The Upanishads and VedantaThe Upanishads are chronologically the latest portions of the Vedas, the sacred texts of Hinduism. The earliest Upanishads, probably dating from 900 to 600 BC, represent the first development of philosophical reflections in Sanskrit literature; later works have also been accepted from time to time as Upanishads. According to a widespread tradition the oldest Upanishads are the Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Chandogya, Brhadaranyaka, Svetasvatara, Kaushitaki, and Maitri Upanishads. The material they comprise is part poetry, part prose. They contain didactic stories, allegories, and passages for meditation, a number of which are repeated in more than one Upanishad or elsewhere in the Vedic corpus. The fundamental concern of the Upanishads is the nature of reality. They teach the identity of the individual soul (atman) with the universal essence soul (Brahman). Because they are the final portions of the Vedas, they are also known as Vedanta, "the end of the Vedas," and their thought, as interpreted in succeeding centuries, is likewise known as Vedanta.The principal texts of Vedanta are the early Upanishads, particularly the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya; the Brahmasutras (or Vedantasutras) of Baudarayana (dated between 100 BC and AD 100); and the Bhagavad Gita. Several distinct schools of interpretation emerged, the most notable of which are the Advaita (nondualist), Vishishtadvaita (qualified nondualist), and Dvaita (dualist) schools. The earliest known exposition of Advaita Vedanta is in Gaudapada's Karikas on the Mandukya Upanishad (AD 600), but the school's most famous personage--and the most influential of classical Indian philosophers--was Shankara (early 8th century). A prolific writer, Shankara taught that there is only one reality, called either Brahman or Atman (the self); that all distinctions, all plurality is due to ignorance, or maya; and that liberation consists in eliminating ignorance and attaining that pure consciousness which is Brahman, or the True Self. This theory, although not the only Vedanta doctrine, is so popular among intellectuals in India that it is frequently and uncritically identified with Vedanta or with Indian philosophy as a whole. Ramanuja (1056-1137) developed the more theistically oriented Vishishtadvaita Vedanta, in which Brahman is a personal God, immanent in all souls and the world, but without obliterating the differences among them. He roundly criticizes Shankara's theories of maya and pure consciousness. Madhva (1238-1317) founded Dvaita, or dualist, Vedanta, in which differences between God, world, and souls are fully recognized. Other important systems include the Dvaitadvaita of Nimbarka (13th century) and the Shuddhadvaita of Vallabha (1481-1533). Scholars also speak of neo-Vedanta in characterizing the thought of certain 20th-century philosophers, such as Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, which represents a synthesis of classical Vedanta doctrines. Vedanta has sometimes been viewed as the essential philosophical core of Hinduism. Bibliography:
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