अथ गार्ग्यो ह वै बालाकिरनूचानः संस्पृष्ट आस सोऽयमुशिनरेषु संवसन्मत्स्येषु कुरुपञ्चालेषु काशीविदेहेष्विति सहाजातशत्रुं काश्यमेत्योवाच । ब्रह्म ते ब्रवाणीति तं होवाच अजातशत्रुः । सहस्रं दद्मस्त इत्येतस्यां वाचि जनको जनक इति वा उ जना धावन्तीति
atha gārgyo ha vai bālākiranūcānaḥ saṃspṛṣṭa āsa so'yamuśinareṣu saṃvasanmatsyeṣu kurupañcāleṣu kāśīvideheṣviti sahājātaśatruṃ kāśyametyovāca | brahma te bravāṇīti taṃ hovāca ajātaśatruḥ | sahasraṃ dadmasta ityetasyāṃ vāci janako janaka iti vā u janā dhāvantīti
And so Gārgya Bālāki, learned and well-connected, who had dwelt among the Uśīnaras, the Matsyas, the Kuru-Pañcālas, the Kāśis and the Videhas, came to Ajātaśatru, king of Kāśī, and said: “Let me tell thee of Brahman.” Ajātaśatru said to him: “A thousand cows we give thee for such a speech! For at the cry ‘Janaka, Janaka!’ the people come running.”
2c5d70163c0a · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:43:45 AM UTC
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The fourth adhyāya opens with a scene that mirrors the very first. There the brāhmaṇa Āruṇi came as a pupil to king Citra; here the brāhmaṇa Bālāki comes to king Ajātaśatru — but comes not to learn, to teach.
Of Bālāki two words are said: anūcāna — “well-read, versed in the whole Veda” — and saṃspṛṣṭa — “sociable, received everywhere”. And at once the lands are listed where he has been a guest: the Uśīnaras, the Matsyas, the Kuru-Pañcālas, Kāśī, Videha — half the India of the day. Before us is a man known everywhere and everywhere welcomed.
He begins with an offer that sounds generous: “let me tell thee of Brahman”. This is the very thing for which, in the first adhyāya, men went with firewood in their hands.
The king's answer is mockery, and subtle mockery. “A thousand cows we give thee for such a speech!” A thousand cows is the usual reward for learning; but here it is given not for teaching but “for such a speech” — for a single offer that has said nothing yet.
And the explanation strikes truer still: “at the cry ‘Janaka, Janaka!’ the people come running”. Janaka, king of Videha, was famed for his bounty to knowers of Brahman: all who could say anything fed at his court. Ajātaśatru is saying: you have come not because you have something to give, but because here they pay.
Thus from the first words the whole shape of the chapter is set. Bālāki will offer one by one sixteen objects of reverence, and all sixteen will prove not to be what he took them for. And it will end with the learned brāhmaṇa himself taking firewood and asking to be a pupil — like Āruṇi in the first adhyāya.
The Bṛhadāraṇyaka knows this conversation too; there also the king is called Ajātaśatru, and there it runs in almost the same words. Two ancient schools have preserved one dialogue.