Upanishads · Nṛsiṃha-tāpanī Uttara 6.3
॥
Devanāgarī
शृङ्गेश्वशृङ्गं संयोज्य सिंहं शृङ्गेषु योजयेत्। शृङ्गाभ्यां शृङ्गमाबध्य त्रयो देव उपासत इति
Transliteration (IAST)
śṛṅgeśvaśṛṅgaṃ saṃyojya siṃhaṃ śṛṅgeṣu yojayet| śṛṅgābhyāṃ śṛṅgamābadhya trayo deva upāsata iti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
शृङ्गे श्वशृङ्गम् संयोज्यśṛṅge śvaśṛṅgam saṃyojyahaving joined to the horn his own horn; having fitted to the horn one's own horn
सिंहम् शृङ्गेषु योजयेत्siṃham śṛṅgeṣu yojayetlet him yoke the lion in the horns; let him join the lion to the horns
शृङ्गाभ्याम् शृङ्गम् आबध्यśṛṅgābhyām śṛṅgam ābadhyahaving bound the horn with the two horns; having tied the horn by the two horns
त्रयः देवाः उपासत इतिtrayaḥ devāḥ upāsata itithe three gods revere; three gods do worship
Translation
“Having joined to the horn his own horn, let him yoke the lion in the horns; and, having bound the horn with the two horns, the three gods revere.”
Version
8b440a2022d8 · published Jul 29, 2026, 4:39:50 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The first of the three verses about horns, and I will examine it as far as is possible without guessing.
Śṛṅga is “horn”, and in the science of mantras so are called the extreme sounds: the one that opens a syllable and the one that closes it. For Oṁ these are “a” and “m”.
The lion, siṁha, is the mantra of Nṛsiṃha — the very one which the second khaṇḍa named that by which the fourth is known.
So the general sense, it appears, is this: the mantra is set between the two extreme sounds of the syllable Oṁ. “Oṁ — mantra — oṁ”; and we read this rule outright in the fifth paragraph of the second Upaniṣad of the pūrva: “at every syllable the Oṁkāra is on both sides”.
The verse says the same in the image of horns.
Then: “having bound the horn with the two horns, the three gods revere”.
The three gods are probably Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Rudra, whom the eighth paragraph bade honour “divided and undivided”.
Further than this I will not go. The verse is corrupted already in the earliest witnesses, and the interpreters diverge; better to stop where the ground ends.