Upanishads · Tripurātāpinī 69
॥
Devanāgarī
परस्परमध्यमापृष्ठवर्तिन्यावनामिके तर्जन्याक्रान्ते समे मध्यमे आदायाङ्गुष्ठौ मध्यवर्तिनौ नवमी प्रतिपद्यत इति । सैवेयं कनीयसे समे अन्तरितेऽङ्गुष्ठौ समावन्तरितौ कृत्वा त्रिखण्डापद्यत इति
Transliteration (IAST)
parasparamadhyamāpṛṣṭhavartinyāvanāmike tarjanyākrānte same madhyame ādāyāṅguṣṭhau madhyavartinau navamī pratipadyata iti | saiveyaṃ kanīyase same antarite'ṅguṣṭhau samāvantaritau kṛtvā trikhaṇḍāpadyata iti
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
परस्पर-मध्यमा-पृष्ठ-वर्तिन्यौparaspara-madhyamā-pṛṣṭha-vartinyaulying on the back of each other's middle fingers
अनामिके तर्जनी-आक्रान्तेanāmike tarjanī-ākrāntethe ring fingers, pressed by the forefingers
नवमी प्रतिपद्यते इतिnavamī pratipadyate itithe ninth is composed
सा एव इयं कनीयसे समेsā eva iyaṃ kanīyase sameit, with even little fingers
त्रि-खण्डा आपद्यते इतिtri-khaṇḍā āpadyate itibecomes «three-part»
Translation
«Lying on the back of each other's middle fingers, the ring fingers pressed by the forefingers, …the ninth is composed. It, with even little fingers… becomes «three-part»».
Version
01b90e09a2da · published Aug 7, 2026, 5:19:24 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The nine seals correspond to the nine circles of the diagram, and the book has already said this when listing them (53–59): each circle has its own mudra. The structure, then, is uniform throughout — nine circles, nine powers, nine seals, everything matching in number. This coherence is at once good and suspect. It is good in that it shows the work of thought: the composition is not assembled from pieces, but built to a plan. It is suspect in that coherence can easily be induced after the fact, adjusting one thing to another for the sake of the number.
In reading such books, one must tell the difference by small things. Where a number has been forced, the seam is usually visible: one of the nine turns out to be «the same, but with the little fingers arranged differently» — as here, where the ninth and the «three-part» differ only by the position of one finger. This is not said as a reproach. Every teaching, having grown large, begins to adjust itself to its own numbers, and Vaishnava lists are not free of this either. It is only useful to remember that coherence is a property of exposition, not proof of the truth of what is expounded.