1.
Hindu texts
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Hindu texts are manuscripts and historic literature related to any of the diverse traditions within Hinduism. A few texts are shared resources across these traditions and broadly considered as Hindu scriptures and these include the Vedas and the Upanishads. There are two classifications of Hindu texts, Shruti – that which is heard, and Smriti – that which is remembered. The Śruti refers to the body of most authoritative, ancient religious texts, without any author and it includes the four Vedas including its four types of embedded texts - the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the early Upanishads. The Smriti texts are a body of Hindu texts attributed to an author. Many ancient and medieval Hindu texts were composed in Sanskrit, many others in regional Indian languages, in modern times, most ancient texts have been translated into other Indian languages and some in Western languages. This verbal tradition of preserving and transmitting Hindu texts, from one generation to next, the Vedas are a large body of Hindu texts originating in ancient India, before about 300 BCE. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature, hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means not of a man, superhuman and impersonal, authorless. Vedas are also called śruti literature, distinguishing them from religious texts. The Veda, for orthodox Indian theologians, are considered revelations, in the Hindu Epic the Mahabharata, the creation of Vedas is credited to Brahma. There are four Vedas, the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – the Samhitas, the Aranyakas, the Brahmanas, and the Upanishads. The Upanishads are a collection of Hindu texts which contain some of the philosophical concepts of Hinduism. The Upanishads are commonly referred to as Vedānta, variously interpreted to either the last chapters, parts of the Veda or the object. The concepts of Brahman and Ātman are central ideas in all the Upanishads, the Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions. Of the Vedic corpus, they alone are known. More than 200 Upanishads are known, of which the first dozen or so are the oldest and most important and are referred to as the principal or main Upanishads. The mukhya Upanishads are found mostly in the part of the Brahmanas and Aranyakas and were, for centuries, memorized by each generation. The early Upanishads all predate the Common Era, some in all likelihood pre-Buddhist, of the remainder, some 95 Upanishads are part of the Muktika canon, composed from about the start of common era through medieval Hinduism
2.
Hinduism
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Hinduism is a religion, or a way of life, found most notably in India and Nepal. Hinduism has been called the oldest religion in the world, and some practitioners and scholars refer to it as Sanātana Dharma, scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no founder. This Hindu synthesis started to develop between 500 BCE and 300 CE following the Vedic period, although Hinduism contains a broad range of philosophies, it is linked by shared concepts, recognisable rituals, cosmology, shared textual resources, and pilgrimage to sacred sites. Hindu texts are classified into Shruti and Smriti and these texts discuss theology, philosophy, mythology, Vedic yajna, Yoga, agamic rituals, and temple building, among other topics. Major scriptures include the Vedas and Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, prominent themes in Hindu beliefs include the four Puruṣārthas, the proper goals or aims of human life, namely Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha, karma, samsara, and the various Yogas. Hindu practices include such as puja and recitations, meditation, family-oriented rites of passage, annual festivals. Some Hindus leave their world and material possessions, then engage in lifelong Sannyasa to achieve Moksha. Hinduism prescribes the eternal duties, such as honesty, refraining from injuring living beings, patience, forbearance, self-restraint, Hinduism is the worlds third largest religion, with over one billion followers or 15% of the global population, known as Hindus. The majority of Hindus reside in India, Nepal, Mauritius, the Caribbean, the word Hindu is derived from the Indo-Aryan/Sanskrit word Sindhu, the Indo-Aryan name for the Indus River in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term Hindu in these ancient records is a geographical term, the Arabic term al-Hind referred to the people who live across the River Indus. This Arabic term was taken from the pre-Islamic Persian term Hindū. By the 13th century, Hindustan emerged as an alternative name of India. It was only towards the end of the 18th century that European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus. The term Hinduism, then spelled Hindooism, was introduced into the English language in the 18th-century to denote the religious, philosophical, because of the wide range of traditions and ideas covered by the term Hinduism, arriving at a comprehensive definition is difficult. The religion defies our desire to define and categorize it, Hinduism has been variously defined as a religion, a religious tradition, a set of religious beliefs, and a way of life. From a Western lexical standpoint, Hinduism like other faiths is appropriately referred to as a religion, in India the term dharma is preferred, which is broader than the western term religion. Hindu traditionalists prefer to call it Sanatana Dharma, the study of India and its cultures and religions, and the definition of Hinduism, has been shaped by the interests of colonialism and by Western notions of religion. Since the 1990s, those influences and its outcomes have been the topic of debate among scholars of Hinduism, Hinduism as it is commonly known can be subdivided into a number of major currents
3.
Vedas
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The Vedas are a large body of knowledge texts originating in the ancient Indian subcontinent. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature, Hindus consider the Vedas to be apauruṣeya, which means not of a man, superhuman and impersonal, authorless. Vedas are also called śruti literature, distinguishing them from religious texts. The Veda, for orthodox Indian theologians, are considered revelations seen by ancient sages after intense meditation, in the Hindu Epic the Mahabharata, the creation of Vedas is credited to Brahma. The Vedic hymns themselves assert that they were created by Rishis, after inspired creativity. There are four Vedas, the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda, each Veda has been subclassified into four major text types – the Samhitas, the Aranyakas, the Brahmanas, and the Upanishads. Some scholars add a fifth category – the Upasanas, the various Indian philosophies and denominations have taken differing positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy which cite the Vedas as their authority are classified as orthodox. Other śramaṇa traditions, such as Lokayata, Carvaka, Ajivika, Buddhism and Jainism, despite their differences, just like the texts of the śramaṇa traditions, the layers of texts in the Vedas discuss similar ideas and concepts. The Sanskrit word véda knowledge, wisdom is derived from the root vid- to know and this is reconstructed as being derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *u̯eid-, meaning see or know. The noun is from Proto-Indo-European *u̯eidos, cognate to Greek εἶδος aspect, not to be confused is the homonymous 1st and 3rd person singular perfect tense véda, cognate to Greek οἶδα oida I know. Root cognates are Greek ἰδέα, English wit, etc, the Sanskrit term veda as a common noun means knowledge. The term in some contexts, such as hymn 10.93.11 of the Rigveda, means obtaining or finding wealth, property, a related word Vedena appears in hymn 8.19.5 of the Rigveda. It was translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith as ritual lore, as studying the Veda by the 14th century Indian scholar Sayana, as bundle of grass by Max Müller, Vedas are called Maṛai or Vaymoli in parts of South India. Marai literally means hidden, a secret, mystery, in some south Indian communities such as Iyengars, the word Veda includes the Tamil writings of the Alvar saints, such as Divya Prabandham, for example Tiruvaymoli. The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts, the Samhitas date to roughly 1700–1100 BC, and the circum-Vedic texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000-500 BC, resulting in a Vedic period, spanning the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BC, or the Late Bronze Age, Michael Witzel gives a time span of c.1500 to c. Witzel makes special reference to the Near Eastern Mitanni material of the 14th century BC the only record of Indo-Aryan contemporary to the Rigvedic period
4.
Rigveda
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The Rigveda is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is one of the four sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas. The text is a collection of 1,028 hymns and 10,600 verses, a good deal of the language is still obscure and many hymns as a consequence seem unintelligible. The hymns are dedicated to Rigvedic deities, for each deity series the hymns progress from longer to shorter ones, and the number of hymns per book increases. In the eight books that were composed the earliest, the hymns predominantly discuss cosmology, Rigveda is one of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. 1700–1100 BC has also been given, some of its verses continue to be recited during Hindu rites of passage celebrations such as weddings and religious prayers, making it probably the worlds oldest religious text in continued use. This redaction also included some additions and orthoepic changes to the Vedic Sanskrit such as the regularization of sandhi, the Padapatha and the Pratisakhya anchor the texts fidelity and meaning, and the fixed text was preserved with unparalleled fidelity for more than a millennium by oral tradition alone. In order to achieve this the oral tradition prescribed very structured enunciation, involving breaking down the Sanskrit compounds into stems and inflections and this interplay with sounds gave rise to a scholarly tradition of morphology and phonetics. The Rigveda was probably not written down until the Gupta period, the oral tradition still continued into recent times. The text is organized in 10 books, known as Mandalas, of varying age, the family books, mandalas 2–7, are the oldest part of the Rigveda and the shortest books, they are arranged by length and account for 38% of the text. Within each book, the hymns are arranged in collections each dealing with a deity, Agni comes first, Indra comes second. They are attributed and dedicated to a rishi and his family of students, within each collection, the hymns are arranged in descending order of the number of stanzas per hymn. If two hymns in the collection have equal numbers of stanzas then they are arranged so that the number of syllables in the metre are in descending order. The second to seventh mandalas have a uniform format, the eighth and ninth mandalas, comprising hymns of mixed age, account for 15% and 9%, respectively. The first and the tenth mandalas are the youngest, they are also the longest books, of 191 suktas each, however, adds Witzel, some hymns in Mandala 8,1 and 10 may be as old as the earlier Mandalas. The first mandala has an arrangement not found in the other nine mandalas. The ninth mandala is arranged by both its structure and hymn length, while the first eighty four hymns of the tenth mandala have a structure different than the remaining hymns in it. Each mandala consists of hymns called sūkta intended for various rituals, the sūktas in turn consist of individual stanzas called ṛc, which are further analysed into units of verse called pada
5.
Samaveda
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The Samaveda, is the Veda of melodies and chants. It is an ancient Vedic Sanskrit text, and part of the scriptures of Hinduism, one of the four Vedas, it is a liturgical text whose 1,875 verses are primary derived from the Rigveda. Three recensions of the Samaveda have survived, and variant manuscripts of the Veda have been found in parts of India. The classical Indian music and dance tradition considers the chants and melodies in Samaveda as one of its roots and it is also referred to as Sama Veda. The Samaveda is the Veda of Chants, or storehouse of knowledge of chants, according to Frits Staal, it is the Rigveda set to music. It is a fusion of melodies and the Rig verses. It has far fewer verses than Rigveda, but Samaveda is textually larger because it all the chant-. The Samaveda text contains notated melodies, and these are probably the worlds oldest surviving ones, the musical notation is written usually immediately above, sometimes within, the line of Samaveda text, either in syllabic or a numerical form depending on the Samavedic Sakha. The first part include four collections and the second part three verse books. A melody in the song corresponds to a verse in the arcika books. The Gana collection is subdivided into Gramageya and Aranyageya, while the Arcika portion is subdivided into Purvarcika and Uttararcika portions, the Purvarcika portion of the text has 585 single stanza verses and is organized in order of deities, while Uttararcika text is ordered by rituals. The Gramageya melodies are those for public recitations, while Aranyageya melodies are for personal meditative use such as in the solitude of a forest. Just like Rigveda, the sections of Samaveda typically begin with Agni and Indra hymns but shift to abstract speculations and philosophy. The later sections of the Samaveda, states Witzel, have least deviation from substance of hymns they derive from Rigveda into songs, the purpose of Samaveda was liturgical, and they were the repertoire of the udgātṛ or singer priests. The Samaveda, like other Vedas, contains layers of text, with Samhita being the oldest. The Samaveda consists of 1,549 unique verses, taken almost entirely from Rigveda, the largest number of verse come from Books 9 and 8 of the Rig Veda. Some of the Rigvedic verses are repeated more than once, including these repetitions, there are a total of 1,875 verses numbered in the Samaveda recension translated by Griffith. Samaveda samhita is not meant to be read as a text, the text uses creative structures, called Stobha, to help embellish, transform or play with the words so that they better fit into a desired musical harmony
6.
Yajurveda
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The Yajurveda is the Veda of prose mantras. An ancient Vedic Sanskrit text, it is a compilation of ritual offering formulas that were said by a priest while an individual performed ritual actions such as those before the yajna fire, Yajurveda is one of the four Vedas, and one of the scriptures of Hinduism. The exact century of Yajurvedas composition is unknown, and estimated by scholars to be around 1200 to 1000 BCE, the Yajurveda is broadly grouped into two – the black Yajurveda and the white Yajurveda. The term black implies the un-arranged, unclear, motley collection of verses in Yajurveda, in contrast to the white which implies the well arranged, the black Yajurveda has survived in four recensions, while two recensions of white Yajurveda have survived into the modern times. The earliest and most ancient layer of Yajurveda samhita includes about 1,875 verses, the middle layer includes the Satapatha Brahmana, one of the largest Brahmana texts in the Vedic collection. The youngest layer of Yajurveda text includes the largest collection of primary Upanishads and these include the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Isha Upanishad, the Taittiriya Upanishad, the Katha Upanishad, the Shvetashvatara Upanishad and the Maitri Upanishad. Yajurveda is a compound Sanskrit word, composed of yajus and veda, monier-Williams translates yajus as religious reverence, veneration, worship, sacrifice, a sacrificial prayer, formula, particularly mantras muttered in a peculiar manner at a sacrifice. Johnson states yajus means prose formulae or mantras, contained in the Yajur Veda, michael Witzel interprets Yajurveda to mean a knowledge text of prose mantras used in Vedic rituals. Ralph Griffith interprets the name to mean knowledge of sacrifice or sacrificial texts, carl Olson states that Yajurveda is a text of mantras that are repeated and used in rituals. The Yajurveda text includes Shukla Yajurveda of which about 16 recensions are known, only two recensions of the Shukla Yajurveda have survived, Madhyandina and Kanva, and others are known by name only because they are mentioned in other texts. These two recensions are nearly the same, except for few differences, in contrast to Shukla Yajurveda, the four surviving recensions of Krishna Yajurveda are very different versions. The samhita in the Shukla Yajurveda is called the Vajasaneyi Samhita, the name Vajasaneyi is derived from Vajasaneya, patronymic of sage Yajnavalkya, and the founder of the Vajasaneyi branch. There are two surviving recensions of the Vajasaneyi Samhita, Vajasaneyi Madhyandina and Vajasaneyi Kanva, there are four surviving recensions of the Krishna Yajurveda – Taittirīya saṃhitā, Maitrayani saṃhitā, Kaṭha saṃhitā and Kapiṣṭhala saṃhitā. A total of eighty six recensions are mentioned to exist in Vayu Purana, the Katha school is referred to as a sub-school of Carakas in some ancient texts of India, because they did their scholarship as they wandered from place to place. The best known and best preserved of these recensions is the Taittirīya saṃhitā, some attribute it to Tittiri, a pupil of Yaksa and mentioned by Panini. The text is associated with the Taittiriya school of the Yajurveda, the Kāṭhaka saṃhitā or the Caraka-Kaṭha saṃhitā, according to tradition was compiled by Katha, a disciple of Vaisampayana. Like the Maitrayani Samhita, it offers more detailed discussion of some rituals than the younger Taittiriya samhita that frequently summarizes such accounts. The Kapiṣṭhala saṃhitā or the Kapiṣṭhala-Kaṭha saṃhitā, named after the sage Kapisthala is extant only in some large fragments and this text is practically a variant of the Kāṭhaka saṃhitā
7.
Atharvaveda
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The Atharva is the knowledge storehouse of atharvāṇas, the procedures for everyday life. The text is the fourth Veda, but has been an addition to the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism. The Atharvaveda is composed in Vedic Sanskrit, and it is a collection of 730 hymns with about 6,000 mantras, divided into 20 books. About a sixth of the Atharvaveda text adapts verses from the Rigveda, and except for Books 15 and 16, two different recensions of the text – the Paippalāda and the Śaunakīya – have survived into modern times. Reliable manuscripts of the Paippalada edition were believed to have been lost, the Atharvaveda is sometimes called the Veda of magical formulas, an epithet declared to be incorrect by other scholars. Many books of the Atharvaveda Samhita are dedicated to rituals without magic, the text, states Kenneth Zysk, is one of oldest surviving record of the evolutionary practices in religious medicine and reveals the earliest forms of folk healing of Indo-European antiquity. It was likely compiled as a Veda contemporaneously with Samaveda and Yajurveda, along with the Samhita layer of text, the Atharvaveda includes a Brahmana text, and a final layer of the text that covers philosophical speculations. The latter layer of Atharvaveda text includes three primary Upanishads, influential to various schools of Hindu philosophy and these include the Mundaka Upanishad, the Mandukya Upanishad and the Prashna Upanishad. Monier Williams notes that the now obsolete term for fire used to be Athar, the name Atharvaveda, states Laurie Patton, is for the text being Veda of the Atharvāṇas. The oldest name of the text, according to its own verse 10.7.20, was Atharvangirasah, each school called the text after itself, such as Saunakiya Samhita, meaning the compiled text of Saunakiya. The Atharvan and Angiras names, states Maurice Bloomfield, imply different things, over time, the positive auspicious side came to be celebrated and the name Atharva Veda became widespread. The latter name Angiras which is linked to Agni and priests in the Vedas, states George Brown, michael Witzel states Atharvan roots may be *atharwan or priest, sorcerer, with links to Avestan āθrauuan priest and Tocharian <*athr, superior force. The Atharvaveda is also referred to as Bhrgvangirasah and Brahmaveda, after Bhrigu. The Atharvaveda is a collection of 20 books, with a total of 730 hymns of about 6,000 stanzas. The Caraṇavyuha, a later era Sanskrit text, states that the Atharvaveda had nine shakhas, or schools, paippalāda, stauda, mauda, śaunakīya, jājala, jalada, brahmavada, devadarśa and cāraṇavaidyā. Of these, only the Shaunakiya recension, and the recently discovered manuscripts of Paippalāda recension have survived. The Paippalāda edition is more ancient, the two recensions differ in how they are organized, as well as content. For example, the Book 10 of Paippalada recension is more detailed, more developed and more conspicuous in describing monism, the concept of oneness of Brahman, all life forms, the Atharvaveda Samhita originally was organized into 18 books, and the last two were added later
8.
Upanishads
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The Upanishads are a collection of ancient Sanskrit texts that contain some of the central philosophical concepts of Hinduism, some of which are shared with Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. Early Upanishads are considered by Hindus as part of their scriptures that discuss the nature of ultimate reality, the Upanishads are commonly referred to as Vedānta, variously interpreted to mean either the last chapters, parts of the Veda or the object, the highest purpose of the Veda. The concepts of Brahman and Ātman are central ideas in all the Upanishads, the Upanishads are the foundation of Hindu philosophical thought and its diverse traditions. Of the Vedic corpus, they alone are known. More than 200 Upanishads are known, of which the first dozen or so are the oldest and most important and are referred to as the principal or main Upanishads. The mukhya Upanishads are found mostly in the part of the Brahmanas and Aranyakas and were, for centuries, memorized by each generation. The early Upanishads all predate the Common Era, five of them in all likelihood pre-Buddhist, of the remainder, some 95 Upanishads are part of the Muktika canon, composed from about the last centuries of 1st-millennium BCE through about 15th-century CE. New Upanishads, beyond the 108 in the Muktika canon, continued to be composed through the modern and modern era. Along with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahmasutra, the mukhya Upanishads provide a foundation for the later schools of Vedanta, among them. With the translation of the Upanishads in the early 19th century they started to attract attention from a western audience. Arthur Schopenhauer was deeply impressed by the Upanishads and called it the production of the highest human wisdom, modern era Indologists have discussed the similarities between the fundamental concepts in the Upanishads and major western philosophers. The Sanskrit term Upaniṣad translates to sitting down near, referring to the student sitting down near the teacher while receiving esoteric knowledge, monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary adds that, According to native authorities Upanishad means setting to rest ignorance by revealing the knowledge of the supreme spirit. Adi Shankara explains in his commentary on the Kaṭha and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the word means Ātmavidyā, other dictionary meanings include esoteric doctrine and secret doctrine. The word appears in the verses of many Upanishads, such as the verse of the 13th volume in first chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad. The authorship of most Upanishads is uncertain and unknown, Radhakrishnan states, almost all the early literature of India was anonymous, we do not know the names of the authors of the Upanishads. The Vedic texts themselves assert that they were created by Rishis, after inspired creativity. Women, such as Maitreyi and Gargi participate in the dialogues and are credited in the early Upanishads. There are exceptions to the tradition of the Upanishads and other Vedic literature
9.
Chandogya Upanishad
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The Chandogya Upanishad is a Sanskrit text embedded in the Chandogya Brahmana of the Sama Veda of Hinduism. It is one of the oldest Upanishads and it lists as number 9 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads. The Upanishad belongs to the Tandya school of the Samaveda, like Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, the Chandogya Upanishad is an anthology of texts that must have pre-existed as separate texts, and were edited into a larger text by one or more ancient Indian scholars. The precise chronology of Chandogya Upanishad is uncertain, and it is dated to have been composed by the 8th to 6th century BCE in India. It is one of the largest Upanishadic compilations, and has eight Prapathakas, each with many volumes, the volumes are a motley collection of stories and themes. It is one of the most cited texts in later Bhasyas by scholars from the schools of Hinduism. Adi Shankara, for example, cited Chandogya Upanishad 810 times in his Vedanta Sutra Bhasya, the name of the Upanishad is derived from the word Chanda, which means poetic meter, prosody. The name implies that the nature of the text relates to the patterns of structure, stress, rhythm and intonation in language, songs, the text is sometimes known as Chandogyopanishad. Chandogya Upanishad was in all likelihood composed in the part of 1st millennium BCE. The exact century of the Upanishad composition is unknown, uncertain, Patrick Olivelle states, in spite of claims made by some, in reality, any dating of these documents that attempts a precision closer than a few centuries is as stable as a house of cards. Scholars have offered different estimates ranging from 800 BCE to 600 BCE, according to a 1998 review by Olivelle, Chandogya was composed by 7th or 6th century BCE, give or take a century or so. Phillips states that Chandogya was completed after Brihadaranyaka, both probably in part of the 1st millennium BCE. The text has eight Prapathakas, each with varying number of Khandas, each Khanda has varying number of verses. The Upanishad comprises the last eight chapters of a ten chapter Chandogya Brahmana text, the first chapter of the Brahmana is short and concerns ritual-related hymns to celebrate a marriage ceremony and the birth of a child. The second chapter of the Brahmana is short as well and its mantras are addressed to divine beings at life rituals, the last eight chapters are long, and are called the Chandogya Upanishad. A notable structural feature of Chandogya Upanishad is that it contains many nearly identical passages and stories found in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Chandogya Upanishad, like other Upanishads, was a living document, additionally, supplements were likely attached to various volumes in a different age. Klaus Witz structurally divides the Chandogya Upanishad into three natural groups, the first group comprises chapters I and II, which largely deal with the structure, stress and rhythmic aspects of language and its expression, particularly with the syllable Om
10.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
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The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is one of the Principal Upanishads and one of the oldest Upanishadic scriptures of Hinduism. A key scripture to various schools of Hinduism, the Brihadaranyaka Upanisad is tenth in the Muktikā or canon of 108 Upanishads, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is estimated to have been composed about 700 BCE, excluding some parts estimated to have been composed after the Chandogya Upanishad. The Sanskrit language text is contained within the Shatapatha Brahmana, which is itself a part of the Shukla Yajur Veda, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad was in all likelihood composed in the earlier part of 1st millennium BCE. The exact year, and even the century of the Upanishad composition is unknown, scholars have offered different estimates ranging from 900 BCE to 600 BCE, all preceding Buddhism. According to a 1998 review by Olivelle, Brihadaranyaka is one of the oldest Upanishads, along with Jaiminiya Upanishad and Chandogya Upanishads. It was composed around 700 BCE, give or take a century or so, the chronology of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, like other Upanishads, is uncertain and contested. Patrick Olivelle states, in spite of claims made by some, in reality, the title Brihadaranyaka Upanishad literally means great wilderness or forest Upaniṣhad. It is credited to ancient sage Yajnavalkya, but likely refined by a number of ancient Vedic scholars, the Upanishad forms the last part, that is the fourteenth khanda of Satapatha Brahmana. It includes three sections, Madhu Kanda, Muni Kanda and Khila Kanda, thus, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad has six adhyayas in total. There are two major recensions for the text - the Madhyandina and the Kanva recensions, the first and second chapters of the Upanishads Madhu Kanda consists of six brahmanams each, with varying number of hymns per brahmanam. The first chapter of the Upanishads Yajnavalkya Kanda consists of nine brahmanams, the Khila Kanda of the Upanishad has fifteen brahmanams in its first chapter, and five brahmanams in the second chapter. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad starts by stating one of many Vedic theories of creation of the universe, the world is more than matter and energy, asserts Brihadaranyaka, it is constituted also of Atman or Brahman as well as Knowledge. In the last brahmana of the first chapter, the Upanishad explains that the Atman inspires by being self-evident, through empowering forms, the Soul, states Brihadaranyaka, is the imperishable one that is invisible and concealed pervading all reality. It then asserts that this fact about dreams suggests that human mind has the power to perceive the world as it is. Mind is a means, prone to flaws, the struggle man faces, asserts Brihadaranyaka in brahmana 3, is in his attempt to realize the true reality behind perceived reality. That is Atman-Brahman, inherently and blissfully existent, yet unknowable because it has no qualities, no characteristics, it is neti, neti. Yajnavalkya states that one doesnt connect with and love forms, nor does one connect or love mind, rather one connects with the Self, all love is for the sake of ones Self, and the Oneness one realizes in the Self of the beloved. He then asserts that knowledge of the Soul, the Self, the Brahman is what makes one immortal
11.
Taittiriya Upanishad
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The Taittirīya Upanishad is a Vedic era Sanskrit text, embedded as three chapters of the Yajurveda. It is a mukhya Upanishad, and likely composed about 6th century BCE, the Taittirīya Upanishad is associated with the Taittirīya school of the Yajurveda, attributed to the pupils of sage Tittiri. It lists as number 7 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads, the Taittirīya Upanishad is the seventh, eighth and ninth chapters of Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, which are also called, respectively, the Śikṣāvallī, the Ānandavallī and the Bhṛguvallī. Taittiriya is a Sanskrit word that means from Tittiri, each chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad is called a Valli, which literally means a medicinal vine-like climbing plant that grows independently yet is attached to a main tree. The chronology of Taittiriya Upanishad, along with other Vedic era literature, is unclear, all opinions rest on scanty evidence, assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies. Ranade shares the view of Phillips in chronologically sequencing Taittiriya Upanishad with respect to other Upanishads, Paul Deussen and Winternitz, hold a similar view as that of Phillips, but place Taittiriya before Isha Upanishad, but after Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Chandogya Upanishad. According to a 1998 review by Patrick Olivelle, the Taittiriya Upanishad was composed in a pre-Buddhist period, the Taittiriya Upanishad has three chapters, the Siksha Valli, the Ananda Valli and the Bhrigu Valli. The first chapter Siksha Valli includes twelve Anuvaka, the second chapter Ananda Valli, sometimes called Brahmananda Valli includes nine verses. The third chapter Bhrigu Valli consists of ten verses, some ancient and medieval Hindu scholars have classified the Taittiriya Upanishad differently, based on its structure. For example, Sâyana in his Bhasya calls the Shiksha Valli as Sâmhitî-upanishad, the Upanishad is one of the earliest known texts where index was included at the end of each section, along with main text, as a structural layout of the book. At the end of each Vallĩ in Taittiriya Upanishad manuscripts, there is an index of the Anuvakas which it contains, the index includes the initial words and final words of each Anuvaka, as well as the number of sections in that Anuvaka. The Ananda Valli, according to the index, state each chapter to be much larger than currently surviving texts. For example, the 1st Anuvaka lists pratika words in its index as brahmavid, idam, ayam, similarly, the third Valli lists the pratika and anukramani in the index for each of the ten Anuvakas. The Siksha Valli chapter of Taittiriya Upanishad derives its name from Shiksha, the various lessons of this first chapter are related to education of students in ancient Vedic era of India, their initiation into a school and their responsibilities after graduation. It mentions lifelong pursuit of knowledge, includes hints of Self-knowledge, Paul Deussen states that the Shiksha Valli was likely the earliest chapter composed of this Upanishad, and the text grew over time with additional chapters. The first anuvaka of Taittiriya Upanishad starts with benedictions, wherein states Adi Shankara, along with the benedictions, the first anuvaka includes a prayer and promise that a student in Vedic age of India was supposed to recite. The second anuvaka highlights phonetics as an element of the Vedic instruction, taittirĩya Upanishads emphasizes, in its later anuvakas, svādhyāya, a practice that served as the principal tool for the oral preservation of the Vedas in their original form for over two millennia. This ensured an impeccable textual transmission superior to the texts of other cultures, it is, in fact
12.
Katha Upanishad
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The Katha Upanishad is one of the mukhya Upanishads, embedded in the last short eight sections of the Kaṭha school of the Krishna Yajurveda. It is also known as Kāṭhaka Upanishad, and is listed as number 3 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads, the Katha Upanishad consists of two chapters, each divided into three sections. The first Adhyaya is considered to be of older origin than the second, the Upanishad is the legendary story of a little boy, Nachiketa – the son of Sage Vajasravasa, who meets Yama. Their conversation evolves to a discussion of the nature of man, knowledge, Atman, the Kathaka Upanishad is an important ancient Sanskrit corpus of the Vedanta sub-schools, and an influential Śruti to the diverse schools of Hinduism. It asserts that Atman exists, teaches the precept seek Self-knowledge which is Highest Bliss, the Upanishad presents ideas that contrast Hinduism with Buddhisms assertion that Soul, Self does not exist, and Buddhisms precept that one should seek Emptiness which is Highest Bliss. The detailed teachings of Katha Upanishad have been interpreted, as Dvaita. It is among the most widely studied Upanishads, Katha Upanishad was translated into Persian in 17th century, copies of which were then translated into Latin and distributed in Europe. Max Müller and many others have translated it, Katha is also the name of a sage, credited as the founder of a branch of the Krishna Yajur-veda, as well as the term for a female pupil or follower of Kathas school of Yajurveda. Paul Deussen notes that the Katha Upanishad uses words that symbolically embed, for example, a closely pronounced word Katha literally means story, legend, conversation, speech, tale. All of these meanings are relevant to the Katha Upanishad. Nachiketa, the boy and a character in the Katha Upanishad legend, similarly, has closely related words with roots. Similarly, Na jiti is another play and means that which cannot be vanquished. Some of these Sanskrit word plays are incorporated within the Upanishads text, the chronology of Katha Upanishad is unclear and contested by scholars. Buddhism scholars such as Richard King date Katha Upanishads composition roughly to the 5th century BCE, Hinduism scholars such as Stephen Phillips note the disagreement between modern scholars. Ranade posits a view similar to Phillips, with slightly different ordering, placing Kathas chronological composition in the group of ancient Upanishads along with Mundaka. Winternitz considers the Kathaka Upanishad as pre-Buddhist, pre-Jaina literature, the Katha Upanishad has two chapters, each with three sections, thus a total of six sections. The first section has 29 verses, the second section 25 verses, the second chapter opens with the fourth section of the Katha Upanishad and has 15 verses, while the fifth valli also has 15 verses. The final section has 17 verses and this, however, does not imply a significant gap between the two chapters, both chapters are considered ancient, and from 1st millennium BCE
13.
Shvetashvatara Upanishad
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The Shvetashvatara Upanishad is an ancient Sanskrit text embedded in the Yajurveda. It is listed as number 14 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads, the Upanishad contains 113 mantras or verses in six chapters. The Upanishad is one of the 33 Upanishads from Taittiriyas, the chronology of Maitrayaniya Upanishad is contested, but generally accepted to be a late period Upanishadic composition. The text includes a credit to sage Shvetashvatara, considered the author of the Upanishad. The text is notable for its discussion of the concept of personal god – Ishvara, the text is also notable for its multiple mentions of both Rudra and Shiva, along with other Vedic deities, and of crystallization of Shiva as a central theme. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad is a Principal Upanishad of Hinduism, commented by many of its ancient and it is a foundational text of the philosophy of Shaivism, as well as the Yoga and Vedanta schools of Hinduism. Some 19th century scholars suggested that Shvetashvatara Upanishad is sectarian or possibly influenced by Christianity, hypotheses that were disputed. The name Shvetashvatara has the compound Sanskrit root Shvetashva, which means white horse. Shvetashvatara is a compound of, where tara means crossing, carrying beyond. The word Shvetashvatara translates to the one carrying beyond on white horse or simply white mule that carries, the text is sometimes spelled as Svetasvatara Upanishad. It is also known as Shvetashvataropanishad or Svetasvataropanishad, and as Shvetashvataranam Mantropanishad, in ancient and medieval literature, the text is frequently referred to in the plural, that is as Svetasvataropanishadah. Some metric poetic verses, such as Vakaspatyam simply refer to the text as Shvetashva, flood as well as Gorski state that the Svetasvatara Upanishad was probably composed in the 5th to 4th century BCE. Paul Muller-Ortega dates the text between 6th to 5th century BCE, the chronology of Shvetashvatara Upanishad, like other Upanishads, is uncertain and contested. Phillips chronologically lists Shvetashvatara Upanishad after Mandukya Upanishad, but before and about the time the Maitri Upanishad, ranade places Shvetashvatara Upanishads chronological composition in the fourth group of ancient Upanishads, after Katha and Mundaka Upanishads. Deussen states that Shvetashvatara Upanishad refers to and incorporates phrases from the Katha Upanishad, some sections of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad are found, almost in its entirety, in chronologically more ancient Sanskrit texts. Similarly, many verses in chapters 3 through 6 are also found, in identical form in the Samhitas of Rig Veda, Atharva Veda. The text has six Adhyaya, each with varying number of verses, the first chapter includes 16 verses, the second has 17, the third chapter contains 21 verses, the fourth is composed of 22, the fifth has 14, while the sixth chapter has 23 verses. The last three verses of the chapter are considered as epilogue
14.
Maitrayaniya Upanishad
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The Maitrayaniya Upanishad is an ancient Sanskrit text that is embedded inside the Yajurveda. It is also known as the Maitri Upanishad, and is listed as number 24 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad is associated with the Maitrayanas school of the Yajurveda. The chronology of Maitrayaniya Upanishad is contested, but generally accepted to be a late period Upanishadic composition, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad consists of seven Prapathakas. The content and structure of the Upanishad is also different in various manuscript recensions, the etymological root of the Maitrayaniya Upanishad are unclear. This has historically led to a variety of names and spellings for this Upanishad, Maitra and Maitri are related words which literally mean kindly, benevolent, good will, amity, friend of all creatures. The likely root for the Upanishad is probably the name of an ancient Indian scholar, Maitra, sometimes spelled Maitri or Maitreya, the ancient scholar is also credited with a school of thought, thus giving the text the name Maitrayaniya Upanishad. Olivelle includes Maitri Upanishad among the list of principal Upanishads that were composed last, mahony suggests an earlier date, placing Prashna along with Maitri and Mandukya Upanishads, as texts that probably emerged about early fourth century BCE. Jayatilleke states, Buddhism is not far removed in time from, though it is prior to, nakamura states that although Buddhistic influence can be seen in the Maitri Upanishad, the particular terms and modes of expression of Mahayana Buddhism do not yet appear. Phillips, in contrast, lists Maitri Upanishad before and about the time the first Buddhist Pali canonical texts were composed, ranade posits a view similar to Phillips, placing Maitris chronological composition in the fifth group of ancient Upanishads and last of the Principal Upanishads. The extant recension of the text consists seven Prapāṭhakas, of several sections are Khilas added later. The last two are called as khila by medieval era Indian scholar Ramatirtha, others consider the last three sections as supplements and appendices. Other discovered manuscript versions of the Maitri Upanishad present different number of sections, ranging from 1 to 4, there are also differences in style, structure and content among the discovered manuscripts when the text contains the same number of sections. The text is a prose style Upanishad, with a collection of different sized paragraphs. The first section has four paragraphs, the second has seven, as appendices, the fifth lesson has two paragraphs, while the sixth Prapathaka is the longest section with thirty eight paragraphs. The last supplementary section, or the seventh Prapāṭhaka has eleven paragraphs some with many sub-paragraphs, the Maitrayaniya Upanishad is embedded after the Brahmana text of Yajur Veda, and in its opening passages refers to rituals contained therein. It contextually belongs to the Sannyasa Upanishads corpus, hume includes it among his list of Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Maitri Upanishad deals with the concept and nature of Atman, the question of how is joy possible, and how one can achieve moksha. in later sections it offers a debate on possible answers. Therefore, let such man, after he has laid those fires, meditate on the Self, to become complete, but who is to be meditated on
15.
Mundaka Upanishad
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The Mundaka Upanishad is an ancient Sanskrit Vedic text, embedded inside Atharva Veda. It is a Mukhya Upanishad, and is listed as number 5 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads of Hinduism and it is among the most widely translated Upanishads. It is a poetic verse style Upanishad, with 64 verses, however, these mantras are not used in rituals, rather they are used for teaching and meditation on spiritual knowledge. The Mundaka Upanishad contains three Mundakams, each with two sections, the second Mundakam describes the nature of the Brahman, the Self, the relation between the empirical world and the Brahman, and the path to know Brahman. The third Mundakam expands the ideas in the second Mundakam and then asserts that the state of knowing Brahman is one of freedom, fearlessness, complete liberation, self-sufficiency, some scholars suggest that passages in the Mundaka Upanishad present the pantheism theory. Mundaka literally means shaved, shorn, lopped trunk of a tree, eduard Roer suggests that this root is unclear, and the word as title of the Upanishad possibly refers to knowledge that shaves, or liberates, one of errors and ignorance. The chapters of the Mundaka Upanishad are also referred to as Mundakam in ancient and medieval texts. The exact chronology of Manduka Upanishad, like other Vedic texts, is unclear, phillips dates Mundaka Upanishad as a relatively later age ancient Upanishad, well after Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Isha, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kena and Katha. Paul Deussen considers Mundaka Upanishad to be composed in a period where poetic expression of ideas became a feature of ancient Indian literary works, patrick Olivelle writes, Both the Mundaka and the Mahanarayana are rather late Upanisads and are, in all probability, post-Buddhist. Max Muller states that, given the similarities, either some of the teachings of the Upanishads were influenced by the doctrine of Buddhism, some of the ideas and allegories in Mundaka Upanishad have chronological roots in more ancient Vedic literature such as Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya and Katha Upanishads. The allegory of blind leading the blind in section 1.2 of Mundaka, the allegory of two birds in section 3.1 of Mundaka Upanishad, similarly, is found in hymns of Rig Veda chapter I.164. The Mundaka Upanishad has three Mundakams, each part has two khanda, the section 1.1 has 9 mantras structured as metered poetic verses. Section 1.2 has 13 verses, section 2.1 includes 10 verses, section 2.2 is composed of 11 verses, section 3.1 has 10, combined, the Upanishad features 64 mantras. Several manuscript versions of Mundaka Upanishad have been discovered so far, the Mundaka Upanishad opens with declaring Brahma as the first of gods, the creator of the universe, and the knowledge of Brahman to be the foundation of all knowledge. The text then lists a succession of teachers who shared the knowledge of Brahman with the next generation, Charles Johnston suggests that this announces the Vedic tradition of teacher-student responsibility to transfer knowledge across the generations, in unbroken succession. The teacher answered, states verse 1.1.4 of the Mundaka Upanishad, hume calls these two forms of knowledge as traditions of religion and knowledge of the eternal respectively. The lower knowledge, states the Upanishad, includes knowledge of Vedas, phonetics, grammar, etymology, meter, astronomy, some manuscripts of Manduka Upanishad expand the list of lower knowledge to include logic, history, Puranas and Dharma. The first seven mantras of second khanda of first Mundakam explain how man has called upon, promised benefits for, scared unto and misled into performing sacrifices, oblations
16.
Mandukya Upanishad
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The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad is the shortest of all the Upanishads, and is assigned to Atharvaveda. It is listed as number 6 in the Muktikā canon of 108 Upanishads and it is in prose, consisting of twelve terse verses, and is associated with a Rig Vedic school of scholars. It discusses the syllable Om, presents the theory of four states of consciousness, asserts the existence, the text is also notable for inspiring Gaudapadas Karika, a classic for the Vedanta school of Hinduism. Mandukya Upanishad is among the oft cited texts on chronology and philosophical relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism, the root of Mandukya is sometimes considered as Manduka which literally has several meanings. It means frog, a breed of horse, the sole of horses hoof. Some writers have suggested the frog as the root for Mandukya Upanishad. Another root for the Upanishads name is Mānduka which literally is a Vedic school or means a teacher, Paul Deussen states the etymological roots of Mandukya Upanishad to be a half lost school of Rigveda. This school may be related to the scholar named Hrasva Māṇḍūkeya, applying the rules of sandhi, the text is also called Mandukyopanishad. The chronology of Mandukya Upanishad, like other Upanishads, is uncertain, Nakamura dates the Mandukya Upanishad to about the first or second centuries A. D. Richard King too dates the Mandukya Upanishad at the first two centuries of the Common Era. Olivelle states, we have the two late prose Upanisads, the Prasna and the Mandukya, which cannot be older than the beginning of the common era. Mahony, on the hand, states that Mandukya Upanishad probably emerged in the late fifth and early fourth centuries BCE, along with Prashna. Phillips lists Mandukya Upanishad before and about the time the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, ranade posits a view similar to Phillips, placing Mandukyas chronological composition in the fifth, that is the last group of ancient Principal Upanishads. The foundation of several theories in the Mandukya Upanishad are found in more ancient Sanskrit texts. For example, chapters 8.7 through 8.12 of Chandogya Upanishad discuss the four states of consciousness as awake, dream-filled sleep, deep sleep, and beyond deep sleep. The text of the Mandukya Upanishad is fully incorporated in the Mandukya Karika, a commentary attributed to the 6th century CE Gaudapada, and is not known to exist independent of this commentary. Isaeva states that scholars, including Paul Deussen, presumed that Gaudapada may be its author, however. Scholars consider Mandukya Upanishad as a Principal Upanishad with more ancient origins, in contrast to the older Upanishads, the Mandukya Upanishad is very short, with clear and concise formulations. It has twelve terse prose paragraphs, the Mandukya Upanishad is an important Upanishad in Hinduism, particularly to its Advaita Vedanta school
