Principal Upanishads

{{Short description|Most ancient and widely studied Upanishads of Hinduism}}

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.{{cite book|author=William K. Mahony|title=The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B1KR_kE5ZYoC |year=1998|publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-3579-3 |page=271}}

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The Principal Upanishads, which were composed probably between 600 and 300 BCE, constitute the concluding portion of the Veda.{{Cite book |last=Brereton |first=Joel |title=The Upanishads |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0231070047 |editor-last=de Bary |editor-first=William Theodore |location=New York |pages=115–135 |editor-last2=Bloom |editor-first2=Irene}} According to most Hinduism traditions, ten Upanishads are considered as Principal Upanishads, but some scholars include Shvetashvatara Upanishad, Kaushitaki Upanishad and Maitri Upanishad into the list.{{cite book|author=John G. Arapura |title=Gnosis and the Question of Thought in Vedānta: Dialogue with the Foundations| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T_zrCAAAQBAJ | year=2012|publisher=Springer |isbn=978-94-009-4339-1 |page=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."{{citation|first=Robert Ernest|last=Hume|url=https://archive.org/details/thirteenprincipa028442mbp |title=The Thirteen Principal Upanishads|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1921}}{{cite book|author=Edward Fitzpatrick Crangle|title=The Origin and Development of Early Indian Contemplative Practices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HOzdcIxJy2sC |year=1994|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-03479-1|pages=8, 12}} The founders of the major schools of Vedanta, viz., Adi Shankara and Madhvacharya wrote {{IAST|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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4rW8nLogjekC&pg=PA32|title=Sri Ramanuja|author=Madabhushini Narasimhacharya|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|year=2004|page=32|isbn=9788126018338|quote=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.}}{{cite book|title=Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uLqrAgAAQBAJ|page=309|author=Stephen Phillips|publisher=Columbia University Press|date=26 June 2009|isbn = 9780231144858}}

The ten Principal Upanishads are:

Isha Upanishad (IsUp), Yajurveda
Kena Upanishad (KeUp), Samaveda
Katha Upanishad (KaUp), Yajurveda
Prashna Upanishad (PrUp), Atharvaveda
Mundaka Upanishad (MuUp), Atharvaveda
Mandukya Upanishad (MaUp), Atharvaveda
Taittiriya Upanishad (TaiUp), Yajurveda
Aitareya Upanishad, (AiUp), Rigveda
Chandogya Upanishad (ChhUp), Samaveda
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (BṛUp), Yajurveda

The Principal Upanishads are accepted as śruti by all Hindus, or the most important scriptures of Hinduism.{{cite book|author=Kim Knott|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Ts6CwAAQBAJ|title=Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-19-874554-9|pages=12–13}} The Principal Upanishads are separated into three categories: prose ({{IAST|Taittirīya}}, {{IAST|Aitareya}}, {{IAST|Chāndogya}}, {{IAST|Bṛhadāraṇyaka}}), verse ({{IAST|Īśā}}, {{IAST|Kaṭha}}, {{IAST|Muṇḍaka}}), and prose (classical Sanskrit) ({{IAST|Māṇḍūkya}}).

Principal Upanishads

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