Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 3.5
॥
Devanāgarī
का वै वरणा का च नासीति
Transliteration (IAST)
kā vai varaṇā kā ca nāsīti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
का वै वरणाkā vai varaṇāwhat then is Varaṇā; what indeed is Varaṇā
का च नासी इतिkā ca nāsī itiand what is Nāsī; and what is Nāsī
Translation
“What then is Varaṇā, and what is Nāsī?”
Version
76aca3144378 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Atri asks a third time, and his question shows he has not taken the answer for geography.
He does not ask “where are these rivers?” — he asks “what are they?”. Kā vai varaṇā: not “which one”, but “what is she, what is her nature”.
In this is the whole art of questioning that these books teach. When a name is given you, ask what it means; when a place is pointed out, ask what that place is.
We saw the same device at the very start of the uttara-tāpanī: Bṛhaspati asked what Kurukṣetra is — and received the answer that it is no battlefield.
The book altogether is built as an examination of names: the name of Rāma, the name of Rāvaṇa, the word “mantra”, the word “namaḥ”, and now Varaṇā and Asi.
The answer will follow at once, and it will carry the conversation from the earth to the man.