उपनिषद् · Varāha 5.28
॥
देवनागरी
वर्तन्ते द्वादश ह्येता द्वादशानिलवाहकाः । पटवत्संस्थिता नाड्यो नानावर्णाः समीरिताः
लिप्यंतरण (IAST)
vartante dvādaśa hyetā dvādaśānilavāhakāḥ | paṭavatsaṃsthitā nāḍyo nānāvarṇāḥ samīritāḥ
शब्दशः अर्थ
संस्कृतIASTअर्थ
वर्तन्ते द्वादश हि एताःvartante dvādaśa hi etāḥthese twelve dwell, indeed
द्वादश-अनिल-वाहकाःdvādaśa-anila-vāhakāḥcarrying twelve winds
पट-वत् संस्थिताः नाड्यःpaṭa-vat saṃsthitāḥ nāḍyaḥthe passages are arranged, like cloth
नाना-वर्णाः समीरिताःnānā-varṇāḥ samīritāḥcalled of various colors
अनुवाद
"These twelve dwell, carrying twelve winds; the passages are arranged like cloth, and are called of various colors."
संस्करण
2f8220276254 · प्रकाशित 12 अग॰ 2026, 5:00:00 am UTC
उपलब्ध भाषाएँRUENश्लोक बदलें इन कुंजियों से
The comparison pata-vat, "like cloth," is given: the passages are interwoven, like threads in a fabric. The comparison is good and explains why they were not conceived as tubes: cloth is an interweaving, where every thread goes its own way, and what holds them together is the pattern, not any single one. Let us add the word nana-varnah, "of various colors."
Color here, apparently, denotes property: every passage carries its own wind and hence has its own character. Worth noting is that the image of cloth appears in Vaishnava literature too, and, moreover, at an important place. The Brihadaranyaka asks Yajnavalkya: "on what, then, is woven crosswise and lengthwise that on which everything is woven?" — and this question repeats until one arrives at the last (3.6.1).
Yajnavalkya answers: akashe — "in space"; and to the further question, he answers of akshara, "the imperishable." Let us add what the Vaishnava side stresses in this image. Cloth is not a sum of threads, but a pattern; and hence the whole is not reducible to the parts, and the parts do not vanish in the whole.
This image, by its reckoning, is better than any pot and any space, for in it both unity and difference are held at once and without strain: the thread is the thread, and the fabric is the fabric, and one does not exist without the other.