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52
KHÂNDOGYA-UPANISHAD.
birth,' and 'there has been a birth' (words used at the Soma-sacrifice, and really meaning, 'He will pour out the Soma-juice,' and 'he has poured out the Soma-juice'), that is his new birth. His death is the Avabhritha ceremony (when the sacrificial vessels are carried away to be cleansed).
6. Ghora Ângirasa, after having communicated this (view of the sacrifice) to Krishna, the son of Devaki[1]— and he never thirsted again (after other knowledge)— said: "Let a man, when his end approaches,
- ↑ The curious coincidence between Krishna Devakîputra, here mentioned as a pupil of Ghora Ângirasa, and the famous Krishna, the son of Devakî, was first pointed out by Colebrooke, Miscell. Essays, II, 177. Whether it is more than a coincidence, is difficult to say. Certainly we can build no other conclusions on it than those indicated by Colebrooke, that new fables may have been constructed elevating this personage to the rank of a god. We know absolutely nothing of the old Krishna Devakîputra except his having been a pupil of Ghora Ângirasa, nor does there seem to have been any attempt made by later Brahmans to connect their divine Krishna, the son of Vasudeva, with the Krishna Devakîputra of our Upanishad. This is all the more remarkable because the author of the Sândilya-sûtras, for instance, who is very anxious to find a srauta authority for the worship of Krishna Vâsudeva as the supreme deity, had to be satisfied with quoting such modern compilations as the Nârâyanopanishad, Atharvasiras, VI, 9, brahmanyo devakîputro brahmanyo madhusûdanah (see Sândilya-sûtras, ed. Ballantyne, p. 36, translated by Cowell, p. 51), without venturing to refer to the Krishna Vâsudeva of the Khândogya-upanishad. The occurrence of such names as Krishna, Vâsudeva, Madhusûdana stamps Upanishads, like the Âtmabodha-upanishad, as modern (Colebrooke, Essays, I, 101), and the same remark applies, as Weber has shown, to the Gopâlatâpanî-upanishad (Bibliotheca Indica, No. 183), where we actually find such names as Srîkrishna Govinda, Goptîganavallabha, Devakyâm gâtah (p. 38), &c. Professor Weber has treated these questions very fully, but it is not quite clear to me whether he wishes to go beyond Colebrooke and to admit more than a similarity of name between the pupil of Ghora Ângirasa and the friend of the Gopîs.
