Upaniṣad

Upaniṣad (Skt.). In Hinduism, the genre of texts which end or complete the Vedic corpus. For this reason they are also called Vedānta, ‘the end of the Veda’. The word ‘upaniṣad’ itself is usually understood to mean ‘esoteric teaching’, the preferred etymology (upa + ni + śad, ‘to sit close by’) referring to the proximity necessary for the transmission of such teachings. The Upaniṣads, as texts, developed out of the earlier speculations on the Vedic ritual contained in the Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas. In number they are counted by some as being over 200; traditionally, there are 108, listed at the beginning of Muktika Upaniṣad. Nine show a clear relationship to preceding brāhmaṇas or āraṇyakas. Six more are commented on or mentioned by Śaṅkara. Radhakrishnan, in his work The Principal Upaniṣads (1953), included eighteen. The central teaching of these early upaniṣads is that the Self (ātman) is identical to the ultimate ground of reality (Brahman). He who realizes this finds liberation (mokṣa) from the cycle of suffering (saṃsāra) embodied in birth, death and rebirth. This speculative perspective, extolling the way of knowledge (jñānamārga), became a point of departure for much of Indian philosophy, particularly the various schools of Vedānta. The later Upaniṣads, composed under Purāṇic, Tantric, or devotional influences, are less philosophical and more sectarian. Their importance is not so much for the history of philosophy in India as for an understanding of its popular religion.

The major Upaniṣads are Aitareya, Bṛhadāranyaka, Chandogya, Īśa, Kaṭha, Kauṣītaki, Kena, Mahānārāyaṇīya Maitri, Māṇḍūkya, Muṇḍaka, Praśna, Śvetāśvatara, Taittirīya.