uestions of creation--"Who
knows whether this world was ever created or not?" Secondly
the growth of sacrifices has helped to establish the unalterable
nature of the law by which the (sacrificial) actions produced their
effects of themselves. It also lessened the importance of deities
as being the supreme masters of the world and our fate, and the
tendency of henotheism gradually diminished their multiple
character and advanced the monotheistic tendency in some
quarters. Thirdly, the soul of man is described as being separable
from his body and subject to suffering and enjoyment in another
world according to his good or bad deeds; the doctrine that the
soul of man could go to plants, etc., or that it could again be reborn
on earth, is also hinted at in certain passages, and this may
be regarded as sowing the first seeds of the later doctrine of
transmigration. The self (_atman_) is spoken of in one place as the
essence of the world, and when we trace the idea in the Brahma@nas
and the Ara@nyakas we see that atman has begun to mean the
supreme essence in man as well as in the universe, and has thus
approached the great Atman doctrine of the Upani@sads.

CHAPTER III

THE EARLIER UPANI@SADS [Footnote ref 1]. (700 B.C.-600 B.C.)

The place of the Upani@sads in Vedic literature.

Though it is generally held that the Upani@sads are usually
attached as appendices to the Ara@nyakas which are again attached
to the Brahma@nas, yet it cannot be said that their distinction as
separate treatises is always observed. Thus we find in some cases
that subjects which we should expect to be discussed in a Brahma@na
are introduced into the Ara@nyakas and the Ara@nyaka materials
are sometimes fused into the great bulk of Upani@sad teaching.
This shows that these three literatures gradually grew up in one

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[Footnote 1: There are about 112 Upani@sads which have been published by
the "Nir@naya-Sagara" Press, Bombay, 1917. These are 1 Isa, 2 Kena,
3 Katha, 4 Pras'na, 5 Mun@daka, 6 Ma@n@dukya, 7 Taittiriya, 7 Aitareya,
9 Chandogya, 10 B@rhadara@nyaka, 11 S'vetas'vatara, 12 Kau@sitaki,
13 Maitreyi, 14 Kaivalya, 15 Jabala, 16 Brahmabindu, 17 Ha@msa,
18 Aru@nika, 19 Garbha, 20 Naraya@na, 21 Naraya@na, 22 Paramaha@msa,
23 Brahma, 24 Am@rtanada, 25 Atharvas'iras, 26 Atharvas'ikha,
27 Maitraya@ni, 28 B@rhajjabala, 29 N@rsi@mhapurvatapini,
30 N@rsi@mhottaratapini, 31 Ka