Mundaka

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

[Was Re: Sannyasins & cutting of the hair?]

On Fri, 9 Aug 2002, Ashish Chandra wrote:

> If I am not mistaken, there is even an Upanishad named after hair (on the
> head or the beard or both - I am not sure) called MuNDaka.

MuNDakopanishad belongs to the Atharvaveda.  It means the Upanishad of
those who shave their heads.  Shankaracharya explains that the followers
of the Atharvaveda had a vrata called Shirovrata which involved shaving
the head.  But the details of that Shirovrata are not explained in the
upanishad itself but elsewhere inthe karmakanda of the Atharvaveda.
Similiarly there is an upanishad called Chandogyopanishad which means the
upanishad of those who sing verses.  This is because it belongs to the
Samaveda which describes how rks are to be sung even though the upanishad
itself doesn't cover that subject.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/