History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.202.1

v7.c95.202.1

The above Upaniṣad passages are enough to show how the doctrine of transmigration was being moulded in the Upaniṣad period. The Ṛgveda knows the two paths of Devayāna and Pitṛyāna and also that in heaven there were joys and delights but the Ṛgveda does not say how long the joys of Heaven were to last and makes no clear and definite statement on the doctrine of transmigration. In the Brāhmaṇa period the two paths were often referred to and the conception had dawned upon the minds of thinkers that man might have to pass through death several times (*punarmṛtyu*) But even then there is hardly any definite theory of punarjanma based on good or bad deeds. The clearest statements (and probably earliest) of the origin of the doctrine of transmigration are the two passages (*Bṛ. Up.* III. 3. 13 and IV 4. 5-7) in which Yājñavalkya is concerned and is the instructor and emphasizes that it is man's own works and conduct that lead a man to new births. In both those passages the Devayāna and Pitṛyāna paths are not mentioned at all. But the *Bṛ. Up.* VI. 2. 16 and *Chān. Up.* V. 10 relate the two paths to transmigration and speak of a third place for those born as worms and flies. This is an addition to the doctrine of the two paths, but they make a further departure. The *Chān. Up.* V. 10.