A History of Indian Literature v1.c8.s8.53

v1.c8.s8.53

Though the remaining Upaniṣads—and there are over 200 texts which have come down to us either independently as Upaniṣads or in larger collections—are also attributed by tradition to one or other of the Vedic schools, only a few of them have any real connection with the Veda. Most of them are religious rather than philosophical works, and contain the doctrines and views of schools of philosophers and religious sects of a much later period. Many of them are much more nearly related to the Purāṇas and Tantras chronologically as well as in content, than to the Veda. This latest Upaniṣad literature may be classified as follows, according to its purpose and contents: (1) those works which present Vedānta doctrines,² (2) those which teach Yoga,¹ (3) those which extol the ascetic life (sannyāsa),² (4) those which glorify Viṣṇu,³ and (5) those which glorify Śiva as the highest divinity, and (6) Upaniṣads of the Śāktas and of other more insignificant sects.⁴ These Upaniṣads are written partly in prose, partly in a mixture of prose and verse, and partly in epic Ślokas. Whilst the latter are on the same chronological level as the latest Purāṇas and Tantras, there are some works among the former which may be of greater antiquity, and which might consequently still be associated with the Veda.) (The following are probably examples of such earlier Upaniṣads: the Jābāla-Upaniṣad⁵) which is quoted by Śaṅkara as an authority, and which closes with a beautiful description of the ascetic named Paramahaṃsa; (the Paramahaṃsa-Upaniṣad,⁶) describing the path of the Paramahaṃsa still more vividly; the very extensive (Subāla-Upaniṣad,⁷) often quoted by Rāmānuja, and dealing with cosmogony, physiology, psychology and metaphysics;