A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c13.s1: I. Texts
A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c13.s1
- Language
- English
I. Texts
c13.s1.1
A handy edition of the texts of the Upanishads can be had at the Nirnayasagar Press, Bombay, entitled *Twenty-eight Upanishads*, which contains almost all of the more prominent Upanishads, excluding the Maitri. Another edition of the *Twenty-eight Upanishads* is published also at the Venkateshwar Press, Bombay. The Anandashram Press, Poona, has published an edition of *Thirty-two Upanishads*, which excludes the famous ten Upanishads, with an inclusion, however, of Kaushitaki and Maitri along with other Minor Upanishads. This edition of Minor Upanishads is printed with the commentaries of Nārāyaṇa and Śaṅkarānanda. Jacob has brought out an edition of the *Eleven Atharvaṇa Upanishads* in the Bombay Sanskrit Series, which also contains Upanishads beyond the ordinary ten. An excellent edition of the Miscellaneous Upanishads can be had at the Adyar Library, Madras, edited by the Director of the Manuscripts Library. Dr. Schrader, who was the Director of that Library in 1912, brought out an edition of the *Saṃnyāsa Upanishads* during that year, but when he was required to go to Europe during the war, his place was taken up by his successor A. Mahadev Shastri, who has recently brought out editions of the *Yoga Upanishads* in 1920, *Vedānta Upanishads* in 1921, and *Vaiṣṇava Upanishads* in 1923. It seems only one volume on *Śaiva Upanishads* from out of the original plan yet remains to be edited. All the Upanishads have been edited with the commentary of Upanishad-Brahmayogin. The get-up of the volumes leaves nothing to be desired, and we cannot recommend to our readers a more beautiful or more handy edition of the Minor Upanishads than the edition of the four volumes brought out from Adyar.
c13.s1.2
As regards the Hundred and Eight Upanishads, there was an edition brought out by Subrahmanya Shastri at Madras in 1883. Later on, the Tattvavivechak Press, Bombay, brought out an edition of the same Hundred and Eight Upanishads, while a handy edition of the *Hundred and Eight Upanishads* can now be had even at the Nirnayasagar Press, Bombay. In the absence of a more reliable edition, we can recommend this to all students of Upanishadic literature, who care for the canon of the Upanishadic literature "in extenso." There are a number of other Upanishads which exist beyond the so-called Hundred and Eight, which have been catalogued in the volume on the bibliography of the Upanishads published at Adyar, as well as with greater fulness and precision in the "Creative Period of Indian Philosophy" by S. K. Belvalkar and R. D. Ranade.
c13.s1.3
It is strange that there should not have been even a single exceedingly reliable edition of the Texts of the Upanishads. We recommend the production of such a one to all those who are interested in the literary side of the Upanishads. Lanman's dictum ("Beginings of Hindu Pantheism") remains only too true that "a critical text of all the old Upanishads conveniently assembled in one volume with a philologically accurate translation and various useful appendices is still one of the pressing needs of Indology."
c13.s1.4
Colonel Jacob has laid all students of Upanishadic literature under immense obligations by editing a *Concordance to the Principal (56) Upanishads*, along with the Bhagavadgītā. This piece of literary work is exceedingly creditable to one who was serving in the Indian Army. One wishes that there were more happy surprises of that kind from the Indian Army!