The Philosophy of the Upanishads c6.s2.5

c6.s2.5

These are collectively the Vedânta texts of the actually existing S'âkhâs, and in their earlier parts are usually closely interwoven with Brâhmaṇas and Âraṇyakas, of which they form the continuation, and whose ritualistic conceptions are interpreted by them in various allegorical ways. It is only the later, and as we may suppose younger texts which emancipate themselves from the ritual. The language is still almost entirely the ancient prose of the Brâhmaṇas, somewhat ponderous stilted and awkward, but not without natural charm. The order adopted above is in general chronological. The Bṛihadâraṇyaka and Chândogya are not only the richest in contents, but also the oldest of the extant Upanishads. As compared also with one another, the Bṛihadâraṇyaka, as we shall often see, shows almost without exception greater originality in the grouping of the texts. On the other hand the literary outlook of Chând. 7. 1. 4 (7. 2. 1, 7. 7. 1) is materially broader than that of Bṛih. 2. 4. 10 (4. 1. 2, 4. 5. 11). *Taittirîya* in its essential part is still later than *Chân-dogya*; cp. Chând. 6. 2 (three elements) and Taitt. 2. 1 (five elements). *Aitareya* is later than *Chândogya* (in Chând. 6. 3. 1 there are three kinds of organic beings, in Ait. 3. 3 four), and than *Taittirîya* (cp. Taitt. 2. 6, "after that he had created it he entered into it," with the more elaborate description Ait. 1. 3. 12). *Kaushîtaki*, finally, is later than all those named; for Kaush. 1 is less original than Chând. 5. 3 f., Bṛih. 6. 2, and Kaush. 3 must be later than Ait. 3. 3, Kaush. 4 than Bṛih. 2. 1. *Kena* stands on the border-line of this period, and by virtue of its first metrical portion already belongs to the succeeding epoch.