A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s8.40

v1.c8.s8.40

A few Upaniṣads which are written entirely or for the most part in *verse*, belong to a period which is somewhat later, though still early, and probably pre-Buddhistic. These, too, are assigned to certain Vedic schools, though they have not always come down to us as portions of an Āraṇyaka. In this category we may include the Kaṭha- or Kāṭhaka-Upaniṣad,¹ the very name of which points to its connection with a school of the Black Yajurveda (see above p. 169). The Śvetāśvatara-Upaniṣad,² and the Mahā-Nārāyaṇa-Upaniṣad which has come down to us as an appendix to the Taittirīya-Āraṇyaka, are also counted among the texts of the Black Yajurveda. The short, but most valuable Īśā-Upaniṣad,³ which forms the last section of the Vājasaneyi-Saṁhitā, belongs to the White Yajurveda. The Muṇḍaka-Upaniṣad,⁴ and the Praśna-Upaniṣad,⁵ half of which is in prose, half in verse, belong to the Atharvaveda. Though these six Upaniṣads, too, contain the Vedānta doctrine, we here find it interwoven to a great extent with Sāṁkhya and Yoga doctrines and with monotheistic views. We must, however, leave it to future scholars to decide to what degree the various philosophical doctrines mingled, and to what degree this mingling was consequent upon retouched versions of the text; for all these texts show distinct signs of having been touched up. There are for instance, as many as three separate recensions of the Mahā-Nārāyaṇa-Upaniṣad, and this shows how uncertain the text is.¹