Upanishads · Praśna 1.3
॥
Devanāgarī
अथ कबन्धी कात्यायन उपेत्य पप्रच्छ ।
भगवन् कुतो ह वा इमाः प्रजाः प्रजायन्त इति
Transliteration (IAST)
atha kabandhī kātyāyana upetya papraccha |
bhagavan kuto ha vā imāḥ prajāḥ prajāyanta iti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अथathathereupon; after this
कबन्धी कात्यायनःkabandhī kātyāyanaḥKabandhī Kātyāyana; Kabandhī of the Kātyāyana line
उपेत्यupetyahaving approached (upa-√i); having approached; having come up
पप्रच्छpapracchaasked (perfect of √prach); enquired; put a question
भगवन्bhagavanO venerable one; O master
कुतः ह वाkutaḥ ha vāwhence then; from what source
इमाः प्रजाःimāḥ prajāḥthese beings; this progeny
प्रजायन्ते इतिprajāyante itiare born (pra-√jan); come forth; arise
Translation
Then Kabandhī Kātyāyana came up and asked: "Venerable one, whence are all these creatures born?"
Version
809ef9ffc43e · published Jul 26, 2026, 8:35:21 PM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The year has passed — and the first question is put: kuto ha vā imāḥ prajāḥ prajāyante — "whence are these creatures born?" The order of the questioners is not accidental: the six will ask in an ascending series — from the origin of life (1) through prāṇa and its paths (2–3), sleep and Oṁ (4–5), to the supreme Puruṣa (6); the Upaniṣad is built as a ladder, and the first rung is the most general of all possible ones: whence everything alive?
The question is chosen flawlessly. Not "whence the world" — an abstract cosmology can remain idle; not "whence I" — a private longing can close in upon itself. "Whence creatures" is a question in which science, reverence and kinship with all that lives come together as one. The asker stands in the middle of the stream of births — calves, children, sprouting seed — and asks after its source.
And note: after a year of austerity the question has not been "promoted in rank" — it has remained simple, almost childlike. Such is the mark of genuine preparation: it does not complicate questions but purifies them down to the essential. Pippalāda's answer will lead from this simple "whence" to Prajāpati, his tapas, and the two principles of which all life is woven.