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Upanishads · Muktikā 1.10
॥
Devanāgarī
राम वेदाः कतिविधास्तेषां शाखाश्च राघव । तासूपनिषदाः काः स्युः कृपया वद तत्त्वतः
Transliteration (IAST)
rāma vedāḥ katividhāsteṣāṃ śākhāśca rāghava | tāsūpaniṣadāḥ kāḥ syuḥ kṛpayā vada tattvataḥ
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
राम वेदाः कति-विधाःrāma vedāḥ kati-vidhāḥRāma, of how many kinds are the Vedas
तेषां शाखाः च राघवteṣāṃ śākhāḥ ca rāghavaand what are their branches, descendant of Raghu
तासु उपनिषदाः काः स्युःtāsu upaniṣadāḥ kāḥ syuḥwhat upaniṣads may there be among them
कृपया वद तत्त्वतःkṛpayā vada tattvataḥby grace tell me truly
Translation
«“Rāma, of how many kinds are the Vedas, and what are their branches, descendant of Raghu? What upaniṣads may there be among them? Tell me by grace, truly…»
Version
65b31fc8c8ec · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Hanumān asks three questions at once, and they are built as a stair: how many Vedas, how many branches do they have, how many upaniṣads are in the branches. Worth saying what a śākhā, «branch», is, for without this what follows is unclear. The Vedic text was not single: every Veda was preserved in several schools, and every school kept its own redaction — its own order of hymns, its own brāhmaṇa, its own āraṇyaka, and its own upaniṣad.
These schools are called branches. A branch was not merely a list: it was a living community, where the text was passed down by heart from generation to generation; and the loss of a branch meant the loss of its redaction forever. This detail matters for reading the verses that follow: numbers of branches will be named there, and the numbers are immense — a thousand for the Sāmaveda.
Of them, little has reached us: from the Ṛgveda — one; from the Sāmaveda — three. That is, the list about to follow is a list of what once was, not of what now is; and the book that preserved it preserved along with it a measure of the loss. Add the word kṛpayā, «by grace», standing here too: Hanumān asks every time, not as one who has a right.