Mahanarayana Upanishad
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| Mahanarayana Upanishad | |
|---|---|
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| Devanagari | महानारायणोपनिषत् |
| IAST | Mahānārāyaṇa |
| Title means | Great Narayana[1] |
| Date | 1100 BCE |
| Type | Vaishnava[1] |
| Linked Veda | Krishna Yajurveda[2] or Atharvaveda[3] |
| Chapters | varies |
| Verses | varies by manuscript |
| Philosophy | Vaishnavism |
| Part of a series on |
| Vaishnavism |
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The Mahanarayana Upanishad (Sanskrit: महानारायण उपनिषद्, IAST: Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad), also Brihannarayana Upanishad,[4] is an ancient Sanskrit text, and is one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism. The text is classified as a Vaishnava Upanishad.[3][2]
The text exists in three main versions.[5] One version with 64 chapters is attached to the Krishna Yajurveda in several South Indian anthologies, and the same text in Andhra edition exists in an expanded form with 80 chapters attached to the same Veda.[2] A second version is attached to the Atharvaveda,[3] has 25 chapters and is prefixed with Tripadvibhuti.[6] These manuscripts are sometimes titled as the Yajniki Upanishad or Tripad-vibhuti-mahanarayana Upanishad.[7][3] According to Swami Vimalananda, this Upanishad is also called Yagniki Upanishad in reverence for sage Yagnatma Narayana.[8]
Author Doris Srinivasan says, The Upanishad, despite its title which means "Great Narayana",[9] is notable for glorifying both Narayana and Rudra, both as the first equivalent embodiment of Brahman, the concept of ultimate, impersonal, and transcendental reality in Hinduism.[5] The Upanishad uses Vedanta terminology,[10] and uses numerous fragments from Rigveda, Taittiriya Brahmana, Vajasaneyi Samhita and Principal Upanishads.[10]
When doing sandhyavandanam, the mantras used for Prāṇāyāma, Mantrācamana, Gāyatrī āhvānam, Devatānamaskāraḥ and Gāyatrī Prasthānam are directly from Mahanarayana Upanishad (Andhra rescension containing 80 anuvakas).[11]
The author and the century in which the Mahanarayana Upanishad was composed is unknown. The relative chronology of the text, based on its poetic verse and textual style, has been proposed by Parmeshwaranand to the same period of composition as Katha, Isha, Mundaka, and Shvetashvatara Upanishads, but before Maitri, Prashna, and Mandukya Upanishad.[12] Feuerstein places the relative composition chronology of Mahanarayana to be about that of Mundaka and Prashna Upanishads.[13] These relative chronology estimates date the text to second half of 1st millennium BCE.[12][14]
Srinivasan suggests a later date, one after about 300 BCE, and by around the start of the common era, probably the 1st century CE, based on the texts it cites and the comparison of details of the Samdhya ritual found in Mahanarayana Upanishad with those found in other Sutras and Shastras.[15] Deussen considers it to be ancient and a transitional link between the Upanishads of the three Vedas (Rig, Sama and Yajur) and the Atharvaveda.[1]
Manuscripts of this text are also found titled as Mahanaryanopanishad.[16][17] In the Telugu language anthology of 108 Upanishads of the Muktika canon, narrated by Rama to Hanuman, it is listed as Tripadvibhutimahanarayana Upanishad at number 52.[18] It is different from the shorter version of Narayana Upanishad of the Atharva Veda.[1] The tenth chapter of the Taittiriya Upanishad is adopted in this Mahanarayana text.[19]
The Mahanarayana Upanishad was among the text included in the collection of fifty Upanishads translated into Persian by Sultan Mohammed Dara Shikhoh in 1656, under the title Maha-narain, and listed at 30 in the compilation called the Oupanekhat.[20] In the Colebrooke's version of 52 Upanishads, popular in North India, it is listed at 39–40 as Brhadnarayana. In the Narayana anthology, popular in South India, it is included at number 34 as Mahanarayana or Brhadnarayana in Bibliothica Indica.[21] Even though Adi Shankara did not directly comment on this Upanishad, his commentary on Brahmasutras such as at III.3.24 applies to this text, since some of the Vedanta sutras are incorporated in this Upanishad.[8]
