History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.19

v7.c91.19

The Purāṇas only pursue an attitude to Veda and sacrifices that is found in some of the Upaniṣads. The Muṇḍakopaniṣad¹⁴⁶¹ says: 'one should know two vidyās (lores), *parā* (the higher) and *aparā* (the lower); the latter comprehends the four Vedas and Phonetics, aphorisms about solemn sacrifices, grammar, Nirukta (derivation of words), metres, astronomy; while the highest lore is that whereby the Imperishable (Reality) is known'. The same Upaniṣad condemns aparā-vidyā when it says 'Those sacrifices are infirm (leaky) boats constituted by eighteen (persons) depending on which are declared actions that are inferior, those foolish people who welcome these actions as the highest good become subject again to old age and death'. The Kaṭhopaniṣad¹⁴⁶² states that what are known as *avidyā* and *vidyā* are far apart from each other, are contradictory and lead to different results. When Nārada approached Sanatkumāra and requested the latter to teach him, the latter said to him 'tell me what you know and then I shall tell you what is beyond that.' Then Nārada stated that he knew all the four Vedas, Itihāsa-purāṇa the fifth Veda and several other lores, whereupon Sanat-kumāra told him that the four Vedas and the other lores he had learned were merely a name and then he led Nārada gradually to the understanding of the Highest Self. The Bṛ. Up. I. 4. 10 condemns him, who worships a deity thinking he is different from the *devatā*, that he does not know the truth, that he is like a (sacrificial) animal to the gods. Similarly, in several passages of the Upanisads austerities, liberality, straightforwardness, ahiṁsā and truthfulness are put forward as equal to or superior to the actual performance of the ceremonial of sacrifice (*yajña*), vide Chāndogya III. 17. 4, Praśna I. 15, Mundaka I. 2. 11.