Principal Upanishads
Most ancient and widely studied Upanishads of Hinduism
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Principal Upanishads, also known as Mukhya Upanishads, are the most ancient and widely studied Upanishads of Hinduism. Composed between 800 BCE to the start of common era, these texts are connected to the Vedic tradition.[1]
Etymology
The Sanskrit term mukhya translates to "principal" or "primary." This term distinguishes the selected Upanishads from the larger corpus of scriptures.[2]
Canon
The Principal Upanishads, which were composed probably between 600 and 300 BCE, constitute the concluding portions of the Veda.[3]
The ten Principal Upanishads are:[4]
- Īśā (Isha) from the Shukla Yajurveda
- Kena (Kena) from the Samaveda
- Kaṭha (Katha) from the Krishna Yajurveda
- Praśna (Prashna) from the Atharvaveda
- Muṇḍaka (Mundaka) from the Atharvaveda
- Māṇḍūkya (Mandukya) from the Atharvaveda
- Taittirīya (Taittiriya) from the Krishna Yajurveda
- Aitareya (Aitareya) from the Rigveda
- Chāndogya (Chandogya) from the Samaveda
- Bṛhadāraṇyaka (Brihadaranyaka) from the Shukla Yajurveda
At times, some scholarship will expand the list to thirteen texts which include: Śvetāśvatara (Shwetashvatara) Kauṣītaki (Kaushitaki) and Maitrāyaṇīya (Maitrayaniya).[5][6][7]
Commentarial tradition
The founders of the major schools of Vedanta, viz., Adi Shankara and Madhvacharya wrote bhāṣyas (commentaries) on these ten Principal Upanishads. Even though Ramanuja did not write individual commentaries on Principal Upanishads, he quoted many hundreds of quotations from Upanishads in his Sri Bhasya. In the Ramanuja lineage, one of his followers, Rangaramanuja, wrote commentaries on almost all of the Principal Upanishads around the 1600s.[8][9]
The Principal Upanishads are accepted as śruti by all Hindus, or the most important scriptures of Hinduism.[10] The Principal Upanishads are separated into three categories: prose (Taittirīya, Aitareya, Chāndogya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka), verse (Īśā, Kaṭha, Muṇḍaka), and prose (classical Sanskrit) (Māṇḍūkya).[3]