A History of Sanskrit Literature c11.96

c11.96

A large and indefinite number of Upanishads is attributed to the *Atharva-veda*, but the most authoritative list recognises twenty-seven altogether. They are for the most part of very late origin, being post-Vedic, and, all but three, contemporaneous with the Purāṇas. One of them is actually a Muhammadan treatise entitled the *Alla Upanishad!* The older Upanishads which belong to the first three Vedas were, with a few exceptions like the *Çvetāçvatara*, the dogmatic text-books of actual Vedic schools, and received their names from those schools, being connected with and supplementary to the ritual Brāhmaṇas. The Upanishads of the *Atharva-veda*, on the other hand, are with few exceptions like the *Māṇḍūkya* and the *Jābāla*, no longer connected with Vedic schools, but derive their names from their subject-matter or some other circumstance. They appear for the most part to represent the views of theosophic, mystic, ascetic, or sectarian associations, who wished to have an Upanishad of their own in imitation of the old Vedic schools. They became attached to the *Atharva-veda* not from any internal connection, but partly because the followers of the *Atharva-veda* desired to become possessed of dogmatic text-books of their own, and partly because the fourth Veda was not protected from the intrusion of foreign elements by the watchfulness of religious guilds like the old Vedic schools.