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Upanishads · Śāṭyāyanīya 30
॥
Devanāgarī
शतं कुलानां प्रथमं बभूव तथा पराणां त्रिशतं समग्रम् । एते भवन्ति सुकृतस्य लोके येषं कुले संन्यसतीह विद्वान्
Transliteration (IAST)
śataṃ kulānāṃ prathamaṃ babhūva tathā parāṇāṃ triśataṃ samagram | ete bhavanti sukṛtasya loke yeṣaṃ kule saṃnyasatīha vidvān
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
शतं कुलानां प्रथमंśataṃ kulānāṃ prathamaṃa hundred lineages before
बभूवbabhūvathere were
तथा पराणां त्रि-शतंtathā parāṇāṃ tri-śataṃand three hundred after
समग्रम्samagramall together
एते भवन्तिete bhavantithey become
सु-कृतस्य लोकेsu-kṛtasya lokein the world of good deed
येषां कुले संन्यसतिyeṣāṃ kule saṃnyasatiin whose lineage the knower renounces
इह विद्वान्iha vidvānhere
Translation
"A hundred lineages before and three hundred after — all of them together come to be in the world of good deed, [those] in whose lineage a knower renounces, here [on earth]."
Version
67afb89d4e99 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The promise is extended to the lineage: ancestors and descendants rise together with the one. This conception is universal in Indian literature, and it is worth saying where it comes from. A person was conceived not as a single unit but as a link: he is indebted to his ancestors (the three debts were discussed when reading the sixth verse) and answers for his descendants.
Hence every attainment too was conceived as belonging to the lineage. The Vaiṣṇava side holds this conception and repeats it in her most famous passages. Prahlāda, offered by Nṛsiṃha the chance to ask for whatever he wished, asks on behalf of his father — the very one who tormented him; and the Bhāgavatam (7.10.18) says that through him the lineage is purified down to the twenty-first generation.
Let us add what she draws from this and what turns this conception from superstition into a thought. If the attainment of one raises many, then it is not a private benefit; and so the reproach often made of religious life — that it is a concern only for one's own salvation — falls away here. Her own expression of this is para-duḥkha-duḥkhī, "one who suffers another's suffering": this is how she defines the accomplished.
Let us add that the count here is asymmetrical, and this is curious: a hundred before and three hundred after. That is, the effect is stronger forward than backward; and the explanation, apparently, is simple — descendants continue what has been begun, while ancestors only receive.