The Philosophy of the Upanishads c6.s2.15

c6.s2.15

The earliest traces of a collection of Upanishads are found within the books themselves. Thus the mention in S'vet. 5. 6 of "the Upanishads that form the mystical portion of the Veda" (*veda-guhya-upaniṣadaḥ*), and also the passage S'vet. 6. 22, "in former times in the Vedânta was the deepest mystery revealed," seem to look back to the older Upanishads as a self-contained whole which already claimed a certain antiquity. A similar inference may be drawn from a thrice recurring verse¹ which speaks of ascetics (*yatis*) who have "grasped the meaning of the Vedânta doctrine." Still more clearly do the Upanishads appear as a complete whole when, in Maitr. 2. 3, the doctrine concerning Brahman is described as "the doctrine of all the Upanishads" (*sarva-upaniṣad-vidyâ*). That in so late works as the Sarva-upaniṣad-sâra or the Muktikâ Upanishad the Upanishads are assumed to be a whole is therefore of no further importance.