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Upanishads · Muktikā 1.12
॥
Devanāgarī
ऋग्वेदस्य तु शाखाः स्युरेकविंशतिसङ्ख्यकाः । नवाधिकशतं शाखा यजुषो मारुतात्मज
Transliteration (IAST)
ṛgvedasya tu śākhāḥ syurekaviṃśatisaṅkhyakāḥ | navādhikaśataṃ śākhā yajuṣo mārutātmaja
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
ऋग्-वेदस्य तु शाखाः स्युःṛg-vedasya tu śākhāḥ syuḥof the Ṛgveda the branches are
एक-विंशति-सङ्ख्यकाःeka-viṃśati-saṅkhyakāḥnumbered twenty-one
नव-अधिक-शतं शाखाःnava-adhika-śataṃ śākhāḥone hundred nine branches
यजुषः मारुत-आत्मजyajuṣaḥ māruta-ātmajaof the Yajus, son of the Wind
Translation
«Of the Ṛgveda the branches number twenty-one; of the Yajus — a hundred and nine, son of the Wind».
Version
7e7a2fd6f14b · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The count begins, and it is worth saying how to read it. These numbers — twenty-one, a hundred and nine, a thousand, fifty — are given in a multitude of books and go back to the grammarian Patañjali, who in the second century BCE wrote: ekaśatam adhvaryu-śākhāḥ, «a hundred and one branches of the adhvaryu», and sahasra-vartmā sāmavedaḥ, «the Sāmaveda has a thousand paths». That is, the count is ancient and not invented by this book.
It is worth saying plainly, however, what has reached us. From the Ṛgveda — one branch, Śākala. From the Yajurveda — about six, and incomplete at that.
From the Sāmaveda — three. From the Atharvaveda — two. That is, of more than a thousand branches about twelve have survived; and all that we have is a remainder of roughly one percent.
Let this be said without grief, but also without concealment: the Veda we read is a small fragment of the Veda this book counts. Add what follows from this for the Vaishnava reading. The list of a hundred and eight upaniṣads about to follow preserved the names of books from branches that no longer exist; and hence this book is at once a memorial record of what has been lost.
The Vaishnava side is at peace with the loss, and its argument was cited at Hayagrīva (1.2): knowledge is lost and returns, and it is restored not by the effort of those who remember, but by those who come for it.