Samsara Origins of The Hindu Theory of R

SAṂSĀRA
Origins of the Hindu Theory of Reincarnation
INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 2
I. OLD VEDIC ESCHATOLOGY ................................................................. 3
II. YAMA: KING OF THE DEAD ................................................................ 8
III. RENEWED DEATH AND SECOND BIRTH IN THE BRĀMAṆAS ............ 14
IV: FIVE FIRES AND TWO WAYS .......................................................... 22
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 35
BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................... 37
Christian Irigaray
Montevideo, 2023
INTRODUCTION
This essay is intended to shed some light on the historical origins of the
theory of reincarnation in India. For those unfamiliar with the history of Hindu
religious literature, it will be enough to point out that the oldest composition is
the Ṛigveda (RV), originally an oral compendium of hymns and formulas or
mantras. The dating of archaic works in Hindu religion and philosophy remain
highly tentative, but it is believed that the oldest sections of the Ṛigveda date
to c. 1200-1000 BC, while the newer ones fit an age of c. 1000-800 BC. It is
at this later time that we also find the composition of the second, third, and
fourth Vedas, the Sāmaveda (SV) and Yajurveda (YV) largely made up from
Ṛigvedic hymns, as well as the Atharvaveda (AV).
Around 800-600 BC, the Vedas were expanded with the addition of the
Brāhmaṇas, commentaries intended to reveal secret knowledge, especially
regarding the performance of Vedic rites and ceremonies. Such knowledge
includes specific dates to perform different sacrifices according to
astronomical observations, the geometry involved in the construction of altars,
but also eschatological doctrines regarding what awaits the dead in the beyond.
With the Brāhmaṇas we find the first interpretations of Vedic sacrificial
rituals as symbolic acts reflecting human death, as well as the encounter of the
soul with a realm beyond this life. Hence, it is in these texts that the first
theories of transmigration appear, modifying older beliefs. Later on, another
set of compositions known as the Upaniṣads develop these matters to a greater
length, and finally come to reveal how the hidden and innermost identity of
Man is the Ātman, the Self that is identical with God, Brahman. It is through
this identification with the ultimate Self that human beings are said to find
liberation or mukti, that is, a final release from all and any states of incarnation
implying a personal-individual mode of existence.
The philosophy of the Upaniṣads is known as Vedānta, literally “end of the
Veda”, and it is so-called for two reasons. One is their placing as the very last
texts of the Vedic canons, but the second alludes to the fact that they are
intended to reveal the most secret and ultimate doctrines for those who study
the Vedas, namely, the identity of the Self and God (Ātman = Brahman). The
first and lengthiest Upaniṣads are two: the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (Bṛh.
Up.) and the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (Chā. Up.), works we will allude to
frequently below, as they include some of the oldest eschatological myths
regarding the possibility of reincarnation.
Our interest here will be to trace the evolution of eschatological ideas from
the earliest periods of the Veda into the Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣads, a historical
analysis that will reveal important changes across the earliest history of Indian
spirituality.
2
SAṂSĀRA: ORIGINS OF THE HINDU THEORY OF REINCARNATION
I. OLD VEDIC ESCHATOLOGY

Ideas of the afterlife in the Ṛigveda (RV) are quite few,1 but two hymns in
particular, 10.14 and 10.16, provide the greatest detail regarding a life beyond
death.2
Let us begin with RV. 10.16, since it provides an example of a hymn
chanted during the cremation ceremony, considered to be the final sacrifice
(antyeṣṭi) of man. The hymn summons Agni Jātavedas, the Fire God “who
knows births” (jātavedas). In this form, Agni acts as the transformer and carrier
between the worlds of mortals and gods.
Do not consume him entirely, O Agni, do not scorch him, do not burn the
skin on his body! When you burn him, O Jātavedas, send him to the Pitṛis.
When you burn him, O Jātavedas, hand him over to the Pitṛis. When this
guiding of the spirit is over, may he become obedient to the Gods.
May your sight go to the Sun, your soul (ātma) to the Wind; go to Heaven or
Earth, according to your sustenance; or to the Waters, if there you are situated;
establish your body among the plants.3
We have here Agni Jātavedas performing a “guiding of the spirit”, the term
used being asunīti. The asu is the spirit of a person, the element that travels to
the world of the Fathers (Pitṛis).4 But another important trait outlined here
refers to the association of certain parts of the person and cosmic elements. In
other words, we find the belief that each element conforming a person belongs
to a cosmic one.5 This idea is repeated in the famous Puruṣa Sūkta (RV.
10.90), which describes the sacrifice of the Cosmic Person:
A thousand heads hath Puruṣa, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet.

On every side pervading earth he fills a space ten fingers wide.
This Puruṣa is all that yet hath been and all that is to be;
The Lord of Immortality which waxes greater still by food.
So mighty is his greatness; yea, greater than this is Puruṣa.
All creatures are one-fourth of him, three-fourths eternal life in heaven.
With three-fourths Puruṣa went up: one-fourth of him again was here.
Thence he strode out to every side over what cats not and what cats.
1
Bodewitz, Hendrik W., Vedic Cosmology and Ethics: Selected Studies, Leiden and Boston, 2019,
pp. 94-110.
2
For an in depth analysis of these hymns, see: Kahle, Madayo, Los caminos al Más Allá en los
himnos del Ṛgveda: Traducción y comentario de los himnos RV 10.14, 10.16 y 10.56, in Martín
Hernández, Raquel; Torallas Tovar, Sofía (eds.), Conversaciones con la Muerte: Diálogos del
hombre con el Más Allá desde la Antigüedad a la Edad Media, Madrid, 2011b, pp. 183-205.
3
RV. 10.16.1-3. (Kahle)
4
RV 10.15.1.
5
Cf. AV 5.9.7, 10.8, 24.9, 8.2.3, 11.8.31-33.
3
From him Virāj was born; again Puruṣa from Virāj was born.
As soon as he was born he spread eastward and westward o’er the earth.
When Gods prepared the sacrifice with Puruṣa as their offering,
Its oil was spring, the holy gift was autumn; summer was the wood.
They balmed as victim on the grass Puruṣa born in earliest time.
With him the Deities and all Sādhyas and Ṛṣis sacrificed.
From that great general sacrifice the dripping fat was gathered up.
He formed the creatures of-the air, and animals both wild and tame.
From that great general sacrifice Ṛcas and Sāma-hymns were born:
Therefrom were spells and charms produced; the Yajus had its birth from it.
From it were horses born, from it all cattle with two rows of teeth:
From it were generated kine, from it the goats and sheep were born.
When they divided Puruṣa how many portions did they make?
What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?
The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rājanya made.
His thighs became the Vaiśya, from his feet the Śūdra was produced.
The Moon was gendered from his mind, and from his eye the Sun had birth;
Indra and Agni from his mouth were born, and Vāyu from his breath.
Forth from his navel came mid-air the sky was fashioned from his head
Earth from his feet, and from his car the regions.
Thus they formed the worlds.
Seven fencing-sticks had he, thrice seven layers of fuel were prepared,
When the Gods, offering sacrifice, bound, as their victim, Puruṣa.
Gods, sacrificing, sacrificed the victim these were the earliest holy
ordinances.
The Mighty Ones attained the height of heaven, there where the Sādhyas,
Gods of old, are dwelling. 6
The sacrifice of Puruṣa can be understood in both a cosmogonic and

eschatological sense. As RV 10.16 shows, the cremation ceremony
consummates the sacrifice of the human person (puruṣa), and the Brāhmaṇas
and Upaniṣads will often allude to the manner in which sense organs, the mind,
the spirit (praṇa), etc., belong to cosmic elements (sun, moon, heaven, etc.). 7
For example, the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (ŚB) says:
6
RV 10.90.1-16. (Griffith)
7
Let us notice that RV. 10.58 is possibly one of the earliest references to the theory of
reincarnation, for the hymn asks the departed, gone to the abode of Yama, have his mind (manas)
return to him, so he may live on the earth again:
“Your manas, that went far away to Yama to Vivasvat’s Son,
We cause to come to you again that you may live and sojourn here.
Your manas, that went far away, that passed away to earth and heaven,
Your manas, that went far away, away to the four-cornered earth,
Your manas, that went far away, to the four quarters of the world,
We cause to come to you again that you may live and sojourn here. (etc.)”
4
And when he who knows this passes away from this world, he passes into the
fire by his speech, into the sun by his eye, into the moon by his mind, into the
quarters by his ear, and into the wind by his breath; and being composed thereof,
he becomes whichever of these deities he chooses, and is at rest. 8
But let us proceed with the text of RV. 10.16. The following verse (4) states
that a goat is offered to Agni, that he burn it instead of the deceased:
Your portion is the goat, make it burn with your blaze; may your
incandescence, your flame consume it. These are your favorable bodies, O
Jātavedas, with them take him to the world of the virtuous (sukṛtām u lokam).
Release him once again to the Pitṛis, O Agni, him who offered libations
moves along with offerings. Putting on life, O Jātavedas, may he search for his
remains and unite with his body. 9
It is difficult to assert which “body” the deceased must unite with. Kahle
notices that it cannot be the ātman (soul), since verse 3 already made it go to
the wind. He thus proposes it could be the asu (spirit) mentioned in verse 2,
but points out something quite important:
Everything indicates that according to Vedic cosmology, it was inconceivable

that a being had no body, even if it was purely spiritual. The word used here for
“body” is tanū, which may refer to a body altogether, or to the personality or a
spiritual body, like the tanū of the gods. We cannot discard that it may refer to a
new physical body, as Witzel defends, assuming that the idea of the ancestors are
reborn in the same family conforms to the most ancient Vedic eschatology.
However, if we notice the context of the hymn, it seems more probable that we
are dealing with a type of spiritual corporality, coming from the corpse given to
the sacrificial fire and transformed by Agni Jātavedas, who disintegrates it into
its constituent elements and releases it of all mortal elements, conserving its
essence alone. 10
Indeed, the tanū is not only the “body”, but the “person” or “self”, later
referred to as the ātman. On the other hand, the “remains” (śeṣaḥ) may refer to
the bones of the deceased, elsewhere said to be buried underground.11 But they
might also be the very offerings which the person made during his permanence
on the earth, including his own life, offered with death and the cremation
8
ŚB 10.3.3.8. Cf. Bṛh. Up. 1.1 (Horse Sacrifice), 3.2 (Puruṣa’s destiny); Chā. Up. 6.7. The Bṛh.
Up. (1.5.17) makes it clear that the sacrifice of Puruṣa is equal to the cosmic sacrifice of the Puruṣa
Sūkta: “You are Brahman, you are the sacrifice, you are the world.”
9
RV 10.16.4-5.
10
Kahle, Madayo, El Surgimiento de la Doctrina de la Transmigración en la India, 2011a, pp.
194-5.
11
RV 10.18.10-13.
5
ceremony. Another term in question is the āyus (“life”) with which the
deceased is said to coat or dress himself. The term indeed means “life” and
indicates movement, and the context of the verses makes clear that the
deceased is made to take on life once again in the beyond.
RV 10.16 continues:
Whatever the black bird has taken from you, the ant, the serpent, or a wild
animal, may it be cured by all-devouring Agni and the Soma, which has pervaded
the brāmaṇas.
Enclose yourself with the hide of the cow as a shield against Agni, cover
yourself in fat and marrow; that bold and exulting Agni not embrace and devour
you with his flame.
O Agni, spill not this cup, loved by the gods and drinkers of Soma; this is the
drinking cup of the gods, with it the gods delight in immortality.
I send flesh-devouring Agni to a distance; may he go, taking sin along, with
the subjects of Yama. But let this other Jātavedas, knowing (the way) convey the
offering to the gods.
This flesh-devouring Agni has entered your dwelling; beholding this other
Jātavedas, I take this god for the offering to the Pitṛis, that he carry the oblation
of butter to the supreme place.
Agni the carrier of flesh, who makes the Cosmic Order (ṛtā) strong; may he
sacrifice in honor of the Pitṛis, announce the offerings before the gods and Pitṛis.
Desiring we establish you, desiring we kindle you; may you, desiring, bring
the desiring Piṭris to consume the offering. 12
Through the agency of Agni and Soma, the deceased is promised a cure
from any bodily damage caused by wild animals and death itself. But he must
also be protected from Agni’s power as “flesh-devouring” (kravyād) through
another sacrificial animal, the cow. Agni has two forms: one as the wild fire of
sacrifice that consumes the offering of the human person (puruṣa), another as
Jātavedas, capable of carrying the “oblation of butter” to the land of the Pitṛis.
The verses differentiate between the pure and impure elements of the
sacrifice, for “flesh devouring” Agni is made to take sin along with him to
Yama, while Jātavedas takes the offering to the gods, to the “supreme place”.
This contrast between the “sinful” and “pure” parts of the sacrifice is
emphasized by Agni’s role as strengthener of the Cosmic Order (ṛtā), and by
his two-fold nature as “flesh-devouring” (kravyād) and “carrier of flesh”
(kravyavāhana).
The final verse quoted above has Agni bring the Pitṛis close to consume the
offering. According to Kahle:
12
RV 10.16.6-11.
6
Agni Jātavedas must bring the Fathers close that they receive the offering.
Moreover, in these verses, we confirm that the way by which the immortals come
close to the sacrifice and the path through which the offerings move towards them
is the same. The path marked by Agni Jātavedas, through which both gods and
Fathers having attained the world of immortals come close to the ritual, is no
other than the ‘way through which the gods advance’ (devayāna), just as it is
principally conceived in the most recent books of the Ṛgveda.13
As we will see later on, the “path of the gods” (devayāna) forms an
important part in the eschatology of the Upaniṣads which deals with the theory
of transmigration. Kahle asserts here that such a path is originally the one that
communicates the realm of mortals and immortals at the moment of ritual
sacrifice, the same path made by Agni Jātavedas, the positive aspect of the Fire
God as “carrier of flesh” (kravyavāhana) and for the “guiding of the spirit”
(asunīti).
Hymn 10.16 ends with the two verses:
What you, O Agni, have burnt, spread it once more. May Kiyāmbu, Pākadūru
and Vyalkaśa (water-lilies) grow in this place.
In the coolness it cools; in bliss it produces bliss; bind with this frog, give joy
to this Agni.14
The place of the person’s cremation becomes fertile for the growing of
water-lilies, no doubt a symbolism of renewed life, for Agni spreads the ashes
about in this world, just as he carries the deceased’s spirit (asu) into the beyond.
Hymn RV 10.16 focuses on the sublimation of the “body” or “person” (tanū),
distinguishing pure and impure qualities that Agni, in his two-fold nature,
consumes or carries to the realm of immortality.
But to understand this old eschatology better, we must turn to the figure of
Yama, already mentioned in passing above, since the hymns that mention him
provide further insight into the oldest ideas of the beyond in Vedic literature.
13
RV 1.72.7, 1.162.4, 1.183.6, 3.58.5, 4.37.1, 10.51.5. (Kahle, 2011a, 198).
14
RV 10.16.13-14.
7
II. YAMA: KING OF THE DEAD

Mentioned a number of times in the Ṛigveda, Yama was considered the
First Ancestor of the old Indo-Iranians, the son of the solar god Vivasvat
(Iranian Vivanhat) and Saraṇyū. In Iranian mythology, he is known as Yima,
(later as Jamshid), and shares many traits with the oldest Yama of the Vedas. 15
Hymn 10.14 dedicated to Yama asks that one worship him with oblations,
for he brings mankind together, and “searches out and shows the path to
many.”16 “Yama first found for us a pathway” –the text continues, “this
pasture will never be taken from us. Through where our Fathers have gone,
those born have ascended, each by his own path.”17
The hymn then asks Yama and the Pitṛis to come forth at the bidding of the
priests, to “sit” on the offering and enjoy it: “we wish to enjoy their favor, those
worthy of the offering, their prosperous benevolence.”18 Yama and Varuṇa are
the “two sovereigns” who delight on what is properly theirs, and the hymn then
addresses the deceased:
Be united with the Pitṛs, with Yama, and with your offerings and gifts in the
highest heaven; leaving all iniquity behind, return to your abode, and unite
yourself to a luminous body.
Depart from here, be gone, go far off; the Pitṛs have assigned this place to
him, Yama gives him a place consecrated by days, streams and nights. 19
The next verses (10-12) ask that the departed pass along a secure path, that
Yama’s protecting dogs20 not impede their access to the heavenly abode. These
“two spotted four-eyed dogs, the progeny of Saramā” belong to a very ancient
Indo-European theme, paralleled in the figures of Cerberus, the three-headed
dog of Hades in Greek mythology, the Norse Garmr, the Slovenian four-eyed
dog of Kresnik, or the Hounds of Annun dogs in Welsh (Celtic) lore, who chase
the souls of the deceased.
The text continues:
Press the Soma for Yama, to Yama offer the libation; the prepared sacrifice
goes to Yama, transmitted by Agni.
15
On Yima, see: Zaehener, 1961, 134 ff.; Darmesteter, 1880, 10 ff.
16
RV. 10.14.1. (Kahle)
17
RV 10.14.2. (Kahle) Cf. AV 18.3.13: “(To him,) the first to die among mortals, the first to
precede us in this world; to the son of Vivasvat the reunite of men, to King Yama with offerings
venerate.”
18
RV 10.14.6. (Kahle)
19
RV 10.14.8-9. (Kahle & Griffith)
20
Cf. RV. 7.55.2-5; AV 5.30.6, 8.1.9, 8.2.11, 8.8.11, 18.2.12-13.
8
Offer Yama a libation of butter, lift it towards Yama that he mediate before
the gods in our favor, that we have long life.
Offer Yama the sweetest offering of the sacrifice. This invocation is for the
Wise (Ṛṣis), born in another time, the ancient ones who prepared the way.
Fly during the days of the Trikadruka;21 six are the spaces, one alone
immense. Triṣṭubh, gāyatrī, the meters, all these are based on Yama. 22
We once again find Agni as the carrier of the sacrifice towards the realm
of Piṭris and Gods. The sacrificing priests ask for long life as they invoke the
libation of butter, asking that Yama becomes their mediator with the Gods. The
path of the ancestors is summoned again, and as we learned form the first
verses of hymn 10.14, Yama was the First Ancestor who showed mankind the
path to an abode of immortality, to a “pasture” where light shines forever, and
where the Pirtis enjoy the offerings of men along with Gods.
A vivid description of this heavenly abode of Yama is found in another
hymn of the Ṛigveda:
Where light is perpetual, in the world in which the sun is placed, in that
immortal imperishable world place me, Pavamāna; flow, Indu, for Indra.
Where Vivasvat’s son is king, where the inner chamber of the sun (is), where
these great waters (are), there make me immortal; flow, Indu, for Indra.
Where in the third heaven, in the third sphere, the sun wanders at will, where
the regions are filled with light, there make me immortal; flow, Indu, for Indra.
Where wishes and desires (are), where the region of the sun (is), where food
and delight (are) found, there make me immortal; flow, Indu, for Indra.
Where there is happiness, pleasure, joy and enjoyment, where the wishes of
the wishers are obtained, there make me immortal; flow, Indu, for Indra. 23
Yama’s realm is placed in heaven, 24 one among three heavenly abodes

according to one passage, 25 and there shines an eternal light. It is the “world of
the virtuous” (sukṛtām ulokam) declared in RV 10.16.4, and as we saw from
verse 10.14.8, the deceased acquires a “luminous body” there.
Let us highlight that the idea of sacred Ancestors receiving offerings of
sacrifice, 26 and being elevated to an equal rank as the Gods, enjoying a
21
The Trikadruka was a ceremony carried out during the first three days of the “affliction”
(ābhiplava) festival that lasted a total of six. (RV. 1.32.3; 2.11.17; 2.15.1, 8.13.18, 8.92.21.)
22
RV. 10.14.13-16.
23
RV. 9.113.7-11. (Wilson).
24
There is a possibility that Yama’s abode was originally underground: Oldenberg, Die Religion
des Veda, Stuttgart, 1923, pp. 545-6; Zaehner, 1961, 135 (on Yima). Certain passages from the
Atharva Veda portray the abode of the Pitris underground (Bodewitz, Henk, Yonder World in the
Atharvaveda, Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. 42, 1999, pp. 107-20).
25
RV. 1.35.6: “Three are the spheres; two are in the proximity of Savitā, one leads men to the
dwelling of Yama.” (Wilson). Cf. 10.64.3: “To Yama in the heaven”.
26
RV. 10.15.
9
heavenly existence along with deities is an archaic notion. The idea of certain
Ancestors who lived in a mythical age of beginnings, could have preceded the
very idea of Deities or Gods, for the Yajur Veda frequently mentions how the
Gods themselves had to attain immortality in heaven, 27 and many archaic or
pre-civilized cultures conflate the idea of primordial Ancestors and Deities.
But let us now turn to another hymn from the Ṛigveda, where the departed
seems to become identified with Yama:
Soma is filtered for some (of the Pitrṣ), others accept clarified butter; go (O
dead one) to those to whom the honey flows.
To those who through penance are unassailable (by sin), to those who through
penance have gone to heaven, to those who have performed abundant penance,
do you (O dead one) go.
To those who engage in battles, heroes who have given up their lives, or who
have presented thousands of offerings, to them (O dead one) go.
Go, Yama, to those ascetic Pitaras, who are ancient, observers of truth,
speakers of truth, and augmenters of truth.
Go, Yama, to those ascetic Ṛṣis, the sons of penance, who protect the sun,
being leaders of thousands, and intelligent.28
From these words it is clear that the departed is requested to join the Pitṛis
and wise men of old (ṛṣis), those who have produced the ascetic fervor (tapas),
translated here, both as the noun “penance”, and as the adjective “ascetic”
adjoined to the Pitris and ṛṣis.
Another hymn dedicated to Yama in the Ṛigveda involves the symbolism
of the chariot, later evoked in the Upaniṣads:
In that leafy tree where Yama drinks with the gods, there the progenitor, the
lord of the house, invites us to join the men of old.
(At first) I beheld him with anguish inviting me to join the men of olden times,
and walking with that fell design; but afterwards I longed for him.
The new chariot, wheelless, single-poled, but turning everywhere, which you,
my child, mentally formed –you stand thereon though you see it not.
The chariot which you, my child, have driven down to me from the sages
above, the Sāman has driven it back again from hence placed on a ship.
Who has begotten the youth? Who has driven the chariot off? Who can tell
us how this destined state was made?
When this destined state was made, straightaway the point of flame appeared;
a depth extended in the front, a passage out was made behind.
This is the dwelling of Yama, which is called the home of the gods; this pipe
is sounded for him, he is propitiated by hymns. 29
27
Kahle, 2011a, 186, n. 17.
28
RV. 10.154.1-5.
29
RV. 10.135.1-7. (Griffith & Wilson with corrections)
10
At the very beginning, the deceased says he was at first anguished by the
invitation to join Yama and the Pitris, for the obvious reason that the path is
death itself. Another passage 30 likewise paints “Yama’s path” in a negative
tone, asking that one be spared from it. In another case, one asks to be free
from “Yama’s fetter”.31 This, again, is obviously death, and we may suppose
that when the Ṛigveda speaks of “a vesture spun by Yama” (7.33.9-12), it is
another allusion to death itself. Likewise, the dove mentioned in another
hymn32 is a messenger of death, and the text is quite explicit when it says: “to
him be reverence paid, to Death, to Yama.”
The protagonists of the hymn quoted above at first fears death, but changes
his mind and longs for Yama, before the text turns to the cryptic allegories of
the chariot. Many hymns of the Ṛigveda are quite as cryptic as this one. The
chariot, as later texts point out,33 is a symbol of Man, and so we may assume
that the new chariot, “wheelless, single-poled, but turning everywhere,” is a
description of man’s immortal essence.
Identification between the deceased and Yama is also found when we
encounter certain hymns speaking of a horse. RV 1.63.2-3 speaks of a “steed
which Yama gave”, and identifies the horse with Yama: “You are Yama, O
Horse…”.34 However, RV 10.56 identifies the deceased with the horse:
This is one, beyond there is another; bind with the third light. By that union
of your body (with the third light), become beautiful, dear to the Gods, in your
highest birthplace.
May your body, O victorious horse (vājin), carrying your body, give us
wealth, and well-being to you; may you, without stumbling, enter among the great
gods, changing your own light as the heavens.
Your are the victorious horse (vājin) with victorious strength, seek praise
desirous, well-being in heaven; well-being in the primordial sustenance, with
truth, go well to the gods, well throughout the course of your flight.35
The term used to denote the horse here is Vājin, from vāja: “swift, spirited,
strong, procreative, potent, impetuous, heroic, warlike.” It denotes a masculine
power, that of a steed or stallion, and various authors summoned the Vedic
horse-sacrifice (aśvamedha) in allusion to these verses. 36 For our current
30
RV. 1.38.4-5.
31
RV. 1.97.16.
32
RV. 10.165.1-5.
33
Kaṭha Up. 1.3.3-4.
34
Cf. RV. 1.116.2.
35
RV. 10.56.1-3. (Kahle)
36
RV. 1.162; 1.163.
11
purpose, it will suffice to point out that the later Upaniṣads made the horse-
sacrifice analogous to the sacrifice of Puruṣa.37
Another cryptic allusion to Yama is found in RV 10.12.6:
Tis hard to understand the Immortal’s nature, where she who is akin becomes
a stranger. Guard ceaselessly, great Agni, him who ponders Yama’s name, easy
to be comprehended.38
Yama’s name means “Twin”,39 and the only allusion to his other half is
found in one of the most intriguing allusions to Yama in the Ṛigveda, namely,
in a dialogue he has with his twin sister Yami. 40 Yama’s sister approaches him
and desires to have sexual intercourse together, recalling how the primordial
Gods mated despite their kinship. Yama refuses, reminding his sister that the
Gods see all things, and that there is someone who “punishes men with hell”.
One could ask here whether that “Immortal’s nature” spoken of above is
not personified in Yami, a consideration that would push us to affirm that
Yama’s rejection of his twin sister symbolizes his rejection of immortality
itself… It is difficult to assert whether Yama is immortal or not. RV. 1.83.5
speaks of “Yama’s deathless birth”, or as “the immortal, who was born”, but
his designation as the First Ancestor and the first to show the path to the
heavenly realm of immortality, could very well imply that he had to die, as all
his progeny must.41
Some insight may be gathered in other references to Yama in the RV. One
hymn honors the Havirdhāna, that is, the receptacle of sacrifice, “the vehicle
in which the Soma plants are conveyed to be pressed.”42
I yoke with prayer your ancient inspiration: may the laud rise as on the
prince's pathway. All Sons of Immortality shall hear it, all the possessors of
celestial natures.
[…]
37
Bṛh. Up. 1.1.1-1.2-7.
38
RV. 10.12.6. (Griffith). Wilson’s translation: “Hard to understand is the nature of the immortal,
for although of one origin, she is of a different form; cherish him diligently, great Agni, who
understands Yama’s nature [manavate] easy to be understood.” The term manavate means “name”.
39
Other etymologies may be found in the RV. For example, in RV 10.14.14: sa no deveṣv ā yamad
(“may he take us to the gods”). There is a play with the root yam- meaning “to
control/subdue/guide/carry/drive”. According to Nirukta 10.20, the name Yama is derived from
yam-, so the name may very well mean “Tamer/Driver” [RV 8.24.22 y 8.92.11], though the word
yama is at times taken to mean “twin” instead of a proper name, such as RV 5.59.2. (Kahle, 2011a,
231, n. 876.)
40
RV. 10.10.1-14.
41
Griffiths and Wilson’s translations respectively. RV. 10.17.1 adds that Yama’s mother,
Vivasvat’s spouse, “vanished as she was carried to her dwelling.” (Griffith)
42
Monier-Williams, Monier, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1899, p. 1293.
(https://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/index.php?sfx=pdf)
12
He, for God's sake, chose death to be his portion. He chose not, for men's
good, a life eternal. They sacrificed Brhaspati the Rsi. Yama delivered up his own
dear body. 43
As is obvious to the reader by now, the hymns of the Veda require

interpretation, and these offer different translations and meanings. Griffith has
the text say: “Yama delivered up his own body”, implying that he made an
original sacrifice of immortality, though he must have later gained it in his
heavenly abode, while Wilson has: “What death did he choose for the gods,
what immortality did he not choose for men?”, adding that the meaning is: “he
does not take our life away as a consequence of a fault arising from a defect in
our worship.”
The myths of Yama as First Ancestor and the first to clear the path to
immortality are surely pre-Vedic, and they give us a bit of insight into the most
archaic eschatological ideas that preceded those later introduced by Hindu
culture. Several passages from the Ṛigveda speak of man’s yearning for
immortality, 44 but one is quite explicit:
On the high ridge of heaven he stands exalted, yea, to the Gods he goes, the
liberal giver. The streams, the waters flow for him with fatness: to him this
guerdon ever yields abundance.
For those who give rich meeds are all these splendours, for those who give
rich meeds suns shine in heaven. The givers of rich meeds are made immortal;
the givers of rich fees prolong their lifetime.45
We see that immortality is granted to pious men, especially because of their

commitment to sacrifice to the Gods. With death, these pious men transit the
“path of Yama” leading to the First Ancestor’s abode in the heavens, where
light forever shines, and the deceased acquires a luminous body, enjoying the
company of the Gods and Pitris, feasting on the offerings of mortals.
The figure of Yama is important because, as the First Ancestor, he seems
to have renounced godly immortality in order to become the procreator of
mankind. His “path” is or presupposes death, and to some extent, Yama is the
archetype of Death itself. Although it is rather uncertain whether Yama
43
RV. 10.13.1, 4. (Griffith). Wilson gives two translations for the fourth verse: “Whom has he
selected as the slayer of the gods? Whom has he not selected as non-slayer of the above-mentioned
are necessarily present while the business of the bringing of the oblation is in progress, Yama does
not send any of his men as the destroyer.
(Another translation: What death did he choose for the gods, what immortality did he not choose
for men? i.e., Yama ordained that gods should not die, and that men should receive immortality;
Yama preserves our loved bodies: […] the meaning is: he does not take our life away as a
consequence of a fault arising from a defect in our worship.)”
44
RV. 1.31.7; 5.55.4; 5.63.2.
45
RV. 1.125.5-6 (Griffith).
13
III. RENEWED DEATH AND SECOND BIRTH IN THE BRĀHMAṆAS
regained his lost immortality, this can be inferred from his exalted position in
the abode of immortal Pitṛis and Gods.
These questions are of course central to the later interpretations of death
and immortality presented in the Upaniṣads, for certain changes are made from
these archaic conceptions of death and immortal life, with the introduction of
the theory of transmigration, so far unheard of.
III. RENEWED DEATH AND SECOND BIRTH IN THE BRĀMAṆAS

With the Brāhmaṇas, the abode of the departed is seldom associated with
Yama, but the association of that heavenly realm with the Pitṛis remains. More
importantly, we encounter the idea of a “renewed death” (punarmṛtyu). Much
has been discussed as to whether this “second death” should be understood as
a reincarnation in this world, or a second death in the beyond. 46
Paul Deussen understands this punarmṛtyu of the Brāhmaṇas as another
death in the hereafter, and he offers a great summary of its mentions in such
texts:
With especial frequency do we meet with the fear that, instead of the hoped
for immortality (amṛitatvam, the “not-dying-any-more-ness “) a renewed death
(punarmṛityu, death over again) may await man in the other world, and to avoid
this all kinds of means are provided. “He who builds up or knows the Nachiketas
fire, he escapes renewed death.” [TB 3. 11. 8. 6] “He who celebrates the day of
the equinox [actually summer solstice], he overcomes hunger and renewed
death.” [KB 25. 1] “He therefore who knows this escape from death in the
agnihotram is delivered from renewed death” [ŚB 2. 3. 3. 9]; “The yajamāna,
who builds up the fire, becomes the divinity of the fire, and vanquishes thereby
renewed death.” [ŚB 10. 1. 4. 14] “He who knows how hunger flees before food,
thirst before drink, misfortune before happiness, darkness before light, death
before immortality, before him all these flee, and he escapes renewed death.” [ŚB
10. 2. 6. 19] A like escape is his who builds up the fire in the appointed way, [ŚB
10. 5. 1.4] offers an appointed sacrifice, [ŚB 11. 4, 3. 20] in the appointed way
studies the Veda. [ŚB 11.5.6.9] Thus “escape from renewed death” becomes
finally a stereotyped formula, [ŚB 10.6.1.4 ff.] which is occasionally employed
even where it seems to give no meaning. [ŚB 12.9.3.11] We meet it even in the
texts of the older Upanishads: –He escapes recurrent death who knows that death
is his own self, [Bṛh. Up. 1.2.7] that sacrifices to the ātman avail, [Bṛh. Up. 1.5.2]
that there is a water to quench the fire of death, [Bṛh. Up. 3.2.10] that the wind is
the sum and substance of all. [Bṛh. Up. 3.3.2] That this renewed death is to be
understood of a repeated dying in the other world is taught especially by two
passages : –”Accordingly he brings his fathers, who are mortal, to a condition of
46
Mendoza, 2012, 570, n. 4 quotes: Horsch, 1971, 136-9; Converse, 1971, 378; Bodewitz, 1996,
34-8; Beck, 1996, 110; Kahle, 2011a, 324-33.
14
immortality, and causes them who are mortal to rise again from out of the
condition of immortality ; in truth, he who knows this averts renewed death from
his fathers.” [ŚB 12.9.3.12] “They then who know this or do this work rise again
after death, and when they rise again they rise to immortality; but they who do
not know this or fail to do this work rise again after death, and become again and
again its prey.” [ŚB 10.4.3.10]47
Once again, the question here is whether this “renewed death”

(punarmṛtyu) should be understood as a reincarnation in this world, or a second
death in the beyond. In studying the texts from the Brāhmaṇas that mention
this “renewed death”, Mendoza points out that a certain ceremony was
involved, namely, the viṣuvant rite held on the summer solstice, mistakenly
taken for the equinox by Deussen. The Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa (KB) states:
He (the sun) goes northwards during six months, then for six it takes the
inverse course. Without this there is hunger and renewed death; they conquer
hunger and renewed death who realize the viṣuvant.48
According to this text, it was the celebration of the summer solstice rite that
provided one the ability to escape “renewed death”, and KB 25.7-8 makes this
explicit: “they obtain immortality who realize the day of Viṣuvant.”
Like Deussen, Mendoza believes the original meaning of this renewed
death in the Brāhmaṇas speaks of a death in the hereafter, not here as could be
understood through the theory of reincarnation. 49 She finds that one text from
the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa (JB), part of the Sāmaveda, reveals this rather clearly.
The text is the first to stipulate the doctrine of the Five Fires that we will later
come back to, though it must be noticed that it is believed to be a later addition:
And when he goes to yonder world, his (funeral) fire is Agni Vaiśvānara. Its
fuel is the herbs and trees, its flame is just the flame (of the fire), its smoke just
the smoke, its sparks just the sparks, its coals just the coals. In this same Agni
Vaiśvānara the gods day by day offer man [puruṣa]. From this oblation when it
has been offered man comes into existence (and goes) to yonder world. That is
for him the world in which he resurges.
Of that god who shines here night and day, the half-months, the months, the
seasons and the year are the guards. Night and day are forerunners (who announce
his coming). To him one of the seasons [Ṛtus], who has a hammer in his hand,
comes down along a ray of light and asks him: “Who art thou, man?” In case he
has some (but not the perfect) knowledge he may withhold (his name from the
interrogator). Then he strikes at him (with his hammer). Of him when he has been
stopped the good works disappear in three parts. He (i.e. the Ṛtu) takes one third.
47
Deussen, 1906, 326-7.
48
Kauṣītaki Brāhmaṇa (KB) 25.1. cf. Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (AB), 4.22.
49
Mendoza, 2012, 572-3.
15
One third diffuses in the air. Together with one third he (i.e. the deceased)
descends in the direction of this world. The world which is won by him on account
of his gifts, in that he stops. Thereupon even him Death ultimately reaches.
Repeated dying [punarmṛtyu] is not overcome by him who knows (only) thus. 50
What is important to underline is that the deceased is here rejected by the

Season (Ṛtu) because he does not possess perfect knowledge of who he is. This
is of course the knowledge of the Self (Ātman), the theme central to the
Upaniṣads that makes its first appearance in the Brāhmaṇas.
The deceased person (puruṣa) falls into that “renewed death” because he
lacks the knowledge of Ātman: the viṣuvant rite itself is thus ineffective on its
own. This is a very important point, because the Brāhmaṇas often make clear
that there is an ontological sense to Vedic rituals. 51 In other words, one has to
understand that the sacrificial rites ultimately refer to oneself. This is important
because it means that the passages referring to Vedic rites can be interpreted
in two ways. In an exoteric sense, one perceives ritual acts and hears about
Gods linked to those acts, and so understands that it is those acts offered to the
Gods that bring immortality. In an esoteric sense, however, one understands
that the ritual acts are only symbols or external expressions of an inner process
in oneself, and so the Gods, along with the elements of ritual sacrifice, are
made analogous to things within or relating to the human person (puruṣa).
ŚB 11.2.6.13-4 summarizes this idea when its says:
As to this they ask, 'Who is the better one, the self-offerer, or the god-offerer?'
Let him say, 'The self-offerer;' for a self-offerer, doubtless, is he who knows, 'This
my (new) body is formed by that (body of Yajña, the sacrifice), this my (new)
body is procured thereby.' And even as a snake frees itself from its skin, so does
he free himself from his mortal body, from sin; and made up of the Ṛc, the Yajus,
the Sāman, and of offerings, does he pass on to the heavenly world.
And a god-offerer, doubtless, is he who knows, 'I am now offering sacrifice
to the gods, I am serving the gods,' –such a one is like an inferior who brings
tribute to his superior, or like a man of the people who brings tribute to the king:
verily, he does not win such a place (in heaven) as the other. 52
As in all religious texts, one’s interpretation or exegesis depends on

whether one is capable of penetrating the hidden or esoteric meaning. To set
an example, we can summon ŚB 10.4.3, a text that tells how the Year is Death,
and that this is none other than the Procreator of all things, Prajāpati. The Gods
were afraid of him, for they feared he could end their lives. So the Gods
performed all kinds of sacrifices, last of all the building of the fire-altar.
50
JB 1.45-6. (Bodewitz, Hendrik W., Jaiminiya Brahmana I, 1-65, Leiden, 1973, p. 115.)
51
Kahle, 2011a, 337-8.
52
ŚB 11.2.6.13-4.
16
However, Prajāpati tells them that their way of building the fire-altar was
wrong, and so instructs them on how to do it correctly. When the Gods
followed Prajāpati’s instructions, they became immortal.
Death spake unto the gods, 'Surely, on this wise all men will become
immortal, and what share will then be mine?' They spake, 'Henceforward no one
shall be immortal with the body: only when thou shalt have taken that (body) as
thy share, he who is to become immortal either through knowledge, or through
holy work, shall become immortal after separating from the body.' Now when
they said, 'either through knowledge or through holy work,' it is this fire-altar that
is the knowledge, and this fire-altar that is the holy work.
And they who so know this, or they who do this holy work, come to life again
when they have died, and, coming to life, they come to immortal life. But they
who do not know this, or do not do this holy work, come to life again when they
die, and they become the food of him (Death) time after time.
But when he builds the fire-altar, he thereby gains Agni, Prajāpati, the Year,
Death, the Ender, whom the gods gained; it is him he lays down even as the gods
thus laid him down. 53
One can interpret the passage to mean that one attains immortality through
knowledge (vidyā) of building the fire-altar, and that ritual practice (karma) is
likewise a path to immortality. However, if the fire-altar refers to oneself in the
esoteric sense, then knowledge of building the fire-altar means something more
than a science about something external, and so does ritual practice related to
that “fire-altar”.
Verse 10 here not only speaks of a rebirth in the immortal realm, but of
another subject to death, where those who do not possess knowledge (vidyā)
and do not perform ritual activity (karma) become death’s “food”. Hence, we
have a passage already implying the idea of reincarnation. But we also see how
immortality is described as a “coming to life” once again, as a “second birth”.54
The “second” birth is of a spiritual nature, exoterically understood as a rebirth
in the hereafter, yet esoterically understood as a rebirth here and now, through
the acquisition of sacred knowledge.
If we return to the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa, where we found a description of
the Season (Ṛtu) rejecting the deceased for not knowing his true identity, we
already see how it is self-knowlegde that leads one to immortality, not merely
an exoteric knowledge of how to perform rites.
In earlier chapters of the the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa, we encounter the
doctrine of two selves (ātman) indicated as this “second birth”:
53
ŚB 10.4.3.9-11. cf. ŚB 10.1.4.1-14.
54
The later Manusmṛiti no doubt coined the term “twice-born” (dvija) from this archaic notion,
already present in the Brāhmaṇas.
17
Two wombs, indeed, there are. The divine womb is the one, the human womb
the other. There are, indeed, also two worlds. The divine world is the one, the
human world the other.
The human womb is (related to) the human world. It is the generative organ
of the woman. Out of that progeny is born. Therefore also one should desire a
good wife (thinking:) “Let my Self [Ātman] come into existence in something
good.” Therefore also one should seek to watch over one’s wife (thinking:) “Lest
in my womb, in my world somebody else come into existence”. When he is about
to come into existence (during the coitus) the lifebreaths [prāṇas] enter first, then
the seed is emitted. He (sc. the prāṇa) turns the lifebreaths to the (corresponding)
orifices. Therefore also one is born with those very characteristics which he (the
father) possesses, although in semen (itself) there is no differentiation.
And the āhavanīya55 is the divine womb, (which means) the divine world.
That one, forsooth, is the divine womb, the divine world. Therefore if anyone
would offer in the gārhapatya56, one might think of him: “He does what should
not be done”. If he who correctly acts (by offering in the āhavanīya) offers, then
he thereby emits his Self in this divine womb. That Self of his comes into
existence in yonder sun. He who knows thus has two Selves and two wombs. One
Self and one womb has he who does not know this. When knowing thus one
departs from this world the lifebreath ascends first. It announces to the gods the
quantity: “So much good, so much evil has been done by him”. Thereupon he
(i.e. the body) rises up along with the smoke (of the funeral pyre).
Of that one (who gives out heat) the seasons are doorkeepers. To them he
should announce himself with this (verse):
“O, Seasons, from the radiant one, which is pressed out every half month,
from the one who is connected with the pitṛs the seed is produced. As such you
sent me in a man as your agent. From that man, your agent, you emitted me in a
mother. Thus I am produced, being added to itself by the twelvefold (year) as the
additional, thirteenth month. This I know, of this I am sure. So lead me, O
Seasons, to immortality”.
Him the seasons lead. As one who knows (leads) one who also knows, as one
who understands one who understands also, so the seasons lead him. They convey
him across. He comes to the one who gives out heat.
At his arrival he (the sun) asks him: “Who art thou?” To him who announces
himself by his (personal) name or by his family (name) he says: “That Self of
yours that has been in me, that is yours (again)”. After that Self has been received
back the seasons from all sides run towards him, grasp him by his feet and drag
him away. Night and day take possession of his world.
He should announce himself to him (the sun) with these words: “Ka (who)
am I, thou art heaven. As such I have gone to thee, the heavenly heaven”.
Prajāpati indeed is Ka and he who knows thus is suvargas (heaven; sun). For he
55
“Consecrated fire taken from the householder's perpetual fire and prepared for receiving
oblations.” (Monier-Williams)
56
“The householder's fire (received from his father and transmitted to his descendants, one of the
three sacred fires, being that from which sacrificial fires are lighted / the government of a family,
position of a householder, household”. (Monier-Williams)
18
goes to heaven (suvar gacchati). To him he (the sun) says: “Who thou art, that
one am I. Who I am, that one thou art. Come.” He approaches that essence of
good deeds.
His sons enter upon his inheritance, the Fathers upon (the effects of) his good
conduct. He who knows thus has two selves and two inheritances. If without
knowing this one offers the agnihotra one has only one self and one inheritance. 57
This text shows us how immortality is achieved through a new and divine
birth. One’s prāṇa ascends first into the divine realm and announces ones good
and evil deeds, and so one encounters the sun’s doorkeepers, the Seasons or
Ṛtus who in the text quoted earlier hammered the deceased into pieces, for he
did not know who (ka) he was. The person (puruṣa) offers his prāṇa or
“lifebreath” into the fire and “thereby emits his Self in this divine womb.” The
womb is the immortal, divine, and heavenly world, and one’s immortal self or
ātman is born in the sun beyond. “He who knows thus has two Selves and two
wombs” –the text declares, but those who lack this knowledge of a second and
immortal birth only have the bodily self.
The divine self, rising behind the prāṇas, declares to the seasons that he
knows how they sent him to be born: “you sent me in a man as your agent.
From that man, your agent, you emitted me in a mother. Thus I am produced.
[…] This I know, of this I am sure. So lead me, O Seasons, to immortality.”
So the seasons lead him to the sun, and the latter asks him who he is. 58 Now
the texts warns that there is a wrong answer, given by one who announces
himself by his worldly identity: “That Self of yours that has been in me, that is
yours (again).” If one answers thus, the seasons drag him back to the world of
night and day. The correct answer implies an identification with the sun, for
the sun responds: “Who thou art, that one am I. Who I am, that one thou art.”
It is perhaps here, with the doctrine of two ātmans, that the later theory of
reincarnation finds its origin. The rejected ātman’s return to the realm of night
and day implies a new terrestrial birth, and it does not seem accidental that the
oldest Upaniṣads rely on JB to expose the first theories of reincarnation (see
below). For example, Kahle states that the first explicit mention to
reincarnation is found in the Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa (JUB), not to be
confused with the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa quoted earlier:
These ṛṣis, born of old, who compose the mantras, are reborn again to protect
the well-being of the Vedas.
Truly, Vainya, those who know proclaim this, that the person (puruṣa) has
been established here in manifold ways. 59
57
JB 1.17-18. (Bodewitz, 1973, 53-5)
58
Notice how it is not the Season who asks, as it happens in JB 1.45-6.
59
JUB 1.45.1-2 (Kahle, 2011a, 389).
19
ŚB 13.8.4 makes a rather specific reference to reincarnation as well. The

text continues from the previous sections (13.8.1-3), where allusion is made to
a sepulchral mound. The priests fix pegs around it, made of specific plants, and
place stones in furrows along with milk and water, offering certain prayers
with hopes that the deceased be rid of sin. The Adhvaryu priest and the
members of the sacrificer’s family cleanse themselves with certain plants and
bathe themselves with water:
They bathe at any place where there is water. [Saying]: 'May the waters and
plants be friendly unto us!' he takes water with his joined hands, –for water is a
thunderbolt: with the thunderbolt he thus makes friendship, –and [saying],
'Unfriendly may they be unto him who hateth us, and whom we hate!' he throws
it in the direction in which he who is hateful to him may be, and thereby
overthrows him.
And if it be standing water, it makes their (the bathers’) evil stop; and if it
flows, it carries away their evil. Having bathed, and put on garments that have
never yet been washed, they hold on to the tail of an ox, and return (to their home),
–for the ox is of Agni's nature: headed by Agni they thus return from the world
of the Fathers to the world of the living. And Agni, indeed, is he who leads one
over the paths (one has to travel), and it is he who leads these over.
They proceed (towards the village) muttering this verse: 'From out of the
gloom have we risen . . .' –from the gloom, the world of the Fathers, they now
indeed approach the light, the sun. When they have arrived, ointments for the eyes
and the feet are given them: such, indeed, are human means of embellishment,
and therewith they keep off death from themselves.60
Though this is only a ritual performed by the deceased’s relatives, the idea
of a return from the world of the Pitṛis, from a realm of darkness into the light
of day, is a rather clear allusion to a process of reincarnation. However, we
must point out that the Brāhmaṇas expound a theory of how male children are
extensions of their fathers, literally a “self born from the self”, 61 so the idea
behind the sepulchral rite where the Pitṛis return to the realm of the living
implies that the sons of the deceased are his “reincarnation”.
On the other hand, JB likewise speaks of certain people who “arose from
death”, having contemplated Yama’s abode, 62 and we also find the story of a
father and his son dying, visiting the hereafter, while the son alone returns. 63
As Mendoza points out, the Brāhmaṇas still use the old term asu besides
ātman in alluding to the spiritual essence that leaves the body and attains
immortality, but the latter term will become prominent in identifying the
60
ŚB 13.8.4.5-7.
61
AB 7.13.6.
62
JB 1.167.
63
JB 2.160-161. (Kahle, 2011a, 321)
20
ultimate essence of the human person or puruṣa in the Upaniṣads. According

to her interpretation, the reaching of the sun means that the deceased has
reached the ultimate agent of time, and in surpassing the sun towards heaven,
he reaches the world of the Piṭris and Gods. As ŚB 2.3.3.10 puts it: “Now
yonder burning (sun) doubtless is no other than Death; and because he is
Death, therefore the creatures that are on this side of him die. But those that
are on the other side of him are the gods, and they are therefore immortal.”
Scholars disagree on whether the Brāhmaṇas already present a notion of
transmigration or not. Mendoza states that the doctrine of punarmṛtyu does not
imply reincarnation, but conforms to an older eschatological idea that later
bridges the old Vedic eschatology and that of the Upaniṣads.
We believe, therefore, that the doctrine of punarmṛtyu is not bound to the

doctrine of transmigration, but corresponds to an earlier strata in which Vedic
eschatological beliefs are being subject to revision and reconfiguring themselves,
in the context of a growing interest of the religious elites about the problem of
destiny after death and the Hereafter.
It does not have a direct relationship with the classical doctrine of
reincarnation, but no doubt constitutes a link in the ideological chain that leads to
it.64
On the other hand, Kahle’s in-depth analysis of the doctrine of punarmṛtyu

and other possible references in the Brāhmaṇas to transmigration, has him
conclude that the doctrine is already implicit on the later Brāhmaṇas, although
no theory has yet been established as to how this cycle works. 65
64
Mendoza, 2012, 579.
65
Kahle, 2011a, 367-70
21
IV. FIVE FIRES AND TWO WAYS

The earliest Upaniṣads interpreted certain passages from the Vedas and
Brāhmaṇas as esoteric allusions to the cycle of transmigration. They thus
joined two ideas in expounding the theory of reincarnation: (1) The doctrine of
the Five Fires, 66 and (2) the doctrine of the Two Ways. 67 Both are presented
together in Bṛh. Up. and Chā. Up., but we must first notice that the origin of
the first is the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa (JB) we have just covered.
It is in JB 1.45-6 that the doctrine of the Five Fires (pañcāgnividyā) first
appears. Although a section of this text was already quoted above, we will
quote it here in full:
The one that shines here (the sun), that is Agni Vaiśvānara. Its fuel is the
night, its flame the day, its smoke the rays of the sun, its sparks the stars, its coals
the moon. In this same Agni Vaiśvānara the gods day by day offer immortality,
the (heavenly) waters. From this oblation when it has been offered King Soma
comes into existence.
The thunder is Agni Vaiśvānara. Its fuel is heaven, its flame the lightning, its
smoke the clouds, its sparks the hailstones, its coals the thunderbolt. In this same
Agni Vaiśvānara the gods day by day offer King Soma. From this oblation when
it has been offered rain comes into existence.
The earth is Agni Vaiśvānara. Its fuel is the atmosphere, its flame the fire, its
smoke the wind, its sparks the shining motes in the air, its coals the quarters. In
this same Agni Vaiśvānara the gods day by day offer rain. From this oblation
when it has been offered food comes into existence.
Man is Agni Vaiśvānara. Its fuel is speech, its flame sight, its smoke breath,
its sparks mind, its coals hearing. In this same Agni Vaiśvānara the gods day by
day offer food. From this oblation when it has been offered seed comes into
existence.
Woman is Agni Vaiśvānara. Its fuel is the vagina, its flame the vulva, its
smoke desire (?), its sparks the feelings of enjoyment, its coals the coitus. In this
same Agni Vaiśvānara the gods day by day offer seed. From this oblation when
it has been offered man comes into existence.
Thus in this fifth creation man is born from the gods. At the fifth creation the
divine waters speak with a human voice.
And when he goes to yonder world, his (funeral) fire is Agni Vaiśvānara. Its
fuel is the herbs and trees, its flame is just the flame (of the fire), its smoke just
the smoke, its sparks just the sparks, its coals just the coals. In this same Agni
Vaiśvānara the gods day by day offer man [puruṣa]. From this oblation when it
has been offered man comes into existence (and goes) to yonder world. That is
for him the world in which he resurges.
JB 1.45-6; Bṛh. Up. 6.2.9-14; Chā. Up. 5.3-9.

66
RV 10.88.15 (?); ŚB 2.1.3.1-5; 12.7.3.7-12; Bṛh. Up. 6.2.15-16; Chā. Up. 4.15.5; 5.10; Kauṣītaki
67
Up. 1.2.
22
Of that god who shines here night and day, the half-months, the months, the
seasons and the year are the guards. Night and day are forerunners (who announce
his coming). To him one of the seasons [Ṛtus], who has a hammer in his hand,
comes down along a ray of light and asks him: “Who art thou, man?” In case he
has some (but not the perfect) knowledge he may withhold (his name from the
interrogator). Then he strikes at him (with his hammer). Of him when he has been
stopped the good works disappear in three parts. He (i.e. the Ṛtu) takes one third.
One third diffuses in the air. Together with one third he (i.e. the deceased)
descends in the direction of this world. The world which is won by him on account
of his gifts, in that he stops. Thereupon even him Death ultimately reaches.
Repeated dying [punarmṛtyu] is not overcome by him who knows (only) thus.
[…] Of him when he has caught fire, the smoke (dhūma) shakes off the body.
Because it shakes off (dhunoti) therefore it is dhuna. In fact it is dhuna by name.
They call it mystically dhūma in a mystic way of speaking. For the gods are fond
of the mystic.68 From the smoke he goes to the night, from the night to the day,
from the day to the half-month of the waning moon, from the half-month of the
waning moon to the half-month of the waxing moon, from the half-month of the
waxing moon to the month. There in the month both the body [śarīraṃ] and the
life-spirit [asu] come together. To him one of the seasons, who has a hammer in
his hand, comes down along a ray of light and asks him: “Who art thou, man?”
Him he should answer:
“O, Seasons, from the radiant one, which is pressed out every half month,
from the one which is connected with the pitṛs the seed is produced”. –That they
offer there the radiant King Soma, that (is meant by) this.
“As such you sent me in a man as your agent”. –For they send him here in a
man as their agent.
“From that man, your agent, you emitted me in a mother”. –For he (the father)
emits him in a mother.
“Thus I am produced, being added by the thirteenfold one as the additional
month of the twelve”. –It is the thirteenfold one which burns here.
“This I know, of this I am sure. So lead me, O Seasons, to immortality,
through the twelve- or thirteenfold father, through this mother, through this faith,
through this food, through this truth. Day is my father, night my mother. I am
truth. So lead me, O Seasons, to immortality”.
Him the seasons take with them. As one who knows one who likewise knows,
as one who understands one who likewise understands so the seasons take him
with them. They admit him (to heaven). He who knows thus is not a human being;
he is one of the gods if he has this knowledge. The fathers and grandfathers, swift
as thought, approach him (saying): “What, dear son, have you brought us?” He
should answer them: “Whatever good I have done that is yours”. His sons enter
upon his inheritance, his fathers upon (the effect of) his good deeds, his enemies
upon (the effect of) his evil deeds. Having thus made this threefold division he
goes to coexistence in one world with the one that burns here. 69
68
Cf. Bṛh. Up. 4.2.2.
69
JB 1.45-6, 49-50. (Bodewitz, 1973, 114-6)
23
As we have seen, successful access to immortality in the Jaiminīya

Brāhmaṇa comes through knowledge of how the earthly form of puruṣa is
produced by the sun, seasons, and time, and that time will run out with death,
bringing about the sacrifice of the human person. One attains immortality as a
rebirth in heaven, by the doctrine of two ātmans or selves through which man
understands he has a divine and spiritual identity besides his corporeal and
material one. This doctrine is one where the authors of the Brāhmaṇas sought
to explain how to avoid that “renewed death” (punarmṛtyu), and as we have
seen, the whole idea behind the summoning of seasons, months, days, and time
lapses in general is to surpass them, to surpass the elements of time and
mortality altogether. It is only when the spirit or spiritual self of the deceased
passes the days and half-months as inferior and shorter periods of time, that he
reaches the ultimate source of time: the yearly seasons fixed by the sun. It is
through the path of such time-cycles that one attains the realm beyond the sun
as the main instrument of time. So one attains the realm of immortality, the
abode of Yama, the Pitṛis and Gods in the old eschatology.
The Brāhmaṇas gradually diminished the prominence of Yama’s figure,
and moreover separated the Pitṛis from the Gods quite decisively, mounting
the true self of one’s being to supremacy, even beyond the Gods. So images of
immortality shifted, and the authors of the Upaniṣads further changed archaic
notions of immortality, steering further away from the old heavenly realm of
Yama and the ancestors. Now the “path of the Pitṛis” is the path of return, of
reincarnation, while only the “path of the Gods” leads to immortality.
Let us begin with the doctrine of the Five Fires presented in the Bṛh.
Up. King Pravāhaṇa Jaivali asks a young Śvetaketu, the son of Āruṇi, whether
he knows the paths through which beings go into the hereafter, and the latter
answers he does not. The king once again asks if he knows not how beings
come back to this world, what is to be offered so that the “waters” acquire a
human voice and speak. Once again, Śvetaketu answers negatively, and so
Pravāhaṇa Jaivali quotes RV. 10.88.15.
Śvetaketu returns to his father Gautama and complains he has not received
this teaching from him. So Gautama goes to the court of the king, and the latter
declares that such knowledge was never granted to any brahmin. King
Pravāhaṇa utters a series of declarations that make analogies between the
elements of the sacrifice (altar, fire, coals, sparks, libation, etc.) and the human
person (puruṣa).
A fire –that’s what the world up there is, Gautama. Its firewood is the sun; its
smoke is the sunbeams; its flame is the day; its embers are the quarters; and its
sparks are the intermediate quarters. In that very fire gods offer faith, and from
that offering springs King Soma.
24
A fire –that’s what a rain cloud is, Gautama. Its firewood is the year; its smoke
is the thunderclouds; its flame is lightning; its embers are thunder; and its sparks
are hail. In that very fire gods offer King Soma, and from that offering springs
rain.
A fire –that’s what this world down here is, Gautama. Its firewood is the
earth; its smoke is the fire; its flame is the night; its embers are the moon; and its
sparks are the constellations. In that very fire gods offer rain, and from that
offering springs food.
A fire –that’s what a man [puruṣa] is, Gautama. His firewood is the open
mouth; his smoke is breath [prāṇa]; his flame is speech; his embers are sight; and
his sparks are hearing. In that very fire gods offer food, and from that offering
springs semen.
A fire –that’s what a woman [yoṣā] is, Gautama. Her firewood is the vulva;
her smoke is the pubic hair; her flame is the vagina; when one penetrates her, that
is her embers; and her sparks are the climax. In that very fire gods offer semen,
and from that offering springs a man.
He remains alive for as long as he lives, and when he finally dies, they offer
him in the fire. Of that fire, the fire is the fire itself; the firewood is the firewood;
the smoke is the smoke; the flame is the flame; the embers are the embers; and
the sparks are the sparks. In that very fire gods offer man, and from that offering
springs a man of brilliant color.70
The Upaniṣad makes a typical anthropological and ontological exegesis of

Vedic ritual, which makes one see how it all refers to oneself (ātman). Puruṣa
is the male, Yoṣā the female, and a certain duality is summoned as if the first
were spiritual, the latter material. The woman’s sacrifice is the sexual act that
brings conception and birth (incarnation). The five sacrifices are the sum of the
three worlds (heaven, atmosphere, and earth) along with Puruṣa and Yoṣā.
Now comes the doctrine of the Two Ways. The theory proposes that there
are two paths the deceased can follow, one of the Pitris (pitṛyāṇa), another of
the Gods (devayāna). As we mentioned above, the text from the Ṛigveda
summoned by the author of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad is RV. 10.88.15, and
before we cover the doctrine of the Two Ways from the earliest Upaniṣads, it
is necessary to show here how one and the same text can be translated in
different ways.
We will first offer two English translations from the Upaniṣad (Deussen
and Hume), and follow below with two translations from the Ṛigveda (Wilson
and Griffith). We then quote the Sanskrit text and provide a literal word-for-
word translation:
70
Bṛh. Up. 6.2.9-14. (Olivelle)
25
(Deussen) (Hume)
Two ways, I heard, there are for men, Two paths, I’ve heard––the one that leads
One way of the Fathers and the way of the to fathers,
Gods; And one that leads to gods––belong to
On the latter everything meets, mortals.
That moves between Father and Mother. By these two, every moving thing here
travels,
That is between the Father and the Mother.
(Wilson) (Griffith)
I have heard that there are two paths I have heard mention of two several
For Pitṛs, gods and mortals; pathways,
All this universe which is between Ways of the Fathers, Gods, and mortals.
The paternal (heaven) and the maternal On these two pathways each moving
(earth) creature travels,
Proceeds on its way by these two (paths). Each thing between the Father and Mother.
We can already see here how the translation by Wilson and Griffith from
the Ṛigveda differs significantly from the one in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad,
even though the Sanskrit text is identical:
dve srutī aśṛṇavam pitṝṇām ahaṃ devānām uta martyānām |

tābhyām idaṃ viśvam ejat sam eti yad antarā pitaram mātaraṃ ca ||
two paths heard fathers I gods and mortals

dve srutī aśṛṇavam pitṝṇām ahaṃ devānām uta martyānām
This here whole travels together go who between fathers mothers now
tābhyām idaṃ viśvam ejat sam eti yad antarā pitaram mātaraṃ ca
Deussen suggest that the text is best read as saying: “I have heard from
the Pirtis that there are two ways, alike for men and gods”, a reading that is
very likely. Another reading could be: “I have heard of two paths for Pitris,
Gods, and mortals…”, just as Wilson and Griffith have it. However, the
Upaniṣad has us read: “I have heard of two paths for mortals, one of the Pirtis
and one of the Gods…” In other words, the author of Bṛh. Up. 6.2.2. sees that
the two paths are of the Pitris and the Gods respectively, the pitṛyāṇa and
devayāna.
However, it is quite difficult to subtract this meaning from the verse of the
Ṛigveda in its proper context, and this is shown in the very following verse (c):
(Wilson)
The associated two (heaven and earth),
Support (Agni) moving, born of the head,
Sanctified by praise; diligent, rapid, radiant,
He appears in the presence of all beings.
26
(Griffith)
These two united paths bear him
Who journeys born from the head,
And pondered with the spirit,
He stands directed to all things,
Existing, hasting, unresting in his fiery splendor.
The text is alluding to Agni, for it is he that goes through the paths, which
become united as one, whenever he travels. As we have seen from RV 10.16
at the very beginning of this essay, Agni is a mediator between the heavenly
(divine) and earthly (mortal) realms, for he is the “carrier of flesh” and the
guide of the spirit (asu) of the deceased as Agni Jātavedas. In the old
eschatology, the realm of the Pitṛis and Gods was one and the same, but now
the Upaniṣad makes a distinction between them.
It is important to notice that the distinction between the world of the Pitṛis
and the world of the Gods is already found in the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa.71
Certain texts from this source likewise link the Pitṛis and darkness on the
one hand, and the Gods and light on the other:
There are two Vedis (altar-grounds): “Two worlds in truth there are,” they
say, “the world of the gods, and the world of the Fathers.” One (of the Vedis) is
in the north, and the other in the south, for the world of the gods is in the north,
and the world of the Fathers in the south; by the northern one he secures the world
of the gods, by the southern one the world of the Fathers. 72
The spring, the summer, and the rains, these seasons (represent) the gods; and
the autumn, the winter, and the dewy season represent the fathers. That half-moon
which increases represents the gods, and that which decreases represents the
fathers. The day represents the gods, and the night represents the fathers. And,
further, the forenoon represents the gods, and the afternoon the fathers.
Those seasons, then, are the gods and the fathers; and whosoever, knowing
this, invokes them as the gods and fathers, with his invocation of the gods the
gods comply, and with his invocation of the fathers the fathers comply. Him the
gods favour at his invocation of the gods, and him the fathers favour at his
invocation of the fathers, whosoever, knowing this, invokes (the seasons) as the
gods and fathers.
Now when he (the sun) moves northwards, then he is among the gods, then
he guards the gods; and when he moves southwards, then he is among the fathers,
then he guards the fathers.
When he (the sun) moves northwards, then one may set up his fires; –the gods
have the evil dispelled from them (by the sun): he (the sacrificer) therefore dispels
the evil from himself; –the gods are immortal: he therefore, though there is for
71
ŚB 12.7.3.7; 12.8.3.6; 13.8.1.7.
72
ŚB 12.7.3.12. Cf. ŚB 6.6.2.4 has the gate to the heavenly world in the northeast, while ŚB
13.8.1.5 has the gate to the world of the Pitṛis in the southeast.
27
him no prospect of immortality, attains the (full measure of) life, whosoever sets
up his fires during that time.
Whosoever, on the other hand, sets up his fires when (the sun) moves
southwards, he does not dispel the evil from him, –since the fathers have not the
evil dispelled from them (by the sun). The fathers are mortal: hence he dies before
(he has attained the full measure of) life, whosoever sets up his fires during that
time.73
We find here a clear distinction between the Pitṛis and Gods,74 as between
the offerings made to each, according to the yearly path of the sun. It is
important to highlight how setting up the sacrificial fire at either time does not
grant immortality, but instead frees the person sacrificing from evil. However,
verse 9 states:
[In the opinion of others] both these (classes of) seasons have the evil
dispelled from them, for the sun is the dispeller of their evil, and as soon as he
rises he dispels the evil from both these (classes of seasons). He should therefore
set up his fires at any time, when he feels called upon to sacrifice; and should not
put it off from one day to the morrow: for who knows the morrow of man?75
Verse 4 explicitly states that “there is for him no prospect of immortality”

for the person sacrificing. Hence, sacrificing at the right time to the Gods,
during the northern course of the sun, only grants the person sacrificing “the
full measure of life”, whereas sacrificing to the Pitṛis neither dispels evil nor
grants one the full measure of life. Immortality is more and more the sole
benefit of one who has knowledge of the Self (Ātman).
These verses from the ŚB are important because they serve as the
foundation for the doctrine of the Two Paths in the Upaniṣads. It should be
noted, however, that the Brāhmaṇas also have the Pitṛis enjoying immortality
along with the Gods, 76 and even with the Supreme God, Brahman. 77 On other
occasions, the world of the Pitṛis seems to be located underground 78 instead of
the most common designation in heaven. There are, then, certain contradictions
throughout the Brāhmaṇas about the Pitṛis and their world.79
73
ŚB 2.1.3.1-5.
74
Cf. ŚB 13.8.3.4, where we find a quote from the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, 35.7 of the White
Yajurveda: “O Death, go away another way, what second way there is of thine other than the path
of the gods.”
75
ŚB 2.1.3.9
76
AB 3.44; TB 3.10.9.11; ŚB 2.6.4.8
77
ŚB 11.4.4.2.
78
AV 13.4.64; ŚB 3.7.1.25; 12.8.1.18; TS 2.5.8.7.
79
It has been stipulated that the imagery of the rotating cosmos could have their realm, located in
the south, rise above and sink below with the stars, with whom the Pitṛis may have been associated
in the oldest days. (Kahle, 2011a, 266-7, 319)
28
Now, as we saw above, the tale leading to this doctrine that differentiates
the path of the Pitṛis from that of the Gods in the Bṛh. Up. is one where King
Pravāhaṇa Jaivali instructs Śvetaketu father, Gautama. The king then declares
how it is that certain people go through the path of the Gods, while others go
by the path of the Pitris:
The people who know this [the doctrine of the Five Fires], and the people
there in the wilderness who venerate truth as faith [śraddhā] –they pass into the
flame, from the flame into the day, from the day into the fortnight of the waxing
moon, from the fortnight of the waxing moon into the six months when the sun
moves north, from these months into the world of the gods [deva-loka], from the
world of the gods into the sun, and from the sun into the region of lightning.
A person consisting of mind80 comes to the regions of lightning and leads him
to the worlds of Brahman. These exalted people live in those worlds of Brahman
for the longest time. They do not return.
The people who win heavenly worlds, on the other hand, by offering
sacrifices, by giving gifts, and by performing austerities –they pass into the
smoke, from the smoke into the night, from the night into the fortnight of the
waning moon, from the fortnight of the waning moon into the six months when
the sun moves south, from these months into the world of the fathers, and from
the world of the fathers into the moon. Reaching the moon they become food.
There, the gods feed on them, as they tell King Soma, the moon: “Increase!
Decrease!” When that ends, they pass into this very sky, from the sky into the
wind, from the wind into the rain, and from the rain into the earth. Reaching the
earth, they become food. They are again offered in the fire of man and then take
birth in the fire of woman. Rising up once again to the heavenly worlds, they
circle around in the same way.
Those who do not know these two paths, however, become worms, insects,
or snakes.81
Here we have a description of two paths, one of the Gods indicated as a

path of light, another of the Pitris indicated as a path of darkness. After
cremation, those who travel the first course pass into the day, into the half-
month when the moon grows its light, into the half-year when the course of the
sun marks the summer solstice, making daylight longer.82 The path continues
into the deva-loka or “world of the gods”, then “into the sun; from the sun, into
the lightning-fire.” A “person of mind” or a “non-human person” (puruṣa
80
Chā. Up. 5.10.10 has a “non-human person”.
81
Bṛh. Up. 6.2.15-16. (Olivelle)
82
Let us recall the viṣuvant rite, celebrated at the summer solstice, mentioned in the KB 25.1, 7-8.
29
mānasa) takes the deceased to the world of Brahman (brahmalokān), and from
there one does not return. Such is the devayāna or Path of the Gods.83
The Path of the Pitris (pitṛyāṇa) is the opposite, a path into the smoke
(instead of flame), into the night (instead of day), into the half-month of the
waning moon, into the southern course of the sun, and into the world of the
Fathers (pitṛiloka). Now the text proposes a return to the moon (instead of a
course towards the sun), and in the moon “they become food”, and the Gods
feed upon them.
Up to this point, the authors of the Bṛh. Up. divide the two ways as
belonging to ascetics who live in the wilderness and know the doctrine of the
Five Fires on the one hand, and “the people who win heavenly worlds, on the
other hand, by offering sacrifices, by giving gifts, and by performing
austerities” on the other. These are the ones who transit the devayāna and
pitṛyāṇa respectively.
But then comes the theory of reincarnation, very explicit in Upaniṣads.
Those who follow the pitṛyāṇa arrive at the moon, and “become food”. They
then follow a gradual descent to the sky, to the wind, rain, and earth. Once
again, the deceased become food upon reaching the earth, they are conceived
and born, for they “take birth in the fire of woman.”
The Chā. Up. makes this reincarnation process more explicit: “Covered by
the placenta, the fetus lies inside the womb for nine or ten months or
thereabouts and is then born.”84 So we have here the first explicit mention to
the cycle of transmigration, later known as saṃsāra: “rising up once again to
the heavenly worlds, they circle around in the same way.” Then the author of
Bṛh. Up. adds that they who do not know of these two paths “become worms,
insects, or snakes.”
The doctrine of the Two Ways is repeated in Chā. Up. 5. 10, with the
addition of certain elements. As in the Bṛh. Up., those who travel the devayāna
are forest dwellers whose faith is placed on asceticism (tapas), while those who
travel the pitṛyāṇa are village dwellers whose faith is placed on “gift-giving”
and “offerings to gods and to priests.” More importantly, the Chā. Up. not only
distinguishes between those who know the doctrine of the Five Fires from
those who don’t, but further divides the latter according to their karma:
Now, people here whose behavior is pleasant can expect to enter a pleasant
womb, like that of a woman of the Brahmin, the Kṣatriya, or the Vaiśya class.
But people of foul behavior can expect to enter a foul womb, like that of a
dog, a pig, or an outcaste woman.
83
Chā. Up. 4.15.5 once again brings up the theme of devayāna and makes it the same as “path of
Brahman” (brahmapatha): “This is the path to the gods, the path to Brahman. Those who proceed
along this path do not return to this human condition.”
84
Chā. Up. 5.9.1.
30
Then there are those proceeding on neither of these two paths –they become
the tiny creatures revolving here ceaselessly. ‘Be born! Die!’ –that is a third
state.85
We have here, with the Chā. Up., the element of retribution by karma
added to the theory of transmigration, and so we have three states. (1) Those
who know the doctrine of the Five Fires and place their faith in austerity or
asceticism (tapas) are forever released from reincarnation. (2) Those who do
not know the doctrine of the Five Fires, but know of retribution through karma,
take on bodies according to their good or bad deeds. (3) And those who don’t
know the doctrine of the Five Fires nor about retribution, become bugs and
things that crawl.
A man should seek to protect himself from that.

On this point there is this verse:
A man who steals gold, drinks liquor, and kills a Brahmin;

A man who fornicates with his teacher’s wife –these four will fall.
As also the fifth –he who consorts with them.
A man who knows these five fires in this way, however, is not tainted with
evil even if he associates with such people. Anyone who knows this becomes pure
and clean and attains a good world. 86
The doctrine of the Five Fires, we should recall, deals with the symbolism
of fires or altar sacrifices understood as (1) heaven, (2) atmosphere, (3) earth,
(4) puruṣa (man), and (5) yoṣa (woman). By way of that old analogy likening
human elements to cosmic ones, it seeks to explain how the elements of the
sacrificial fire (fuel, flame, smoke, sparks, and coals) are in ultimate instance
parts of oneself (ātman), and that it is the human person (puruṣa) who
undergoes a sacrifice during cremation. As we have seen, the doctrine of the
Five Fires is the prelude to the teaching of the Two Ways, for it makes one
aware that the symbolism of the sacrifice by fire alludes to one’s death and the
destiny of the soul.
But it is important to note that the path towards immortality in the
Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa is a bit different from the one depicted in both Brh, Up.
and Chā. Up. Deussen87 already noted there was a curious allusion in Chā. Up.
4.15.5 of a return to the moon after passing through the sun:
85
Chā. Up. 5.10.7-8. (Olivelle)
86
Chā. Up. 5.10.8-10. (Olivelle)
87
Deussen, 1906, 335.
31
Now, whether they perform a cremation for such a person or not, people like
him pass into the flame, from the flame into the day, from the day into the
fortnight of the waxing moon, from the fortnight of the waxing moon into the six
months when the sun moves north, from these months into the year, from the year
into the sun, from the sun into the moon, and from the moon into the lightning.
Then a person who is not human –he leads them to Brahman. This is the path to
the gods, the path to Brahman. Those who proceed along this path do not return
to this human condition.88
Deussen89 links this awkward reference back to the moon to the Kauṣītaki
Upaniṣad 1.2, where it is said:
When people depart from this world, it is to the moon that they all go. By
means of their lifebreaths [prāṇas] the moon swells up in the fortnight of waxing,
and through the fortnight of waning it propels them to new birth. Now, the moon
is the door to the heavenly world. It allows those who answer its question to pass.
As to those who do not answer its question, after they have become rain, it rains
them down here on earth, where they are born again in these various conditions
–as a worm, an insect, a fish, a bird, a lion, a boar, a rhinoceros, a tiger, a man, or
some other creature– each in accordance with his actions and his knowledge.
When someone approaches it, the moon asks: “Who are you?” And he should
reply:
The semen, O Seasons, is gathered,

From the radiant one,
From the one with fifteen parts,
From the one who is born,
From the one linked to the fathers.
Then you sent me into a man, the agent;
And, through that man as the agent, you poured me into a mother.
Here I am born, given birth to as an addition,
As the thirteenth, the added month,
By a father of twelve parts.
I recognize it. I understand it.
So lead me, O Seasons, to immortality.
By that truth, by that austerity –I am the season!
I am the offspring of the season!
Who am I? I am you!
The moon lets him pass.90
88
Chā. Up. 4.15.5.
89
Deussen, 1906, 335-7.
90
Kau. Up. 1.2. (Olivelle)
32
As we have seen, this answer to the Seasons (not the moon) comes from JB
1.50, where it is not the moon but the Seasons (Ṛtus) who question the
departed, as the quote itself makes obvious. Moreover, in JB 1.17-18, the
departed does not identify his self (ātman) with the seasons, but with the sun,
to whom the seasons are “doorkeepers”. Thus, the Kauṣītaki Up. combines the
eschatological conceptions of JB 1.17-18 and 1.45-50, the doctrine of two
selves, with the doctrine of Five Fires.
It is quite obvious that later Upaniṣads take their doctrine of reincarnation
from Bṛh. Up. and Chā. Up. For example:
Come, I will tell you this secret,

And eternal formulation of truth (Brahman);
And what happens to the Self (Ātman), Gautama,
When it encounters death.
Some enter a womb by which an embodied self obtains a body,

Others pass into a stationary thing
According to what they have done,
According to what they have learned. 91
Deeming sacrifices and gifts as the best,

The imbeciles know nothing better.
When they have enjoyed their good work, atop the firmament,
They return again to this abject world.
But those in the wilderness, calm and wise,

Who live a life of penance and faith, as they beg their food;
Through the sun's door they go, spotless,
To where that immortal Puruṣa is, that immutable Self.92
Prajāpati is the year. It has two courses, the southern and the northern. Now,
those who venerate thus: “The best action is offerings to gods and priests!” win
only the lunar world. They are the ones who return again. Therefore, the seers
here who yearn for children proceed along the southern course. This course of the
fathers, clearly, is substance.
Those who seek the Self by means of austerity, chastity, faith, and knowledge,
on the other hand, proceed by the northern course and win the sun. Clearly, it is
the abode of lifebreaths [prāṇas]; it is the immortal, free from fear; it is the highest
course; from it they do not return; and so, it is the final stoppage.
On this there is this verse [RV 1.164.12]:
Some call him a father with five feet and twelve parts,
91
Kaṭha Up. 5.6-7
92
Muṇḍaka Up. 1.2.10-11.
33
Who dwells on the far side of the sky, at the very source.
But others here call him the radiant one on the near side,
Hitched to the one with seven wheels and six spokes. 93
The latter reference to the Ṛigveda seems quite awkward, for it refers to
the sun, or, in a broader sense, to the cosmic rotation. The following verses of
that same hymn state:
Upon this five-spoked wheel revolving ever all living creatures rest and are
dependent. Its axle, heavy-laden, is not heated: the nave from ancient time
remains unbroken.
The wheel revolves, unwasting, with its felly: ten draw it, yoked to the far-
stretching car pole. The Sun’s eye moves encompassed by the region: on him
dependent rest all living creatures.94
It is evident that allusions to the year and the cosmic cycles symbolize time
and the mortal condition of being. When the text says that “Prajāpati is the
year”, it is making an analogy between the Creator of all things and Time itself,
one already encountered in ŚB 10.4.3. Since the year is the longest of time-
cycles to overcome in order to reach immortality, it is natural that the sun or
year itself become the ultimate barrier of death. As we have seen, the doctrine
of the Five Fires in JB 1.45 ff. presented this challenge to the deceased who
had to overcome the year’s guardians, the Ṛtus or Seasons who questioned the
deceased with hammer in hand, ready to reject one who had not attained
knowledge of his spiritual self (ātman). In the doctrine of the two ātmans of JB
1.17-18, the immortal self identifies with the sun itself: “Who thou art, that
one am I. Who I am, that one thou art. Come.”
On the other hand, Yama, being the son of Vivasvat, the Sun, is
understandably the first mortal if not Death itself, for he is the product of the
Sun as the ultimate agent of time. The old Vedic conception of immortality,
however, saw a significant change through the Brāhmaṇas and Upaniṣads, for
it at first congratulated the pious men who spent offerings to the gods with
immortality, having their souls ascend to the realm of the Piṭris, a heavenly
realm governed by Yama since he was the First Ancestor to overcome death.
It was the Brāhmaṇas that presented the old Vedic eschatology in the guise
of an exoteric knowledge leading to “renewed death”, for their authors focused
on the hidden meaning of the rites, highlighting the necessity to interpret Vedic
ritual as relating to oneself (ātman). Without this esoteric reading, the rites
were meaningless, and those who only understood the Vedas in such
93
Praśna Up. 1.9-11.
94
RV 1.164.12.
34
superficial manners were deprived of immortality, and destined to die again

and again.
CONCLUSION
This brief review of eschatological conceptions in the Vedas, Brāhmanas,
and earliest Upaniṣads shows us that the doctrine of transmigration developed
in time, and this evolution of ideas implied certain alterations to a previous
conception of how one could attain immortality. The contrast between RV
1.125.5-6, which promises immortality to those who make pious offerings, and
the verses of the Upaniṣads that condemn such people as ignorant men destined
to reincarnation is quite strong, but the Brāhmaṇas reveal the gray area where
this shift of paradigm took shape.
It is in the Brāhmaṇas that we find the seeds of the doctrine of
transmigration, but these texts have not yet rejected the old eschatology
entirely, where there was a promise of immortality in a heavenly abode. The
Brāhmaṇas focus their eschatology on avoiding a “renewed death”, and
promise a “second death” that is most likely a reincarnation in this world.
However, the main focus is placed on the “second birth”, one that happens in
this world as long as one grasps the hidden meaning of Vedic rites as relating
to oneself (ātman). That spiritual “rebirth” is consummated with death, and the
journey of the spiritual self to a heavenly and immortal sphere. It is knowledge
(vidyā) that grants one this immortality, not pious deeds and sacrifices in
ignorance of that hidden meaning of the Vedas.
The “return” to the realm of night and day, forced by the Season’s (or
Sun’s) rejection of the deceased’s spiritual self, certainly seeded the idea that
a person could be brought back to this world to take on a new body, but there
is no theory or systematic explanation of how this occurs. This idea is implicit
in the earliest form of the doctrine of the Five Fires presented in JB, and the
Upaniṣads made it explicit, contrasting this destiny of reincarnation to that of
immortality. Now it was necessary to have Two Ways: one leading to
immortality, another to reincarnation, and the Brāhmaṇas already
differentiated the path of the Gods from that of the Pitṛis respectively. The
Upaniṣads even interpreted Vedic hymns like RV 10.88.15 as archaic
references to these two destinies, although such an interpretation demands that
Agni Jātavedas be the Self or Ātman.
Once again, it is important to highlight that the shift from the old
eschatology to the new one is based on the ever more prominent position of
esoteric knowledge (vidyā) as the means to attain immortality, a knowledge
that gradually replaced ritual action (karma) and piety through faith (śraddhā).
This shift is already witness in how certain Brāhmaṇas promise immortality
through the realization of the summer solstice rite, while others deny
35
CONCLUSION
immortality to those who do not know of their spiritual and divine self. The
prominence of pious and generous offerings to the gods, along with detailed
knowledge of ritual practice is gradually replaced by an ontological
interpretation of Vedic rites, even to the point where exoteric knowledge of
rites becomes useless in the quest for immortality.
Parallel to this appraisal of knowledge comes that of asceticism and
carrying out a life in the wilderness, a retreat from social activities in the
village, including the old ritualistic religion of the early Veda, dependent on
specialized priests. The Brāhmaṇas are still reluctant to prize a life of total
renunciation, for they preserve the knowledge of old Vedic rites and
symbolisms, attempting to renew this archaic cult with hidden meanings about
the human person and one’s destiny. The Upaniṣads, however, show a much
stronger emphasis on renunciation and only seek to preserve that esoteric
knowledge of the Self (Ātman), so allusions to Vedic rites and symbolisms
only serves to illustrate the path to immortality through self-knowledge.
36
ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
AB Aitareya Brāhmaṇa
AV Atharvaveda
Br̥h. Up. Br̥hadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad
Chā. Up. Chāndogya Upaniṣad
JB Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa
JUB Jaiminīya Upaniṣad Brāhmaṇa
Kaṭha Up. Kaṭha Upaniṣad
Kau. Up. Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad
RV R̥igveda
ŚB Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa
TB Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa
Beck, G. L., Recycling the Atman: Reflections on the Doctrine of Transmigration in

Classical Hinduism, in Kaplan, Steven J. (ed.), Concepts of Transmigration:
Perspectives on Reincarnation, Lewinston, 1996, pp. 87-117
Bodewitz, Hendrik W., Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa I, 1-65, Leiden, 1973.
––Redeath and its Relation to Rebirth and Release, Studien zur Indologie und
Iranistik, Vol. 20, 1996, pp. 27-46.
––Yonder World in the Atharvaveda, Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol. 42, 1999,
pp. 107-20.
––Vedic Cosmology and Ethics: Selected Studies, Leiden and Boston, 2019.
Converse, H. S., The historical significance of the first occurrences of the doctrine of
transmigration in the early Upaniṣads, Ph.D. Thesis, Columbia Univ., 1971.
Darmesteter, James (trans.), The Zend-Avesta, Part 1: The Vendidad, SBE Vol. 4,
Oxford, 1880.
Deussen, Paul, The Philosophy of the Upanishads, Edinburgh, 1906 (1898).
––Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, 2 Vols., Dehli, 1980 (1897).
––System of the Vedanta, Chicago, IL, 1912 (1883).
Eggeling, Julius, Satapatha-Brāhmana (Part 1), SBE Vol. 12, Oxford, 1882.
––Satapatha-Brāhmana (Part 2), SBE Vol. 26, Oxford, 1885.
Griffith, Ralph T. (trans.), The Hymns of the Ṛigveda, 2 Vols., Benares, 1896-1897.
Horsch, P., Vorstufen der Indischen Seelenwanderungslehre, Asiatische Studien, Vol.
25, 1971, pp. 99-157.
Hume, Robert E., The 13 Principal Upanishads, Oxford, 1921.
Kahle, Madayo, El Surgimiento de la Doctrina de la Transmigración de las Almas en
la India, Ph.D. Thesis, Madrid, 2011a.
37
ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
––Los caminos al Más Allá en los himnos del Ṛgveda: Traducción y
comentario de los himnos RV 10.14, 10.16 y 10.56, in Martín Hernández &
Torallas Tovar, Madrid, 2011b, pp. 183-205.
Keith, Berriedale, The Religion and Philosophy of the Vedas and Upanishads, 2 Vols.,
Cambridge, 1925.
Martín Hernández, Raquel; Torallas Tovar, Sofía (eds.), Conversaciones con la
Muerte: Diálogos del hombre con el Más Allá desde la Antigüedad a la
Edad Media, Madrid, 2011.
Mendoza, Julia M., Volver a Morir: el Destino en el Más Allá según los Brāhmaṇas, in
Séptimo Centenario de los Estudios Orientales en Salamanca, Salamanca,
2012, pp. 569-81.
Monier-Williams, Monier, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Oxford, 1899
Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, Stuttgart, 1923.
Olivelle, Patrick, The Early Upaniṣads: Annotated Text and Translation, New York
and Oxford, 1998.
Wilson, Horace H., Ṛig-Veda Sanhitá, 7 Vols., London, 1850-1888.
Zaehner, Robert C., The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, New York, 1961.
38

Samsara Origins of The Hindu Theory of R

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SAṂSĀRA

Origins of the Hindu Theory of Reincarnation

I. OLD VEDIC ESCHATOLOGY

A thousand heads hath Puruṣa, a thousand eyes, a thousand feet.

The sacrifice of Puruṣa can be understood in both a cosmogonic and

Everything indicates that according to Vedic cosmology, it was inconceivable

II. YAMA: KING OF THE DEAD

Yama’s realm is placed in heaven, 24 one among three heavenly abodes

As is obvious to the reader by now, the hymns of the Veda require

We see that immortality is granted to pious men, especially because of their

III. RENEWED DEATH AND SECOND BIRTH IN THE BRĀMAṆAS

Once again, the question here is whether this “renewed death”

What is important to underline is that the deceased is here rejected by the

As in all religious texts, one’s interpretation or exegesis depends on

ŚB 13.8.4 makes a rather specific reference to reincarnation as well. The

ultimate essence of the human person or puruṣa in the Upaniṣads. According

We believe, therefore, that the doctrine of punarmṛtyu is not bound to the

On the other hand, Kahle’s in-depth analysis of the doctrine of punarmṛtyu

IV. FIVE FIRES AND TWO WAYS

JB 1.45-6; Bṛh. Up. 6.2.9-14; Chā. Up. 5.3-9.

As we have seen, successful access to immortality in the Jaiminīya

The Upaniṣad makes a typical anthropological and ontological exegesis of

dve srutī aśṛṇavam pitṝṇām ahaṃ devānām uta martyānām |

two paths heard fathers I gods and mortals

Verse 4 explicitly states that “there is for him no prospect of immortality”

Here we have a description of two paths, one of the Gods indicated as a

A man should seek to protect himself from that.

A man who steals gold, drinks liquor, and kills a Brahmin;

The semen, O Seasons, is gathered,

The moon lets him pass.90

Come, I will tell you this secret,

Some enter a womb by which an embodied self obtains a body,

Deeming sacrifices and gifts as the best,

But those in the wilderness, calm and wise,

superficial manners were deprived of immortality, and destined to die again

ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beck, G. L., Recycling the Atman: Reflections on the Doctrine of Transmigration in

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