A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s8.51

v1.c8.s8.51

¹ *Cf.* Deussen, System des Vedanta, pp. 32 f., on the Upaniṣads quoted by Śaṅkara. As regards the chronological order of the fourteen Vedic Upaniṣads, absolute certainty cannot be obtained. Keith (The Aitareya Āraṇyaka, pp. 45 ff.) has tried to prove that the Aitareya-Upaniṣad is the oldest, dating back to about 700-600 B.C. Others consider the Bṛhadāraṇyaka-Up. to be the oldest. S. Radhakrishnan, Indian Philosophy, I, pp. 141 f., says that "the accepted dates for the early Upaniṣāds are 1000 B.C. to 300 B.C." By whom are these dates "accepted"? *Cf.* Deussen in Transactions of the 3rd International Congress for the History of Religion, Oxford, 1908, II, pp. 19 ff.; Oldenberg, Die Lehre der Upanishaden, pp. 288 f., 341; Hillebrandt, Aus Brahmanas und Upanisaden, p. 170. Benimadhab Barua, A History of Pre-Buddhistic Indian Philosophy, Calcutta, 1921) has made a remarkable and creditable, though not always successful, attempt at establishing a chronology of the philosophical ideas contained in the Upaniṣads, apart from the chronology of the literary works. But his designation of the philosophy of the Upaniṣads as "post-Vedic" (pp. 39 ff.) is very confusing.