Principal Upanishads Explained

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]

Content

The Principal Upanishads, which were composed probably between 600 and 300 BCE, constitute the concluding portion of the Veda.^[2] According to most Hinduism traditions, ten Upanishads are considered as Principal Upanishads, but some scholars now are including , and into the list.^{[3] [4]} The founders of the major schools of Vedanta, viz., Adi Shankara and Madhvacharya 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.^{[5] [6]}

The ten Principal Upanishads are:

1. (IsUp), Yajurveda
2. (KeUp), Samaveda
3. (KaUp), Yajurveda
4. (PrUp), Atharvaveda
5. (MuUp), Atharvaveda
6. (MaUp), Atharvaveda
7. (TaiUp), Yajurveda
8. , (AiUp), Rigveda
9. (ChhUp), Samaveda
10. (BṛUp), Yajurveda

The Principal Upanishads are accepted as śruti by all Hindus, or the most important scriptures of Hinduism.^[7] The Principal Upanishads are separated into three categories: prose, verse, and prose (classical Sanskrit) .

External links

• Holybooks.com has a book containing the 10 principal Upanishads here: https://holybooks-lichtenbergpress.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Ten-Principal-Upanishads.pdf

Further reading

• Book: Deussen, Paul. Sixty Upanishads of the Veda. Motilal Banarsidass Publications. 1897. 9788120814684.
• Book: Edgerton, Franklin. The Beginnings of Indian Philosophy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1965. 9780674064003.
• Book: Hume, Robert Ernest. The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Oxford University Press. 1921. 9780195637434.
• Book: Johnston, Charles. The Mukhya Upanishads. Kshetra Books. 2014. 1920-1931. 9780195637434.
• Book: Radhakrishnan, Sarvapalli. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. 1994. The Principal Upanishads. New Delhi. HarperCollins Publishers. 9788172231248. 1953.
• Book: Swami Gambhirananda. Eight Upanishads With the Commentary of Shankaracharya. Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata. 1957. 8175050152.
• Book: The Ten Principal Upanishads. Yeats. William Butler. Repro Books Limited. 1938. 9788129100740. Shri Purohit Swami.

Notes and References

1. Book: William K. Mahony. The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination. 1998. State University of New York Press . 978-0-7914-3579-3 . 271.
2. Book: Brereton, Joel . The Upanishads . . 1990 . 0231070047 . de Bary . William Theodore . New York . 115–135 . Bloom . Irene.
3. Book: John G. Arapura . Gnosis and the Question of Thought in Vedānta: Dialogue with the Foundations. 2012. Springer . 978-94-009-4339-1 . 57.

   Quote: "These are the Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya and Svetasvatara. To this list is usually added the Kausitaki and Maitrayaniya (or Maitri) to make the thirteen Principal Upanishads, a canon which has found favour with most scholars of the present day."

4. Book: Edward Fitzpatrick Crangle. The Origin and Development of Early Indian Contemplative Practices. 1994. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. 978-3-447-03479-1. 8, 12.
5. Book: Sri Ramanuja. Madabhushini Narasimhacharya. Sahitya Akademi. 2004. 32. 9788126018338. As for Ramanuja, his commentary on the Gita and the Brahmasutra are quite well known as conforming to this practice . But he did not write any regular commentary on the Upanishads as other philosophers like, say, Sankara and Anandatirtha (Madhva) did..
6. Book: Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy. 309. Stephen Phillips. Columbia University Press. 26 June 2009. 9780231144858.
7. Book: Kim Knott. Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. 2016. 978-0-19-874554-9. 12–13.