Principal Upanishads, also known as Mukhya Upanishads, are the most ancient and widely studied
Upanishads
The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...
of
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...
. Composed between 800 BCE to the start of common era, these texts are connected to the
Vedic
upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''.
The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...
tradition.
Content
The Principal Upanishads, which were composed probably between 600 and 300 BCE, constitute the concluding portion of the Veda.
According to most Hindu traditions, ten Upanishads are considered as Principal Upanishads, but some scholars include
,
and
into the list. The founders of the major schools of
Vedanta
''Vedanta'' (; , ), also known as ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six orthodox (Āstika and nāstika, ''āstika'') traditions of Hindu philosophy and textual exegesis. The word ''Vedanta'' means 'conclusion of the Vedas', and encompa ...
, viz.,
Adi Shankara
Adi Shankara (8th c. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya (, ), was an Indian Vedanga, Vedic scholar, Hindu philosophy, philosopher and teacher (''acharya'') of Advaita Vedanta. Reliable information on Shankara's actual life is scant, and h ...
and
Madhvacharya
Madhvacharya (; ; 1199–1278 CE or 1238–1317 CE), also known as Purna Prajna () and Ānanda Tīrtha, was an Indian philosopher, theologian and the chief proponent of the ''Dvaita'' (dualism) school of Vedanta. Madhva called his philosophy ...
wrote (''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.
The ten Principal Upanishads are:
#
(IsUp), Yajurveda
#
(KeUp), Samaveda
#
(KaUp), Yajurveda
#
(PrUp), Atharvaveda
#
(MuUp), Atharvaveda
#
(MaUp), Atharvaveda
#
(TaiUp), Yajurveda
#
, (AiUp), Rigveda
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(ChhUp), Samaveda
#
(BṛUp), Yajurveda
The Principal Upanishads are accepted as
śruti
''Śruti'' or shruti (, , ) in Sanskrit means "that which is heard" and refers to the body of most authoritative, ancient religious texts comprising the central canon of Hinduism. Manusmriti states: ''Śrutistu vedo vijñeyaḥ'' (Devanagari: ...
by all Hindus, or the most important scriptures of Hinduism.
The Principal Upanishads are separated into three categories: prose (, , , ), verse (, , ), and prose (classical
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
) ().
References
Further reading
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{{Indian Philosophy
Upanishads