The Aranyakas

01Taught in the forest

Some rites in the Aranyakas, such as the Mahavrata and the Pravargya, were considered so potent that the teacher took the student out of the village to learn them. Sayana says the Aranyaka is so called because it is to be studied in the forest. Here the yajna turns inward. Prana is the fire, breath is the offering, and the hymn becomes a meditation on Brahman. Vanaprasthas, householders who had retired to the forest, lived by these teachings.

02Rites too strong for the village

Two rites above all belong to the Aranyakas. The Mahavrata, the great vow, closed a year-long Soma session with chanting, music and a swing on which the hotar sat to recite; the first book of the Aitareya Aranyaka and the opening adhyayas of the Shankhayana set out its hymns. The Pravargya was the offering of hot milk in a clay pot called the mahavira or gharma, heated until it glowed, and poured for the Ashvins. The Taittiriya Aranyaka gives its mantras in the fourth prapathaka and its explanation in the fifth. A student learned these only after a period of special vows, and away from the houses.

03Where the Upanishads sit

The Aitareya Upanishad is the fourth to sixth chapters of the second book of the Aitareya Aranyaka. The Kaushitaki Upanishad forms chapters three to six of the Shankhayana Aranyaka. The Taittiriya Aranyaka holds the Taittiriya Upanishad in its seventh to ninth prapathakas and the Mahanarayana Upanishad in its tenth. The Brihadaranyaka is at once Aranyaka and Upanishad, as its name says. On the Samaveda side, the Kena belongs to the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana.

04The Rigvedic Aranyakas

The Aitareya Aranyaka has five books. The first gives the Mahavrata. The second turns to prana, the breath on which every power of the body depends, and its fourth to sixth adhyayas are the Aitareya Upanishad, with its teaching prajnanam brahma. The third, the Samhita Upanishad, meditates on the forms of recitation themselves, samhita, pada and krama. The fourth gives the Mahanamni verses and the fifth returns to the Mahavrata. The Shankhayana Aranyaka, in fifteen adhyayas, carries the Kaushitaki Upanishad in its third to sixth, teaches the inner agnihotra in which breath and speech are offered into each other, and ends with a vamsha, the line of its teachers.

05Ten prapathakas of the Taittiriya

The Taittiriya Aranyaka is the one most chanted today, and its ten prapathakas run in a fixed order. The first is the Aruna Prashna to Surya. The second teaches svadhyaya, daily recitation, and the great daily yajnas. The third gives the chaturhotra mantras, the fourth and fifth the Pravargya, the sixth the mantras of the pitrimedha used at the last rites. The seventh, eighth and ninth are the Shiksha, Brahmananda and Bhrigu Vallis of the Taittiriya Upanishad, and the tenth is the Mahanarayana Upanishad. A Taittiriya student who has learned the Samhita and Brahmana goes on to these, and many families chant the seventh to tenth daily.

06Surya Namaskara and the Aruna Prashna

The first prapathaka of the Taittiriya Aranyaka is the Aruna Prashna, mantras to Surya chanted with the full prostrations of Surya Namaskara in many South Indian homes and temples, especially on Sundays. The tenth prapathaka, the Mahanarayana, gives the mantras said before meals and the Gayatris of many devatas. These chants are part of daily life for Taittiriya families even today.

07The Mahanarayana

The tenth prapathaka of the Taittiriya Aranyaka, the Mahanarayana Upanishad, is a treasury of mantras for worship. Here is the Narayana Sukta, sahasrashirsham devam, chanted in Vishnu temples and Vaishnava homes. Here are the five Brahma mantras of Shiva, beginning sadyojatam prapadyami, recited in the Shaiva puja for the five faces of Mahadeva. Here is the Durga Sukta, jatavedase sunavama somam, for crossing every difficulty, and the Gayatris of many devatas, Rudra, Ganesha, Garuda, Narasimha and others. The mantras said before and after meals come from here too. The numbering of its anuvakas differs between the Andhra and Dravida recensions, so editions count them differently.

08Sayana, Bhatta Bhaskara and the inward yajna

Sayanacharya wrote bhashyas on the Aitareya and Taittiriya Aranyakas, and Bhatta Bhaskara on the Taittiriya. Adi Shankaracharya wrote on the Upanishad portions, the Aitareya, the Taittiriya and the Brihadaranyaka, and his disciple Sureshvara wrote verse expositions (varttikas) on the Taittiriya and Brihadaranyaka bhashyas. What all of them find here is the yajna moving inward. In the Aranyakas the fire becomes breath, the offering becomes speech, and the year-long sacrifice becomes the life of the one who meditates. The Gita's words on offering breath into breath (4.29) speak the same language.

What it contains

1. 1
   Aitareya Aranyaka (Rigveda)

   Five books on the Mahavrata rite, on prana, and on the forms of recitation. The fourth to sixth adhyayas of the second book are the Aitareya Upanishad. Sayana wrote its standard bhashya.

2. 2
   Shankhayana (Kaushitaki) Aranyaka (Rigveda)

   Fifteen adhyayas, of which three to six are the Kaushitaki Upanishad. It also teaches the inner agnihotra and closes with the vamsha of its teachers.

3. 3
   Taittiriya Aranyaka (Krishna Yajurveda)

   Ten prapathakas: the Aruna Prashna to Surya, svadhyaya, the chaturhotra mantras, the Pravargya, the pitrimedha, the three vallis of the Taittiriya Upanishad and the Mahanarayana Upanishad. It is chanted daily in many South Indian homes and temples. Sayana and Bhatta Bhaskara wrote on it.

4. 4
   Brihadaranyaka (Shukla Yajurveda)

   The 'great forest text', the last part of the Shatapatha Brahmana, read at once as Aranyaka and Upanishad. It holds Yajnavalkya's teaching at the court of King Janaka and to Maitreyi. Shankaracharya's bhashya on it is his longest.

5. 5
   Talavakara (Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana) (Samaveda)

   On the Samaveda side, the forest teaching of the Jaiminiya school is the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana, also called the Talavakara. It meditates on the saman and Om, and its fourth part is the Kena Upanishad.

Famous verses

भद्रं कर्णेभिः शृणुयाम देवाः। भद्रं पश्येमाक्षभिर्यजत्राः॥

O devas, may we hear with our ears what is good; O worshipful ones, may we see with our eyes what is good.Taittiriya Aranyaka 1.1.1 (also Rigveda 1.89.8)

सहस्रशीर्षं देवं विश्वाक्षं विश्वशम्भुवम्। विश्वं नारायणं देवमक्षरं परमं प्रभुम्॥

The deva with a thousand heads, all-seeing, the source of all good; Narayana who is all this, the imperishable, the supreme Lord.Taittiriya Aranyaka 10, Mahanarayana Upanishad (Narayana Sukta, verse 1)

सद्योजातं प्रपद्यामि सद्योजाताय वै नमो नमः। भवे भवे नातिभवे भवस्व माम्। भवोद्भवाय नमः॥

I take refuge in Sadyojata; salutations again and again to Sadyojata. Do not cast me into birth after birth; be my refuge beyond birth. Salutation to him who is the source of all becoming.Taittiriya Aranyaka 10, Mahanarayana Upanishad (the first of the five Brahma mantras)

ऋतं तपः सत्यं तपः श्रुतं तपः शान्तं तपो दमस्तपः शमस्तपो दानं तपो यज्ञं तपो भूर्भुवः सुवर्ब्रह्मैतदुपास्वैतत्तपः॥

Right order is tapas, truth is tapas, learning is tapas, calm is tapas, self-control is tapas, inner peace is tapas, giving is tapas, the yajna is tapas. Worship Brahman as bhuh, bhuvah, suvah: this is tapas.Taittiriya Aranyaka 10, Mahanarayana Upanishad