Upanishads · Tripurā 8
॥
Devanāgarī
कामो योनिः कामकला व्रजपाणिर्गुहा हसा मातरिश्वाभ्रमिन्द्रः । पुनर्गुहा सकला मायया च पूरूच्येषा विश्वमातादिविद्या
Transliteration (IAST)
kāmo yoniḥ kāmakalā vrajapāṇirguhā hasā mātariśvābhramindraḥ | punarguhā sakalā māyayā ca pūrūcyeṣā viśvamātādividyā
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
कामः योनिः काम-कलाkāmaḥ yoniḥ kāma-kalāKāma, womb, portion of desire
व्रज-पाणिः गुहा हसाvraja-pāṇiḥ guhā hasāthunder-wielder, cave, "hasā"
मातरिश्वा अभ्रम् इन्द्रःmātariśvā abhram indraḥMātariśvan, cloud, Indra
पुनः गुहा सकला मायया चpunaḥ guhā sakalā māyayā caagain the cave, with parts, and with māyā
पूरूची एषा विश्व-माता आदि-विद्याpūrūcī eṣā viśva-mātā ādi-vidyāabundant, she — the mother of the world, the first knowledge
Translation
«Kāma, womb, the portion of desire, the thunder-wielder, the cave, "hasā"; Mātariśvan, cloud, Indra; again the cave, with parts, and with māyā — abundant, she is the mother of the world, the first knowledge».
Version
5209a66d8f81 · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
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This is the same encoded verse that stands in the Devī Upaniṣad (9), and this very coincidence deserves comment, for it explains a good deal.
The verse is one and the same, but the books differ both in date and in style: this one is ancient, Ṛgvedic in diction; that one is late, an “Atharvaśiras.” That is, before us is a wandering stanza, passed from collection to collection, as proverbs pass.
This phenomenon is common among the upaniṣads and was already noted reading Tripurātāpinī (102): verses about the objectless mind were found in three different books. Every reader would do well to remember this: a collection is not the composition of one person, and “upaniṣad” often means not a book but a notebook into which what circulated by hand was gathered.
Hence the rule the Vaiṣṇava reading follows with such finds. A book must be judged not by its wandering verses, but by what is its own, and by where it places them. This book has set the cipher in the middle, between the lineage of powers and the description of the form; and so for it, it is a pointer, not a teaching.
The last words of the line are viśva-mātā ādi-vidyā, “mother of the world, the first knowledge.” Ādi means “first, initial”; knowledge is called maternal and first — that is, that with which one begins, not that with which one ends.