Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Pūrva 1.9
॥
Devanāgarī
अष्टादशामी कथिता हस्ताः शङ्खादिभिर्युताः । सहस्रान्तास्तथा तासां वर्णवाहनकल्पना
Transliteration (IAST)
aṣṭādaśāmī kathitā hastāḥ śaṅkhādibhiryutāḥ | sahasrāntāstathā tāsāṃ varṇavāhanakalpanā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
अष्टादश अमी कथिताःaṣṭādaśa amī kathitāḥeighteen — so it is told; eighteen are named
हस्ताः शङ्खादिभिः युताःhastāḥ śaṅkhādibhiḥ yutāḥarms furnished with the conch and the rest; hands with the śaṅkha and the remainder
सहस्रान्ताः तथा तासाम्sahasrāntāḥ tathā tāsāmand up to a thousand; and to a thousand inclusive
वर्णवाहनकल्पनाvarṇavāhanakalpanāthe fashioning of colour and mount; the appointing of hue and vāhana
Translation
Eighteen arms too are told of, furnished with the conch and the rest, and up to a thousand; and likewise are fashioned the colour and the mount.
Version
8652891fcf1f · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The list is carried to its limit: eighteen arms, and “up to a thousand”.
The number thousand is familiar from the Puruṣa-sūkta, where the Puruṣa is thousand-headed and thousand-armed; we met it in the Śvetāśvatara and in the first khaṇḍa of the Subāla. Here it is set as the upper bound of the row: however many arms are counted, all of it is the fashioning of form.
Then two more things are named: varṇa — colour, hue — and vāhana, the mount. Anyone who has seen the images knows: Viṣṇu has the eagle, Śiva the bull, Durgā the lion, Gaṇeśa the mouse; and each has his own colour — dark blue, white, red.
This addition is essential. Not only the arms and the weapons, but the colour of the skin and the creature ridden are referred to the same order. The inventory is made complete so that no feature remain of which one could say: but this, surely, is on its own.
The next verse will close the list with the fifth and last class — the retinue and the army — and will name the number: “five”, that is, five kinds of fashioning.