Upanishads

The Upanishads (Singular: <a title="Sanskrit language" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_language">Sanskrit</a>: उपनिषत्, <a title="IAST" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IAST">IAST</a>: Upaniṣat, IPA: <a title="Help:IPA for Sanskrit" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Sanskrit">[upəniʂət̪]</a> Plural: <a title="Sanskrit language" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_language">Sanskrit</a>: उपनिषदः) are a collection of Vedic texts<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTEOlivelle1998xxiii-1">[1]</a> which contain the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of <a title="Hinduism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism">Hinduism</a>, <a title="Buddhism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism">Buddhism</a> and <a title="Jainism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jainism">Jainism</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTEOlivelle1998xxiii-1">[1]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-2">[note 1]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-4">[note 2]</a> They are also known as <a title="Vedanta" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta">Vedanta</a> ("the end of the <a title="Veda" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veda">Veda</a>"). The Upanishads are considered by Hindus to contain revealed truths (<a title="Sruti" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sruti">Sruti</a>) concerning the nature of ultimate reality (<a title="Brahman" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahman">brahman</a>) and describing the character and form of human salvation (<a title="Moksha" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moksha">moksha</a>). The Upanishads are found mostly in the concluding part of the <a title="Brahmanas" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmanas">Brahmanas</a> and <a title="Aranyakas" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aranyakas">Aranyakas</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTEMahadevan195656-5">[3]</a> and have been passed down in <a title="Oral tradition" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition">oral tradition</a>.

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 (<a title="Mukhya" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhya">mukhya</a>) Upanishads. The mukhya Upanishads all predate the Common Era, possibly from the Pre-Buddhist period (6th century BCE) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTEOlivelle1998xxxvi-6">[4]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKing.C4.80c.C4.81rya199552-7">[5]</a> down to the <a title="Maurya period" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurya_period">Maurya period</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTEKing.C4.80c.C4.81rya199552-7">[5]</a> The remainder of the <a title="Muktika" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muktika">Muktika</a> canon was mostly composed during <a title="History of Hinduism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hinduism">medieval Hinduism</a>, and new Upanishads continued being composed in the early modern and modern era,<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTERanade192612-8">[6]</a> down to at least the 20th century.

With the <a title="Bhagavad Gita" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavad_Gita">Bhagavad Gita</a> and the <a title="Brahmasutra" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmasutra">Brahmasutra</a> (known collectively as the <a title="Prasthanatrayi" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasthanatrayi">Prasthanatrayi</a>),<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTERanade1926205-9">[7]</a> the mukhya Upanishads provide a foundation for the several later schools of <a title="Vedanta" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanta">Vedanta</a>, among them, two influential <a title="Monism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monism">monistic</a> schools of Hinduism.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-11">[note 3]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-13">[note 4]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-15">[note 5]</a>

With the translation of the Upanishads in the early 19th century they also started to attract attention from a western audience. <a title="Schopenhauer" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schopenhauer">Schopenhauer</a> praised the Upanishads. The 19th century <a title="Transcendentalism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendentalism">transcendentalists</a>, like <a title="Ralph Waldo Emerson" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson">Emerson</a> and <a title="Henry David Thoreau" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau">Thoreau</a>, noted similarities between the doctrine of Upanishads and those of <a title="Plato" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato">Plato</a> and <a title="Immanuel Kant" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant">Kant</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upanishads#cite_note-FOOTNOTEDeussen201042-16">[</a>

Upanishads

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