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Upaniṣads · Bahvṛcā 1
॥
Devanāgarī
देवी ह्येकाग्र एवासीत् । सैव जगदण्डमसृजत् । कामकलेति विज्ञायते । शृंगारकलेति विज्ञायते
Transliteración (IAST)
devī hyekāgra evāsīt | saiva jagadaṇḍamasṛjat | kāmakaleti vijñāyate | śṛṃgārakaleti vijñāyate
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
देवी हि एक-अग्रःdevī hi eka-agraḥthe goddess, one-pointed
एव आसीत्eva āsītalone was
सा एव जगत्-अण्डम्sā eva jagat-aṇḍamshe the egg of the world
असृजत्asṛjatcreated
काम-कला इति विज्ञायतेkāma-kalā iti vijñāyateis known as the portion of desire
शृङ्गार-कला इति विज्ञायतेśṛṅgāra-kalā iti vijñāyateis known as the portion of amorous passion
Traducción
«The Goddess alone was, one-pointed; she it was who created the egg of the world. She is known as the portion of desire; she is known as the portion of amorous passion».
Versión
6ed82d90f129 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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The Bahvṛcā Upaniṣad begins here, second to last in the Muktikā list; it is small — nine short passages — and it is Śākta from its first word to its last. Note that it opens with a turn of phrase familiar to anyone who has read the Upaniṣads: devī hy ekāgra evāsīt, “the goddess alone was.” This phrase echoes the famous opening of the Chāndogya (6.2.1): sad eva somyedam agra āsīd ekam evādvitīyam, “being alone was this in the beginning, one without a second”; and of the Aitareya (1.1.1): ātmā vā idam eka evāgra āsīt, “the self alone was this in the beginning.”
That is, where those books have “being” or “self,” here stands the goddess. This device is basic to Śākta literature, and is also its chief argument: what others call abstractly, it calls by a feminine name. Add here, too, something worth noting with approval.
The word ekāgra means not only “alone” but “one-pointed,” literally “having a single point”; hence the first line reads two ways at once — she was alone, and she was concentrated. That is, creation began from concentration, not from boredom or need. Add two names as well: kāma-kalā, “the portion of desire,” and śṛṅgāra-kalā, “the portion of amorous passion.”
Śṛṅgāra is, in poetics, the name of the first and chief of the rasas, the “flavours”: the amorous. The Vaiṣṇava side holds the teaching of the rasas as its own, and the five flavours were discussed reading Varāha (2.71); and it is worth noting that here too the beginning of the world is referred to flavour, not will. Its only difference is that for it flavour exists between two, not as the property of one.