उपनिषद् · Yājñavalkya p12
॥
देवनागरी
अथ हैनमत्रिः पप्रच्छ याज्ञवल्क्यं यज्ञोपवीती कथं ब्राह्मण इति
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
atha hainamatriḥ papraccha yājñavalkyaṃ yajñopavītī kathaṃ brāhmaṇa iti
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
अथ ह एनम्atha ha enamand then him
अत्रिः पप्रच्छatriḥ papracchaAtri asked
याज्ञवल्क्यं यज्ञ-उपवीतीyājñavalkyaṃ yajña-upavītīYājñavalkya: the one bearing the sacred thread
कथं ब्राह्मणः इतिkathaṃ brāhmaṇaḥ itihow [can he be] a brahmin
अनुवाद
And then Atri asked Yājñavalkya: "how can one without the sacred thread be a brahmin?"
संस्करण
048938217706 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The question is put bluntly: if the thread is cut, on what grounds is the person still a brahmin? The question is legitimate and, to my mind, inevitable. Any caste system that permits an exit immediately runs into it: the one who has exited turns out to be nothing by the old reckoning.
The answer that follows is the most valuable thing in this book, and we will reach it in the next line. It is worth saying in advance, however, about the question itself, for it recurs in every tradition. Every society recognizes its own by signs: by dress, by speech, by rite. And every time a person appears in it without the signs, but one of its own in essence, a difficulty arises.
It is resolved two ways. Some say: the sign is necessary, and without it one is not one's own. Others: the sign is an indication of essence, and where the essence is, the sign is not needed.
The Vaiṣṇava side holds the second and states this in the well-known verse of the Bhāgavatam, cited when reading the Jābāla-darśana (1.8): the marks of the castes are to be determined by manifested qualities, not by birth (7.11.35). Let us add what she draws from this and what constitutes her custom. She has signs — beads, tilaka; but her rule is that a sign without a quality means nothing, and a quality without a sign means everything; and a person who wears the signs but lacks the qualities is called by her directly — kapaṭa, "a hypocrite."