Upanishads
The Upanishads constitute the fourth and final stratum of the corpus of Vedic literature (early Hindu sacred writings), traditionally held to be shruti, or the revealed and eternal divine word. The Upanishads are chiefly concerned with metaphysical speculations about the nature of reality and the destiny of the human soul. The term is normally understood to mean a dozen or so esoteric and speculative texts, in prose and in verse, that are associated with the four great Vedic textual traditions or schools and are thought to date, in the main, from the sixth century
BCE to perhaps the first centuries CE. These texts come chronologically at the end of the Vedic corpus and they represent, broadly speaking, the culmination of the development of Vedic thought from a relatively straightforward ritualism to an interiorization of the ritual and speculation on the underlying principle of the cosmos. For these reasons they are sometimes referred to collectively as the Vedanta or end (anta) of the Veda. The term Upanishad is, like many words in the later Vedic texts, subject to a variety of etymological interpretations. However, scholars generally understand it to derive from a verbal root meaning "to sit down near" and to convey the sense of disciples seating themselves at the feet of a master to imbibe the esoteric doctrines that characterize these texts.
Such is the power and influence of these and other Vedic texts that (like the name Veda itself) the term Upanishad has been extended to a variety of post-Vedic texts such as the Sannyasa Upanishads, which lay down the rules of conduct for religious renunciants, while other important religious texts such as the Bhagavad Gita are sometimes also considered to be Upanishads.
The original Upanishads vary in length and are diverse in character, consisting of a variety of materials including dialogues of a spiritual or metaphysical character, genealogies of spiritual teachers and disciples, narratives involving gods, demons, men, and, in some cases talking animals, and rituals and spells for the acquisition of power, long life, wealth, sex, and progeny.
Further Reading
Deussen, Paul. ([1906] 1966). The Philosophy of the Upanishads. Reprint ed. New York: Dover. Hume, Robert Ernest. (1968) The Thirteen Principal Upanishads: Translated from the Sanskrit. 2d ed. Madras, India: Oxford University Press.
Keith, A. B. (1925) The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and
Upanishads. Harvard Oriental Series, vol. 32. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Olivelle, Patrick. (1996) Upanishads. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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