स होवाच बालाकिर्य एवैष आदित्ये पुरुषस्तमेवाहमुपास इति तं होवाचाजातशत्रुर्मा मैतस्मिन्समवादयिष्ठाः । बृहत्पाण्डरवासा अतिष्ठाः सर्वेषां भूतानां मूर्धेति वा अहमेतमुपास इति स यो हैतमेवमुपास्तेऽतिष्ठाः सर्वेषां भूतानां मूर्धा भवति
sa hovāca bālākirya evaiṣa āditye puruṣastamevāhamupāsa iti taṃ hovācājātaśatrurmā maitasminsamavādayiṣṭhāḥ | bṛhatpāṇḍaravāsā atiṣṭhāḥ sarveṣāṃ bhūtānāṃ mūrdheti vā ahametamupāsa iti sa yo haitamevamupāste'tiṣṭhāḥ sarveṣāṃ bhūtānāṃ mūrdhā bhavati
Bālāki said: “The puruṣa who is in the sun — him I revere.” Ajātaśatru said to him: “Do not draw me into talk of him! I revere him as the great, the white-robed, the supreme, the head of all beings.” And he who so reveres him becomes supreme over all beings, their head.
bbd3d5b04221 · published Jul 29, 2026, 3:43:45 AM UTC
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The first of sixteen offers, and on it the whole measure of the dispute is visible.
Bālāki points to the puruṣa in the sun. The pointing is correct: reverence of the Person in the solar disc is known to all the Upaniṣads. But Ajātaśatru answers not “this is false” but “do not draw me into talk of him” — and names him otherwise.
That is the crux: the dispute is not over whether there is a puruṣa in the sun, but over what to take him for. Bālāki reveres a place — the sun; the king reveres him who is there, and names him by his substance: “the great, the white-robed, the supreme, the head of all beings”.
The epithets are chosen exactly. Bṛhat — “great, growing”; pāṇḍara-vāsas — “clothed in white”, for the sun's light is white; atiṣṭha — “standing above”; mūrdhan — “crown, head”. The sun stands above the world as the head above the body — and hence what is revered in it is the head of all beings.
And the fruit is named by likeness: the reverer of the head becomes the head. This rule will hold through all sixteen rounds, and it is worth memorising: as you revere, so you become. By the same rule the fruits of the reverences in the second adhyāya were explained.
Note too what Ajātaśatru does not yet say. He corrects the names, but does not open the main thing; the sixteen corrections will be only the preparation for the question he will ask at the end: and who made all these puruṣas?