dran@cs.albany.edu (Paliath Narendran) (03/05/91)
The Upanishads -------------- Ramesh Sitaraman had, some time ago, written about the upanishads in one of his postings on soc.religion.eastern. I thought the following facts about them may be of interest to readers of this net. The upanishads have an important place in Indian philosophical/religious thought, especially in the school known as Vedanta. The word `upanishad' means "secret teaching" or "the secret meaning of the Vedas." (There are some other meanings as well.) There is some debate as to whether the upanishads are part of the Vedas or merely appendices in some sense. In any case they are now found in various sections of the Vedas *towards the end* (and hence the name `Vedanta' - Veda + anta ("end") for the school of philosophy). The ten principal upanishads are: Name Appears in ------------------------------------ Isa Yajur Veda Kena Sama Veda Kattha Yajur Veda Prasna Atharva Veda Mundaka Atharva Veda Mandukya Atharva Veda Aitareya Rg Veda Taittiriya Yajur Veda Chhandogya Sama Veda Brhad-aranyaka Yajur Veda All except Mandukya are believed to be pre-Buddha. Chhandogya and Brhad-aranyaka are also believed to be older than the rest. There are two more upanishads, which, though not considered as important as the above ten, are quite ancient. Svetaasvatara Yajur Veda Kaushitaki Rg Veda There are many more upanishads, but most of them are more recent than these. It also seems that they (the later ones) only have the status of `smrti' (tradition) and not that of `sruti' (revelation) in many schools of thought. The principal ones are accepted to be sruti by all the Vedanta schools. (It should be mentioned here that there is no general consensus on what is sruti and what is smrti. This in itself is a fascinating subject.) Sri Sankara (`Sankaracharya') has written `bhasya's (commentaries or exegeses) for the ten principal ones named above. He seems to have been the first one to do so. Svetaasvatara also has a bhashya believed to have been written by Sankara. I don't think Ramanuja has written any commentaries on the Upanishads. Madhva has written commentaries on the above ten. Upanishad Brahma Yogin (who was also the spiritual guru of the great composer Thyagaraja) of Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu (in South India), has written commentaries on 108 upanishads, including the major ten. Most of the information here was obtained from some books in Malayalam that I have been reading. I have not mentioned anything about the subject matter of the upanishads, because I haven't read any of them in its entirety except for Kena (#2) which is short and sweet. The contents of most of them are metaphysical, but there are also stories and maxims for ethical living in them. Paliath Narendran P.S. Dates of: ---- Sankara 788-820 A.D. Ramanuja 1017-1137 A.D. Madhva 1199-1278 A.D. Sankara, Ramanuja and Madhva are the most famous exponents of (different schools of) Vedanta philosophy.
muttiah@stable.ecn.purdue.edu (Ranjan S Muttiah) (03/06/91)
[My mail server has been very flaky for a few days and I'm not sure what has actually gotten out. Sorry if this is a repeat. --- Bill Mayne, acting moderator.] In article <9103041951.AA12701@panini.albany.edu> dran@cs.albany.edu (Paliath Narendran) writes: >well.) There is some debate as to whether the upanishads are >part of the Vedas or merely appendices in some sense. In any case >they are now found in various sections of the Vedas *towards the The interested reader may find the book titled "Vedic Literature" by Jan Gonda of pertinence in regard to this question.