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Upanishads · Bahvṛcā 4
॥
Devanāgarī
सैव पुरत्रयं शरीरत्रयं व्याप्य बहिरन्तरवभासयन्ती देशकालवस्त्वन्तरसंगान्महात्रिपुरसुन्दरी वै प्रत्यक्चितिः
Transliteration (IAST)
saiva puratrayaṃ śarīratrayaṃ vyāpya bahirantaravabhāsayantī deśakālavastvantarasaṃgānmahātripurasundarī vai pratyakcitiḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
सा एव पुर-त्रयंsā eva pura-trayaṃshe the three cities
शरीर-त्रयंśarīra-trayaṃthe three bodies
व्याप्यvyāpyapervading
बहिः अन्तः अवभासयन्तीbahiḥ antaḥ avabhāsayantīilluminating from without and within
देश-काल-वस्तु-अन्तर-सङ्गात्deśa-kāla-vastu-antara-saṅgātby connection with place, time and thing
महा-त्रिपुर-सुन्दरी वैmahā-tripura-sundarī vaiis the great Tripurasundarī
प्रत्यक् चितिःpratyak citiḥconsciousness turned inward
Translation
«She, pervading the three cities and the three bodies and illuminating them from without and within — by connection with place, time and thing — [is called] the great Tripurasundarī; she is consciousness turned inward».
Version
b580c75b0754 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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Let us unpack the name Tripurasundarī, “the beauty of the three cities,” for it is this school’s chief name. Tri-pura means “three cities”; and the book at once glosses it: śarīra-traya, “the three bodies” — gross, subtle and causal, discussed reading the Māṇḍūkya. That is, the “three cities” are the three sheaths of a human being, and “the beauty of the three cities” is she who lives in all three.
This reading is late; in antiquity the three cities were three fortresses of the asuras, burned by Śiva, whence he is called Tripurāntaka, “destroyer of the three cities.” This detail shows how in this literature the old is reinterpreted inwardly; we noted the same reading Jābāli (5), where paśupati, “lord of cattle,” a pastoral name, became a theological one. Add the closing words as well: pratyak citi, “consciousness turned inward.”
Pratyak means “turned inward”; we discussed this word reading Sarasvatī-rahasya (2.4). Note that in one line she is called at once pervading from without and within and inward consciousness. The Vaiṣṇava side does not object to the first, and holds its own correspondence: antaryāmin, “the inner controller,” discussed more than once.
Its objection begins with the second: if she is my own inward consciousness, then the illuminator and the illuminated are one — yet then, per Bṛhadāraṇyaka (3.7.22), it would not have been said that his self does not know him.