 who gives away all of his worldly possessions. However, his son Nachiketa (Sanskrit: नचिकेत) sees the charitable sacrifice as a farce, because all those worldly things have already been used to exhaustion, and are of no value to the recipients. The cows that were given away, for example, were so old that they had "drunk-their-last-water" (पीतोदकाः), "eaten-their-last-grass" (जग्धतृणाः), "don't give milk" (दुग्धदोहाः) and "who are barren" (निरिन्द्रियाः).(1962), Katha Upanishad, in The Upanishads - Part II, Dover Publications, , pages 1-2 with footnote 3 Concerned, the son asks his father,
Nachiketa does not die, but accepts his father's gifting him to Death by visiting the abode of Yama - the deity of death in the Indian pantheon of deities. Nachiketa arrives, but Yama is not in his abode. Nachiketa as guest goes hungry for three nights, states verse 9 of the first Valli of Katha Upanishad. Yama arrives and is apologetic for this dishonor to the guest, so he offers Nachiketa three wishes.Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 277-278
Nachiketa's first wish is that Yama discharge him from the abode of death, back to his family, and that his father be calm, well-disposed, not resentful and the same as he was before when he returns. Yama grants the first wish immediately, states verse 1.1.11 of Katha Upanishad.
For his second wish, Nachiketa prefaces his request with the statement that heaven is a place where there is no fear, no anxiety, no old age, no hunger, no thirst, no sorrow. He then asks Yama, in verse 1.1.13 of Katha Upanishad to be instructed as to the proper execution of fire ritual that enables a human being to secure heaven. Yama responds by detailing the fire ritual, including how the bricks should be arranged, and how the fire represents the building of the world. Nachiketa remembers what Yama tells him, repeats the ritual, a feat which pleases Yama, and he declares that this fire ritual will thereafter be called the "Nachiketa fires". Yama adds that along with "three Nachiketa fires", anyone who respects three bonds (with mother, father and teacher), does three kinds of karma (rituals, studies and charity), and understands the knowledge therein, becomes free of sorrow.Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 278-279