A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c5.1900

c5.1900

UPANISHADS. 'Esoteric doctrine.' The third division of the Vedas attached to the Brāhmana portion, and forming part of the Sruti or revealed word. The Upanishads are generally written in prose with interspersed verses, but some are wholly in verse. There are about 150 of these works, probably even more. They are of later date than the Brāhmanas, but it is thought that the oldest may date as far back as the sixth century B.C. The object of these treatises is to ascertain the mystic sense of the text of the Veda, and so they enter into such abstruse questions as the orgin of the universe, the nature of the deity, the nature of soul, and the connection of mind and matter. Thus they contain the beginnings of that metaphysical inquiry which ended in the full development of Hindu philosophy. The Upanishads have “one remarkable peculiarity, the total absence of any Brahmanical exclusiveness in their doctrine. They are evidently later than the older Sanhitās and Brāhmanas, but they breathe an entirely different spirit, a freedom of thought unknown in any earlier work except the Rig-veda hymns themselves. The great teachers of the higher knowledge and Brāhmans are continually represented as going to Kshatriya kings to become their pupils.”—Professor Cowell. The Rig-veda has the Upanishad called Aitareya attached to the Aitareya Brāhmana. The Taittirīya Sanhitā of the Yajur has an Upanishad of the same name. The Vājasaneyī Sanhitā has the Īsa, and attached to the Satapatha Brāhmana it has the Brihad Āranyaka, which is the most important of them. The Sāma-veda has the Kena and Chhāndogya. All these have been translated into English. The Atharva-veda has the Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Māndukya, and others, altogether fifty-two in number. These are the most important of the Upanishads. Many of the Upanishads have been printed, and several of them translated in the Bibliotheca Indica, and by Poley. There is a catalogue by Müller in the Zeitschrift des D. M. G., vol. xix.