French,
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
,
German
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* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
,
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English usually refers to:
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Peoples, culture, and language
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,
Dutch
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People E ...
,
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
,
Japanese
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,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
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* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
. The
Mughal Emperor
The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...
Akbar
Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
's reign (1556–1586) saw the first translations of the Upanishads into Persian. His great-grandson,
Dara Shukoh
Dara Shikoh ( fa, ), also known as Dara Shukoh, (20 March 1615 – 30 August 1659) was the eldest son and heir-apparent of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. Dara was designated with the title ''Padshahzada-i-Buzurg Martaba'' ("Prince of High Rank ...
, produced a collection called ''
Sirr-i-Akbar'' in 1656, wherein 50 Upanishads were translated from Sanskrit into
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
.
Anquetil-Duperron
Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron (7 December 173117 January 1805) was the first professional French Indologist. He conceived the institutional framework for the new profession. He inspired the founding of the École française d'Extrême-Orien ...
, a French Orientalist, received a manuscript of the ''Oupanekhat'' and translated the Persian version into French and Latin, publishing the Latin translation in two volumes in 1801–1802 as ''Oupneck'hat''. The French translation was never published. More recently, several translations in french of some Upanishads or the whole of 108 have been published : by indianists
Louis Renou Louis Renou (; 26 October 1896 – 18 August 1966) was the pre-eminent French Indologist of the twentieth century.
Education and Career
After passing the ''agrégation'' examination in 1920, Louis Renou taught for a year at the ''lycée'' in Rouen ...
, ''Kausitaki, Svetasvatra, Prasna, Taittiriya Upanisads'', 1948;
Jean Varenne
Jean Varenne (12 June 1926 – 12 July 1997) was a French Indologist and a prominent figure of the Nouvelle Droite. He taught Sanskrit at the Aix-Marseille University, then at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3, where he was eventually nominated profes ...
, ''Mahâ-Nârâyana Upanisad'', 1960, and ''Sept Upanishads'', 1981; Alyette Degrâces-Fadh, ''Samnyâsa-Upanisad (Upanisad du renoncement)'' , 1989; Martine Buttex, ''Les 108 Upanishads'' (full translation), 2012.
The Latin version was the initial introduction of the Upanishadic thought to Western scholars. However, according to Deussen, the Persian translators took great liberties in translating the text and at times changed the meaning.
The first Sanskrit-to-English translation of the
Aitareya Upanishad was made by
Colebrooke[See Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1858), ]
Essays on the religion and philosophy of the Hindus
'. London: Williams and Norgate. In this volume, see chapter 1 (pp. 1–69), ''On the Vedas, or Sacred Writings of the Hindus'', reprinted from Colebrooke's ''Asiatic Researches'', Calcutta: 1805, Vol 8, pp. 369–476. A translation of the Aitareya Upanishad appears in pages 26–30 of this chapter. in 1805, and the first English translation of the
Kena Upanishad
The Kena Upanishad () is a Vedic Sanskrit text classified as one of the primary or Mukhya Upanishads that is embedded inside the last section of the ''Talavakara Brahmanam'' of the Samaveda.Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, ...
was made by
Rammohun Roy in 1816.
The first German translation appeared in 1832 and Roer's English version appeared in 1853. However, Max Mueller's 1879 and 1884 editions were the first systematic English treatment to include the 12 Principal Upanishads. Other major translations of the Upanishads have been by Robert Ernest Hume (13 Principal Upanishads),
Paul Deussen (60 Upanishads),
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (; 5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975), natively Radhakrishnayya, was an Indian philosopher and statesman. He served as the 2nd President of India from 1962 to 1967. He also 1st Vice President of India from 1952 ...
(18 Upanishads),
Patrick Olivelle (32 Upanishads in two books) and Bhānu Swami (13 Upanishads with commentaries of Vaiṣṇava ācāryas). Olivelle's translation won the 1998 A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation.
Throughout the 1930s,
Irish poet
This is a list of notable poets with Wikipedia pages, who were born or raised in Ireland or hold Irish citizenship.
Abbreviations for the languages of their writings: E: English; F: French; I: Irish (); L: Latin; R: Russian
A–D
* Adomnán ...
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
worked with the
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
-born
mendicant-teacher
Shri Purohit Swami
Shri Purohit Swami ( – 1941) was a Hindu teacher from Maharashtra, India.
Purohit was born in Badnera, Vidarbha, India to a wealthy Maharashtran Brahmin family. His parents gave him the name Shankar Gajannan Purohit.
As a child he became prof ...
on their own translation of the Upanishads, eventually titled ''
The Ten Principal Upanishads
''The Ten Principal Upanishads'' is a version of the Upanishads translated by Irish poet W. B. Yeats and the Indian-born mendicant-teacher Shri Purohit Swami. The translation process occurred between the two authors throughout the 1930s and the bo ...
'' and published in 1938. This translation was the final piece of work published by Yeats before his death less than a year later.
Reception in the West
The German philosopher
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
read the Latin translation and praised the Upanishads in his main work, ''
The World as Will and Representation
''The World as Will and Representation'' (''WWR''; german: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, ''WWV''), sometimes translated as ''The World as Will and Idea'', is the central work of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. The first editio ...
'' (1819), as well as in his ''
Parerga and Paralipomena
''Parerga and Paralipomena'' (Greek for "Appendices" and "Omissions", respectively; german: Parerga und Paralipomena) is a collection of philosophical reflections by Arthur Schopenhauer published in 1851. The selection was compiled not as a summa ...
'' (1851). He found his own philosophy was in accord with the Upanishads, which taught that the individual is a manifestation of the one basis of reality. For Schopenhauer, that fundamentally real underlying unity is what we know in ourselves as "will". Schopenhauer used to keep a copy of the Latin ''Oupnekhet'' by his side and commented,
Schopenhauer's philosophy influenced many famous people and introduced them to the Upanishads. One of them was the Austrian Physicist
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger (, ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian physicist with Irish citizenship who developed a number of fundamental results in quantum theo ...
, who once wrote:
Another German philosopher,
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him be ...
, praised the ideas in the Upanishads, as did others. In the United States, the group known as the
Transcendentalists
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...
were influenced by the German idealists. Americans, such as
Emerson and
Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and hi ...
embraced Schelling's interpretation of
Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...
's
Transcendental idealism
Transcendental idealism is a philosophical system founded by German philosopher Immanuel Kant in the 18th century. Kant's epistemological program is found throughout his '' Critique of Pure Reason'' (1781). By ''transcendental'' (a term that dese ...
, as well as his celebration of the romantic, exotic, mystical aspect of the Upanishads. As a result of the influence of these writers, the Upanishads gained renown in Western countries.
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr (; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. B ...
said, “I go to the Upanishad to ask questions.”
The poet
T. S. Eliot, inspired by his reading of the Upanishads, based the final portion of his famous poem ''
The Waste Land
''The Waste Land'' is a poem by T. S. Eliot, widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. Published in 1922, the 434-line poem first appeared in the United Kingdom in the Octob ...
'' (1922) upon one of its verses. According to
Eknath Easwaran
Eknath Easwaran (December 17, 1910 October 26, 1999) was an Indian-born spiritual teacher, author and translator and interpreter of Indian religious texts such as the '' Bhagavad Gita'' and the Upanishads.
Easwaran was a professor of English li ...
, the Upanishads are snapshots of towering peaks of consciousness.
Juan Mascaró
Joan Mascaró, generally known as Juan (8 December 1897 – 19 March 1987) was a Spanish translator. He used the Spanish spelling of his name (Juan) because the Catalan spelling (Joan) is the same as that of the female English name "Joan".
...
, a professor at the University of Barcelona and a translator of the Upanishads, states that the Upanishads represents for the Hindu approximately what the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
represents for the Christian, and that the message of the Upanishads can be summarized in the words, "the kingdom of God is within you".
[Juan Mascaró, The Upanishads, Penguin Classics, , page 7, 146, cover]
Paul Deussen in his review of the Upanishads, states that the texts emphasize Brahman-Atman as something that can be experienced, but not defined.
[ This view of the soul and self are similar, states Deussen, to those found in the dialogues of Plato and elsewhere. The Upanishads insisted on oneness of soul, excluded all plurality, and therefore, all proximity in space, all succession in time, all interdependence as cause and effect, and all opposition as subject and object.][Paul Deussen]
The Philosophy of the Upanishads
University of Kiel, T&T Clark, pages 150-179 Max Müller, in his review of the Upanishads, summarizes the lack of systematic philosophy and the central theme in the Upanishads as follows,
See also
* '' 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written''
* Bhagavad Gita
The Bhagavad Gita (; sa, श्रीमद्भगवद्गीता, lit=The Song by God, translit=śrīmadbhagavadgītā;), often referred to as the Gita (), is a 700- verse Hindu scripture that is part of the epic ''Mahabharata'' (c ...
* Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
* Prasthanatrayi
Prasthanatrayi ( sa, प्रस्थानत्रयी, IAST: ), literally, ''three sources (or axioms)'', refers to the three canonical texts of theology having epistemic authority, especially of the Vedanta schools. It consists of:
# The ...
* Principal Upanishads
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.
Content
The Principal U ...
Notes
References
Sources
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Further reading
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* Müller, Max, translator
', Part I
New York: Dover Publications (1879; Reprinted in 1962),
* Müller, Max, translator
', Part II
New York: Dover Publications (1884; Reprinted in 1962),
*
External links
translated into English by Swami Paramananda
Complete set of 108 Upanishads, Manuscripts with the commentary of Brahma-Yogin
Adyar Library
Sanskrit documents in various formats
The Upaniṣads
article in the ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia, dealing with philosophy, philosophical topics, and philosophers. The IEP combines open access publication with peer reviewed publication of original pape ...
''
The Theory of 'Soul' in the Upanishads
T. W. Rhys Davids
Thomas William Rhys Davids (12 May 1843 – 27 December 1922) was an English scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pāli Text Society. He took an active part in founding the British Academy and London School for Oriental Studies.
...
(1899)
Spinozistic Substance and Upanishadic Self: A Comparative Study
M. S. Modak (1931)
W. B. Yeats and the Upanishads
A. Davenport (1952)
The Concept of Self in the Upanishads: An Alternative Interpretation
D. C. Mathur (1972)
{{Authority control
Ancient yoga texts
Hindu texts
Sanskrit texts
Works of unknown authorship