Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Pūrva 1.10
॥
Devanāgarī
शक्तिसेनाकल्पना च ब्रह्मण्येवं हि पञ्चधा । कल्पितस्य शरीरस्य तस्य सेनादिकल्पना
Transliteration (IAST)
śaktisenākalpanā ca brahmaṇyevaṃ hi pañcadhā | kalpitasya śarīrasya tasya senādikalpanā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
शक्तिसेनाकल्पना चśaktisenākalpanā caand the fashioning of power and army; the appointing of śakti and host
ब्रह्मणि एवम् हि पञ्चधाbrahmaṇi evam hi pañcadhāin Brahman thus indeed fivefold; in Brahman this is fivefold
कल्पितस्य शरीरस्यkalpitasya śarīrasyaof the fashioned body; for the appointed form
तस्य सेनादिकल्पनाtasya senādikalpanāfor it — the fashioning of army and the rest; to it are appointed the host and the rest
Translation
And the fashioning of power and army — so in Brahman it is fivefold; and for the fashioned body are fashioned the army and the rest.
Version
16ddd073be0a · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The inventory is closed and summed: the fashioning is pañcadhā, “fivefold”.
Five classes, gathering what has been said: sex and limbs; weapons; the number of arms; colour and mount; śakti and senā — the power-consort and the retinue-army.
The logic of the list deserves to be seen. It goes from within outward: first the body itself, then what is in the hands, then how many hands, then with what it is coloured and on what it rides, and at last — who is around. From the own form to the surroundings.
The last pair is especially fitting in this book. Śakti in the image of Rāma is Sītā, of whom the third Upaniṣad will say that she is worshipped together with Him; senā is the army, and Rāma's army the tradition remembers by name. What seems a mere tale of a campaign is here named part of the fashioning of the form.
And the conclusion in the second half of the verse is restrained and exact: “for the fashioned body the army too is fashioned”. That is, if a form is given, with it is given its whole world: companions, weapons, retinue. A form is never in a void.
The same trait we saw in the Gopāla-tāpanī: there, on the diagram for worship, Kṛṣṇa's near ones, kinsmen and treasures were placed together with Him. A solitary deity on a throne is not the image these books know.