10. Verily, the gods and the devils (Asuras), being desirous of the Self (Ātman), came into the presence of Brahma. They did obeisance to him and said: ‘Sir, we are desirous of the Self (Ātman). So, do you tell us.’
Then, meditating long, he thought to himself: ‘Verily, these devils are desirous of a Self (Ātman) different [from the true one].’ Therefore a very different doctrine was told to them.
Upon that fools here live their life with intense attachment, destroying the saving raft and praising what is false. They see the false as if it were true, as in jugglery.
Hence, what is set forth in the Vedas—that is true! Upon what is told in the Vedas—upon that wise men live their life. Therefore a Brahman ( brāhmaṇa ) should not study what is non-Vedic. This should be the purpose.
11. Assuredly, the nature of the ether within the space [of the heart] is the same as the supreme bright power. This has been manifested in threefold wise: in fire, in the sun, and in the breath of life. 1
Verily, the nature of the ether within the space [of the heart] is the same as the syllable Om.
With this [syllable], indeed, that [bright power] is raised up from the depths, goes upwards, and is breathed forth. Verily, therein is a perpetual support for meditation upon Brahma.
In the stirring up, that [bright power] has its place in the heat that casts forth light. In the stirring up, that is like [the action] of smoke; it rises up into a great tree in the sky, issuing forth into one branch after another.
That is like the casting forth of salt into water, like the heat in melted butter, like the range [of the thought] of a meditator [i. e. all-pervading].
On this point they quote: ‘Now, wherefore is it said to be like lightning? Because in the very moment of going forth it lights up the whole body.’
Therefore, one should reverence with Om that unlimited bright power. 2
(5) As stirred in heart by means of fire of friction,
Less is it than the least; in throat, is doubled;
And know that on the tongue-tip it is trebled;
Come forth, it is the alphabet!—They say thus.
Special attention is called to the three words in which the nature and scope of this bibliography are indicated.
It is a selected bibliography. Those titles only have been included which are likely to prove in some way useful, or which have a special interest, historic or other. A majority of the works listed have been consulted in the preparation of the translation presented in this volume.
It is a classified bibliography. The titles have been grouped in nine divisions, as indicated on the following page, in order to secure a more helpful collocation than would be afforded by one continuous alphabetic or chronological sequence.
It is an annotated bibliography. The titles have been supplemented, in most cases, by descriptions, estimates, and quotations, with a view to indicating more precisely the nature and value of the publications recorded. Quotations have also been included to show the estimate in which the Upanishads have been held by numerous editors, translators, and expositors.
In the compilation of this list of titles purely bibliographical considerations have everywhere been subordinated to those of practical usefulness. It seemed better to devote the available space to excerpts and annotations than to unimportant titles and a barren record of editions and reprints. Certain general works in division 9 are thus cited only in their English translations.
Titles in Sanskrit and in Indian vernaculars are given in condensed English paraphrase, rather than in a transliteration of their native wording, so that the contents of the publications may be readily discernible.
The titles here brought together are grouped in nine divisions as follows:—
Within each of these nine main divisions the entries are arranged in chronological sequence, except in the case of reprints or translations of works listed, which immediately follow the main entry.
The order of the individual Upanishads (in divisions 2, 5, and 7) is the same as that followed in the Translation. namely: Bṛihad-Āraṇyaka, Chāndogya, Taittirīya, Aitareya, Kaushītaki, Kena, Kaṭha, l̄śā, Muṇḍaka, Praśna, Māṇḍūkya, Śvetāśvatara, Maitri.
Duperron, Anquetil. Oupnek’hat [i. e. Upanishad]. Strassburg. Levrault, 2 vols., 1801-1802. 735 and 916 pp.
A translation into Latin of a translation into Persian of the original Sanskrit of fifty of the Upanishads. The primary translation was made at Delhi 1656-1657 by pandits who had been brought from Benares for this purpose by the Muhammadan Prince Dārā Shukōh, son of the Moghul Emperor Shāh Jahān. This secondary translation was made by the very first European who went to India for the purpose of studying oriental religions. At second remove from the original Sanskrit text, this translation is, nevertheless, of prime historical importance, because it was the first book which brought a knowledge of the Upanishads to the West.
It was with reference to this indirect Latin translation of the Upanishads through a medieval Persian translation, that the pessimistic German philosopher Schopenhauer expressed an appreciation which has been oft quoted in India: ‘It has been the most rewarding and the most elevating reading which (with the exception of the original text) there can possibly be in the world. It has been the solace of my life, and will be of my death.’ See Parerga, 2, § 185
— The foregoing translated into German:
Das Oupnek’hat. In das Deutsche ubertragen von Franz Mischel. Dresden, Heinrich, 1882. 618 pp.
This work exhibits in a unique degree the continued fascination and the far-distant influence which the Upanishads have exercised. Perhaps never before, or since, has the linguistic work of translating an important religious document been carried so far as to the third remove from the original language, as has been done in this particular case of translating the Upanishads, namely from the Sanskrit into Persian, thence into Latin, and thence into German.
Roy, Rammohun. Collected Works. London, Parbury Allen, 2 vols., 1832.
Volume 2, entitled ‘Translation of Several Principal Books, Passages and Texts of the Veds and of Some Controversial Works in Brahmunical Theology’ (282 pp.), contains (at pp. 23-105) translations of Muṇḍ., Kena, Kaṭha, and Īśā, which had previously appeared separately.
The very first translation of collected Upanishads to be published in England.
The translator, with a high but not unqualified estimate of the value of the Upanishads, had been the leader of that remarkable reform movement in India at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Brāhma Samāj. Indeed, he had gained his success as a theistic reformer partly by appealing to, and actually disseminating, the ancient sacred Upanishads. But these translations were executed as a part of the great reformer’s religious studies and propaganda, not with a distinctively scholarly purpose nor with scientific method; the result is manifestly lacking in philological accuracy.
— The foregoing reprinted:
The English Works of Raja Rammohun Roy, edited by Jogendra Chunder Ghose. Calcutta, Bhowanipore Oriental Press, 2 vols., 1885-1887.
Translations of Muṇḍ., Kena, Kaṭha, and Iśā are contained in vol. 1, at pp. 21-92.
— The same reprinted:
Calcutta, Society for the Resuscitation of Indian Literature, 1903.
Röer, E. Nine Upanishads, [viz. Tait., Ait., Śvet., Kena, Īśā, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., and Māṇḍ.] translated. Calcutta, 1853. 170 pp. (Bibliotheca Indica.)
Müller, F. Max. The Upanishads. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2 vols., 1879, 1884. (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 1 and 15.)
At the time of its publication this was the best and most extensive translation into English. But it is padded with considerable extraneous matter, which was added by the translator for the sake of greater intelligibility, yet which in violation of modern rules of scholarly procedure is left undifferentiated from the actual text.
In this very work the translator has declared the inherent difficulties of translating the Upanishads, e. g. ‘These it is impossible to render in any translation; nay, they hardly deserve to be translated’ (vol. 1, p. 132).
This translation by Max Müller has been severely criticized by other scholars, e. g. by W. D. Whitney in his extensive and searching review of the work in the American Journal of Philology, 1886, pp. 1-26, especially on pp. 4, 6, 7, 9, 25, 26; by C. R. Lanman in his Beginnings of Hindu Pantheism, p. 12, footnote, and by H. C. Tolman in his Art of Translating, p. 37.
— The foregoing reprinted:
New York, Christian Literature Society [ = Scribners], 2 vols. bound in one, 1897.
The Twelve Principal Upanishads: An English Translation, with Notes from the Commentaries of Sankaráchárya and the Gloss of Ánandagiri. Bombay, Tookaram Tatya, ‘for the Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund,’ 1891. 710 pp.
Merely a combined reprint of the translations of the Upanishads which had appeared in the Bibliotheca Indica, viz. of Chāndogya by Mitra. of Kaushītaki by Cowell, and of the following ten by Röer: Ait., Bṛih., Śvet., Kaṭha, Tait., Īśā, Muṇḍ., Kena, Praśna, and Māṇḍ.
This list is the same as is contained in Max Müller’s Translation, except that this collection omits Maitri and adds Māṇḍūkya.
‘The Upanishads, at least the ten principal ones, are in no way posterior to the Vedas’
— The foregoing reprinted:
Bombay, Rajaram Tukaram Press, 1907. 719 pp.
Johnston, Charles. From the Upanishads. Dublin, Whaley, 1896. 55 pp.
Contains excellent translations of Katha, of Praśna, and of Chānd. 6, by a retired member of the Bengal Civil Service.
‘I have found them wise, beyond all others; and, beyond all others, filled with that very light which makes all things new . . . That glowing heart within us, we are beginning to guess, is the heart of all things, the everlasting foundation of the world . . . That teaching of oneness, of our hearts and the heart eternal as eternally one . . . You will find in these passages from the book of Wisdom, besides high intuition, a quaint and delightful flavour, a charm of childlike simplicity; yet of a child who is older than all age, a child of the eternal and the infinite, whose simplicity is better than the wisdom of the wise’
— The foregoing reprinted:
Portland, Maine, Thomas B. Mosher, 1897. 60 pp.
Mead, G. R. S., and Jagadîsha Chandra Chaṭṭopâdhyâya (Roy Choudhuri). The Upaniṣhads. London, Theosophical Publishing Society, 2 vols., 1896.
Vol. 1 contains Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., and Māṇḍ. Vol. 2 contains Tait., Ait., and Śvet.
‘The present translation is an attempt to place the sublime teachings of the Upaniṣhads within the reach of every man and woman who can read the English tongue. Its price is purely nominal. The Upaniṣhads, we believe, should be allowed to speak for themselves, and not left to the mercy of artificial commentaries. They are grand outpourings of religious enthusiasm, raising the mind out of the chaos of ceremony and the metaphysical and philological word-spinning of the schools . . . the Upaniṣhads as a world-scripture, that is to say, a scripture appealing to the lovers of religion and truth in all races and at all times, without distinction.’
— The foregoing translated into French:
Neuf Upanishads, tr. E. Marcault. Paris, Libr. de l’Art Indépendant, 1905. 192 pp.
— The same translated into Dutch:
Tr. Clara Streubel. Amsterdam, Theosophical Society, 2 vols., 1908.
Deussen, Paul. Sechzig Upanishad’s des Veda. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1897. 946 pp.
Contains the classical Upanishads, all of the fifty included in Duperron’s Oupnek’hat, together with the more important of the later Atharvan Upanishads.
The most scholarly translation of the Upanishads which has hitherto been made. By the late Professor of Philosophy at the University of Kiel. Brings to bear an extensive, intimate, and appreciative knowledge of European, as well as of Indian, philosophy. Contains informing and interpretative introductions to each separate section of each Upanishad, as well as to each Upanishad as a whole, also cross-references and explanatory notes.
This translation is virtually indispensable to any thoroughly scholarly attempt to translate the Upanishads into any other language.
Poley, L. H. Th. Colebrooke’s Abhandlung über die heiligen Schriften der Indier, aus dem Englischen ubersetzt, nebst Fragmenten der ältesten religiösen Dichtungen der Indier. Leipzig, Teubner, 1847. 182 pp.
In his German translation of Colebrooke’s ‘Essay’ Poley has added at pp. 130-176, among other translations from the Upanishads, this original German translation of Bṛih. 1. 1 - 3. 2.
Röer, E. Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad. Calcutta, 1856. 276 pp. (Bibliotheca Indica.)
An English translation of the text and of parts of the Commentary of Śaṅkara Āchārya.
— The foregoing reprinted:
Calcutta, Society for the Resuscitation of Indian Literature, 1908. 295 pp.
Herold, A.-F. L’Upanishad du Grand Aranyaka, Brihadaranyakopanishad. Paris, Saint-Amand, 1894. 159 pp.
According to the Mādhyaṁdina recension.
Johnston, Charles. The Song of Life. Flushing, New York, published by the author, 1901. 69 pp.
A rather free rendering of Bṛih. 4. 3-4.
‘The Gospels are the perfect flower of Palestine. The Upanishads are the chiefest treasure of most ancient India. The heart of the Galilean message is hidden in the Parables of the Kingdom. The deepest secret of Mother India is embodied in these dramatic fragments—and still perfect dramas—which are the strongest parts of the Upanishads. Of these Mystery plays there are many; and, greatest of all, the Dialogue of Janaka and the Sage, translated here.’
—The foregoing translated into German:
Das Lied des Lebens. Berlin, P. Raatz, no date. 66 pp.
Mitra, Rajendralala. Chāndogya Upanishad of the Sāma Veda, with Extracts from the Commentary of Sankara Āchārya, translated. Calcutta, 1862. 144 pp. (Bibliotheca Indica.)
Colebrooke, Henry Thomas. A translation of the Aitareya Upanishad is contained in the essay ‘On the Vedas or the Sacred Writings of the Hindus,’ published and reprinted as follows:
Asiatic Researches, vol. 8, Calcutta, 1805, pp. 408-414;
Miscellaneous Essays. vol. 1, London, Williams Norgate, 1837 (new edition, 1858), pp. 47-53;
Life and Essays, vol. 2, London, Trubner, 1873, pp. 42-47.
Eckstein, Baron d’. Analyse du quatrième chapitre de l’Aitareya Upanishad, extrait du Rig-Veda. In Journal Asiatique, series 2, vol. 11, pp. 193-221, 289-317, 414-446; vol. 12, pp. 53-78; Paris, Imprimerie Royale, 1833.
Contains a French translation and discussion of the fourth chapter of the Aitareya Upanishad, based on Duperron’s Latin translation in his Oupnek’hat, vol. 2, pp. 57-63, and on Colebrooke’s English translation in Asiatic Researches, vol. 8, pp. 421-425.
Harlez, C. de. Kaushitaki-Upanishad, avec le Commentaire de Çankarânanda et Sarvopanishadarthânubhûtiprakâças, chapitre viii. Louvain, Lefever, 1887. 46 pp.
The rendering in some places should more properly be designated a paraphrase than a translation. And in some places, by reason of following the native commentator so closely (as did Cowell and Müller before him), this author quite misses the inherent sense. There occurs undesignated extraneous matter in the midst of the text, somewhat as in Müller’s translation, though not to the same extent.
‘We have followed generally the text of the Dipaka; and for the translation, the commentary of Çânkarânanda has been used with profit.’
Roy, Rammohun. Translation of the Céna Upanishad, one of the Chapters of the Sáma Véda, according to the gloss of the celebrated Shankarácháryu, establishing the unity and the sole omnipotence of the Supreme Being, and that He alone is the object of worship. Calcutta, Philip Pereira, Hindoostanee Press, 1816. 12 pp.
Roy, Rammohun. Translation of the Kut’h-Oopanishud of the Ujoor-Ved, according to the gloss of the celebrated Sunkuracharyu. Calcutta, 1819.
‘This work not only treats polytheism with contempt and disdain, but inculcates invariably the unity of God as the intellectual principle, the sole origin of the individual intellect, entirely distinct from matter and its affections; and teaches also the mode of directing the mind thereto.’
Poley, L. Kathaka-Oupanichat; extrait du Yadjour-Véda, traduit du Sanskrit en Français. Paris, Dondey-Dupré, 1835. 22 pp.
Eckstein, Baron d’. Analyse du Kâthaka-Oupanischat, extrait du Yadschour-Véda. In Journal de l’Institut Historique, Paris, 1835, pp. 97-117.
Contains short extracts of the text in Roman transliteration, together with translations of short extracts from other Sanskrit books.
Poley, L. Kâthaka-Oupanichat, extrait du Yadjour-Véda, et Moundaka-Oupanichat, extrait de l’Atharva-Véda: traduit du Sanskrit en Français. Paris, Dondey-Dupré, 1837. 39 pp.
This is a revised edition, and in combined form, of the same author’s previous separate French Translations of the Kaṭha Upanishad in 1835 and of the Muṇḍaka Upanishad in 1836.
Poley, L. H. Th. Colebrooke’s Abhandlung über die heiligen Schriften der Indier, aus dem Englischen übersetzt, nebst Fragmenten der ältesten religiösen Dichtungen der Indier. Leipzig, Teubner, 1847. 182 pp.
In his German translation of Colebrooke’s famous ‘Essay on the Sacred Scriptures of the Hindus,’ Poley added, at pp. 113-128, among other translations, this original German translation from the Sanskrit of the Kaṭha Upanishad.
Arnold, Edwin. The Secret of Death, with some Collected Poems. London, Trübner, 1885; reprinted 1899.
Contains (at pp. 14-45 of 1885 ed., pp. 7-40 of 1899 ed.) a free metrical version of the first three Vallīs (or ‘Lotus-stems’) of the Kaṭha Upanishad.
Whitney, W. D. Translation of the Kaṭha-Upanishad. In Transactions of the American Philological Association, vol. 21, pp. 88-112, Boston, 1890.
By the late Professor of Sanskrit at Yale University, one of the most eminent of American philologists and Sanskritists, a conservative text-editor and scrupulously exact translator.
This is the first English translation of an Upanishad in which the verse-portions were indicated as different from the prose-portions. A very careful translation, with an Introduction, valuable exegetical and linguistic Notes, and a number of proposed textual emendations.
‘The crowning weakness of the whole treatise [i. e. of the Kaṭha Upanishad] is that, after all, it reaches no definite result; the revelation of Death amounts to nothing at all, so far as concerns the main subject as to which knowledge is sought. The revelator manages to waste a chapter in commendations of his young friend for preferring spiritual knowledge to earthly blessings; and then he maunders on from topic to topic, dropping now and then an allusion to matters of eschatology, but entering into no exposition, advancing no argument, making no definite statement; there is neither beginning, middle, nor end in what he says.’
Butenschön, A. Kâthaka-upanishad, ofversatt fr. Saṅskrit. Stockholm, Norstedt, 1902. 62 pp.
A translation into Swedish.
Belloni-Filippi, Ferdinando. Kâthaka-Upanisad, tradotta in italiano e preceduta da una notizia sul panteismo indiano. Pisa, Orsolini-Prosperi, 1905. 158 pp.
A translation into Italian.
Jones, Sir William. Ísávásyam; or, An Upanishad from the Yajur Veda. In his Works, vol. 6, pp. 423-425, London, Robinson, 1799.
A translation by no means literal, but noteworthy as having been the very first translation of any of the Upanishads into English.
By the pioneer British Orientalist.
Reprinted in his Works, London, Stockdale, 1807, vol. 13, pp. 374-377.
Roy, Rammohun. The Íshopanishad, one of the chapters of the Yajur Véda, according to the commentary of the celebrated Shankara-Áchárya, establishing the Unity and incomprehensibility of the Supreme Being, and that His worship alone can lead to eternal beatitude. Calcutta, Philip Pereira, Hindoostanee Press, 1816. 36 pp.
Ramaswamier, S. The Vaja-saneya-samhitopanishad with the Bhashya of Srimat Sankaracharya. Madras, National Press, 1884. 19 pp.
A translation of the 18 stanzas of this Upanishad and also of the Commentary of the chief Indian Commentator on all the classical Upanishads.
‘This translation was originally made for the benefit of the Madura Branch, Theosophical Society. It is now published that it may be of some use to others who are not conversant with Sanskrit, but who are interested in the sublime philosophy of the Upanishads as expounded by the holy Sage Srimat Sankaracharya.’
Vasu, Srisa Chandra. The Îśâvâsyopanishad, with the Commentaries of Sri Sankaracharya and Sri Anantacharya, and Notes from the Tikas of Anandagiri, Uvatacharya, Sankarananda, Ramchandra, Pandit and Anandabhatta. Bombay, Tatva-Vivechaka Press, Printed for the Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund, 1896. 74 pp.
Griffith, R. T. H. The Texts of the White Yajurveda, with a Popular Commentary. Benares, Lazarus, 1898. 364 pp.
The Īśā Upanishad, being originally the fortieth chapter of the Vājasaneyi Saṁhitā, is here translated at pp. 304-308.
By the translator of the Rig-Veda, of the Atharva-Veda, and of the Sāma-Veda; formerly a Professor at the Benares College, and later Director of Public Instruction in the Northwest Provinces and Oudh.
Roy, Ram Mohun. Translation of the Moonduk-Opunishud of the Uthurvu-Ved according to the gloss of the celebrated Shunkura-Charyu. Calcutta, D. Lankpeet, Times Press, 1819. 17 pp.
‘An attentive perusal of this, as well as of the remaining books of the Vedantu, will, I trust, convince every unprejudiced mind that they, with great consistency, inculcate the unity of God, instructing men at the same time in the pure mode of adoring him in spirit. It will also appear evident, although they tolerate idolatry as the last provision for those who are totally incapable of raising their minds to the contemplation of the invisible God of nature, yet repeatedly urge the relinquishment of the rites of idol-worship and the adoption of a purer system of religion on the express grounds that the observance of idolatrous rites can never be productive of eternal beatitude.’
Poley, L. Moundaka-Oupanichat; extrait de l’Atharva-Véda, traduit du Sanskrit en Français. Paris, Bertrand, 1836. 15 pp.
— The foregoing reprinted:
Kâtha-Oupanichat, extrait du Yadjour-Véda, et Moundaka-Oupanichat, extrait de l’Atharva-Véda, traduit du Sanskrit en Français. Paris, Dondey-Dupré, 1837. 39 pp.
Poley, L. H. Th. Colebrooke’s Abhandlung uber die heiligen Schriften der Indier, aus dem Englischen übersetzt, nebst Fragmenten der ältesten religiosen Dichtungen der Indier. Leipzig, Teubner, 1847. 182 pp.
In his German translation of Colebrooke’s famous ‘Essay on the Sacred Scriptures of the Hindus’ Poley added, among other translations, this original German translation from the Sanskrit of the Muṇḍaka Upanishad.
Nallaswami Pillai, J. M. The Swetaswatara Upanishad, translated and expounded. In Madras Review, vol. 6 (1900), pp. 369-376; vol. 7 (1901), pp. 267-279.
‘The Swetaswatara Upanishad is a genuine Upanishad of the Black Yagur Veda, and is one of the oldest of its kind. It is not a Sectarian Upanishad. It expounds both a theoretic philosophy and a practical religion, all-comprehensive and all-embracing, a system which was at once Samkhya and Yoga, dualistic and monistic, and appealing to all classes of society’
Dvivedi, Manilal N. Mandukyopanishad with Gaudapada’s Karika and the Bhashya of Sankara. Bombay, Tattva-Vivechaka Press, 1894. 137 pp.
— The foregoing reprinted:
Bombay, Rajaram Tukaram, 1909.
Poley, L. H. Th. Colebrooke’s Abhandlung über die heiligen Schriften der Indier, aus dem Englischen übersetzt, nebst Fragmenten der ältesten religiosen Dichtungen der Indier. Leipzig, Teubner, 1847. 182 pp.
The German translator added at pp. 110-176 original translations from the Sanskrit of Kaṭha, Īśā, and Bṛih. 1. 1 - 3. 2. The text-basis used for these translations was the text published by Poley himself in 1844.
Weber, Albrecht. Indische Studien. Berlin, Dümmler. Vol. 1, 1849-1850; vol. 2, 1853.
By the first Professor of Sanskrit at Berlin University.
A series of articles entitled ‘Analyse der in Anquetil du Perron’s Uebersetzung enthaltenen Upanishad,’ contains translations of important parts, together with summaries of intervening parts and also valuable elaborate discussion of Chānd., Maitri, Muṇḍ., and Īśā in vol. 1, pp. 254-301; of Kaush., Śvet., and Praśna in vol. 1, pp. 392-456; of Māṇḍ. in vol. 2, pp. 100-111; and of Kena, Kaṭha, and Tait. 2-3 in vol. 2, pp. 181-236.
Muir, John. Original Sanskrit Texts on the Origin and History of the People of India, their Religion and Institutions. London, 1858-1870. Vols. 1-3, Williams Norgate; vols. 4-5, Trübner. Second edition, 1868-1872.
By one of the most scholarly of British administrators in India, who served as Principal of Victoria College, Benares, and who founded the Professorship of Sanskrit at Edinburgh University.
The most comprehensive treasury of excerpts, in transliteration and translation, from a wide range of Sanskrit literature. The numerous, mostly brief, translations from the Upanishads are gathered under a variety of topics, but are available from the indices.
Monier-Williams, Sir Monier. Indian Wisdom; or Examples of the Religious, Philosophical, and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindus. London, Luzac, 1875; 4th ed., 1893. 575 pp.
By the eminent former Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, founder of the Indian Institute at Oxford.
Chap. 2 on ‘The Brāhmaṇas and Upanishads’ contains original translations of representative selections from the Īśā, Kaṭha, Śvet., and Maitri, together with briefer extracts from Bṛih., Chānd., and Muṇḍ.
‘These Upanishads are practically the only Veda of all thoughtful Hindus in the present day’
Regnaud, Paul. Matériaux pour servir à l’histoire de la philosophie de l’Inde. Paris, Vieweg, 2 vols., 1876, 1878.
This was the standard work in French on the subject until the appearance in 1907 of Oltramare’s L’Histoire.
Contains numerous extracts from the Upanishads, assembled under various topics.
This author’s estimate of the philosophic and religious value of the Upanishads is expressed in the two final sentences of the work, which are cited on p. 4 of the present Translation.
Muir, John. Metrical Translations from Sanskrit Writers, with an Introduction, Many Prose Versions, and Parallel Passages from Classical Authors. London, Trübner, 1879. 376 pp.
Contains translations from the Bṛih., Kaṭha, and Śvet.
Scherman, Lucian. Philosophische Hymnen aus der Rig- und Atharva-Veda-Samhitâ verglichen mit den Philosophemen der alteren Upanishad’s. Strassburg and London, Trübner, 1887. 96 pp.
Contains a number of extracts from the Upanishads with footnotes collecting comparative translations of the same. The ‘Index der Upanishad-Citate’ renders all this material easily accessible.
Müller, F. Max. Three Lectures on the Vedānta Philosophy London, Longmans Green, 1894. 173 pp.
These rather general, unsystematic lectures on ‘The Origin of the Vedānta Philosophy,’ ‘The Soul and God,’ and ‘Similarities and Differences between Indian and European Philosophy’ contain, beside numerous remarks on the Upanishads, a running summary and extracts of the Kaṭha at pp. 47-53 and a brief sketch of the Maitri at pp. 55-61.
Dutt, Romesh Chandra. Lays of Ancient India: Selections from Indian Poetry rendered into English Verse. London, Trubner, 1894. 221 pp.
Along with selections from Vedic and Buddhist books, there are English versified translations of eight episodes from the Upanishads, viz. Chānd. 3. 14; 4. 4; Bṛih. 3. 1-8; 4. 5; Kena 3-5; Katha 1; Īśā; and Kaush. 4.
‘The essence of the Hindu religion and of Hindu thought we find in its purest form in the Upanishads.’
Dvivedi, Manilal N. The Imitation of Śankara, being a Collection of Several Texts bearing on the Advaita. Bombay, Tattva-Vivechaka Press, 1895. 255 pp.
Contains selections, assembled under eighteen topics, from all of the thirteen Upanishads included in the present translation, except the Maitri.
‘The Philosophy of the Upanishads scarcely needs recommendation. Philosophers from Plato to Schopenhauer are unanimous in their testimony to the elevating, alleviating influence of the Vedânta . . . The deservedly popular book of Thomas à Kempis, ‘The Imitation of Christ,’ fascinated my attention, and Bowdon’s ‘Imitation of Buddha’ suggested the plan of the work . . . I have tried . . . stringing the pieces together in a kind of fictitious context from end to end. Many of the passages could have been given in much better language, for several of them have been translated before by abler hands; but I have my reasons for attempting fresh translation . . . giving a free rendering of every text . . . Texts from the Upanishads and other works are often referred to in Vedanta writings.’
‘This philosophy and the manner in which Śankara applied it to the situation of his time has been the true saviour of India. It is destined to be the saviour of the world . . . I have every confidence that he [i. e. the reader] will never part from this collection; he will certainly set apart a quiet morning or evening hour to its grave contemplation every day. It has been so with me, and the immense benefit this reading has done me is my only excuse in thus earnestly inviting my fellow-men to this elevating study’
Dutt, Romesh Chandra. The Epics and Lays of Ancient India, condensed into English Verse. Calcutta, R. P. Mitra, 1903. 510 pp.
This is an abridged combined Indian reprint of three earlier publications of the same author which had appeared in England, viz. versified renderings of portions of the Mahābhārata, of the Rāmāyaṇa, and of certain Indian scriptures.
In the third section there is a collection of six passages from the Upanishads (pp. 55-82), namely, Chānd. 3. 14; 4. 4; Bṛih. 3. 1. 8; 4. 5; Kaush. 4; Kaṭha 1.
Selections from the Upanishads. Madras, Christian Literature Society, 1895. 106 pp. (Reprinted 1904, 109 pp.)
Contains complete translations of the Kaṭha, Īśā, and Śvet. by Röer, part of Röer’s Bṛih. and part of Mitra’s Chānd., together with a very disparaging ‘Examination of the Upanishads’ by an anonymous compiler.
Johnston, Charles. The Kingdom of Heaven, and the Upanishads. In Open Court, vol. 19, pp. 705-716, Chicago, 1905.
Gives original translations of eleven quotations from the Upanishads as parallels to passages from the New Testament.
Barnett, Lionel D. Some Sayings from the Upanishads, done into English with Notes. London, Luzac, 1905. 59 pp.
Contains translations of Chānd. 6. 3. 14, Bṛih. 4. 3-5, and Kaṭha 1, 2, 5, and 6.
A work of scholarly and literary merit.
Deussen, Paul. Die Geheimlehre des Veda: Ausgewählte Texte der Upanishad’s, aus dem Sanskrit übersetzt. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1907. 221 pp.
Consists almost entirely of German translations of selected passages from fourteen Upanishads exactly as rendered in the same author’s Sechzig Upanishad’s des Veda. Here the extracts are arranged topically under each Upanishad. The Īśā is presented complete.
The Spirit of the Upanishads; or, The Aphorisms of the Wise: A Collection of Texts, Sayings, Proverbs, c., from the Upanishads or Sacred Writings of India, compiled and adapted from over fifty Authorities, expressing the Cream of the Hindu Philosophical Thought. Chicago, Yogi Publishing Society, 1907. 85 pp.
Johnston, Charles. The Dramatic Element in the Upanishads. In Monist, vol. 20, pp. 185-216, Chicago, 1910.
Contains original translations of several passages, mostly dialogues, in the Bṛih., Chānd., Kaṭha, Praśna, and Māṇḍ. Upanishads.
Barnett, Lionel D. Brahma-Knowledge: An Outline of the Philosophy of the Vedānta as set forth by the Upanishads and by Śankara. New York, Dutton, 1911. 113 pp.
By the Professor of Sanskrit at University College, London.
Part 1 (55 pp.) consists of an exposition, ‘An Account of the Vedānta.’ Part 2 (46 pp.) contains translations of fifteen important episodes from the Upanishads.
A translation of high literary merit. But unfortunately there is no Index or Table of Citations to make the material readily available from the sources.
Eberhardt, Paul. Der Weisheit letzter Schluss: Die Religion der Upanishads im Sinne gefasst. Jena, Diederichs, 1912. 126 pp.
A German translation of thirty-seven passages from the Upanishads, topically arranged.
Pauthier, Guillaume. Mémoire sur l’origine et la propagation de la doctrine du Tao, fondée par Lao-tseu; traduit du chinors, et accompagné d’un commentaire tiré des livres sanskrits et du Tao-teking de Lao-tseu; établissant la conformité de certaines opinions philosophiques de la Chine et de l’Inde; orné d’un dessein chinois; suivi de deux Oupanichads des Védas, avec le texte sanskrit et persan. Paris, 1831.
Contains a French translation of the Kena and Īśā Upanishads, together with the Sanskrit and Persian texts of the same.
No copy of this work is in the British Museum. The foregoing particulars are taken from a notice of the book in the Nouveau Journal Asiatique, vol. 7 (1831), p. 465.
Poley, L. Collection des Oupanichats, extraits des Védas, traduits du Sanskrit en Français. Paris, six instalments, 1835-1837; the first four published by Dondey-Dupré; the last two, by Bertrand.
The first part, with 39 consecutively numbered pages, is occupied with a French translation of the Kaṭha and Muṇḍaka Upanishads, both of which had appeared separately.
The second part, with 199 consecutively numbered pages, is occupied with the text of the preceding two Upanishads and of the Kena, followed by Śaṅkara’s commentaries on these three, followed by the text of the Īśā.
This would seem to be the first published edition of collected Upanishads in the Devanāgarī character.
Böhtlingk, Otto. Drei kritisch gesichtete und übersetzte Upanishad mit erklarenden Anmerkungen. In Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Koniglich Sächsischen Gesellschaften zu Leipzig, philologischhistorische Classe, vol. 24, pp. 127-197, Leipzig, 1891.
Contains the Devanāgarī text of the Kaṭha, Aitareya, and Praśna Upanishads, together with German translation and critical notes.
The translator was one of the most erudite of Western Sanskrit scholars, the editor of several Sanskrit texts, and joint author of Bohtlingk and Roth’s monumental 7-volume Sanskrit-German Dictionary.
The position of such an authority is extremely weighty in itself, and too is quite typical of Western scholars on the subject of the worth of Śaṅkara’s Commentaries.
‘In the main I have paid very little attention to Çam̃kara’s Commentary, since the man knows the older language very imperfectly, has no presentiment of philological criticism, and explains the text from his own philosophical standpoint. If any one wishes to place a deeper meaning in the often obscure expressions, let him do so at his own risk without any prepossession. I have refrained from any sort of interpretation, and have striven only to give a philologically justifiable translation.’
Sastri, S. Sitarama, and Ganganath Jha. The Upanishads and Sri Sankara’s Commentary. Published by V. C. Sesacharri at the Press of Natesan, Madras, 5 vols., 1898-1901. ‘Dedicated by kind permission to Mrs. Annie Besant.’
The contents and authorship are as follows:
Vol. 1, Īśā, Kena, and Muṇḍaka, Sastri, 1898. 174 pp.
Vol. 2, Kaṭha and Praśna, Sastri, 1898. 193 pp.
Vol. 3, Chāndogya 1-4, Jha, 1899. 311 pp.
Vol. 4, Chāndogya 5-8, Jha, 1899. 374 pp.
Vol. 5, Aitareya and Taittirīya, Sastri, 1901. 230 pp.
‘The increasing interest evinced by the thinking world in the Philosophy and Religion of the Hindus has led me to undertake the publication of the translation of the principal Upanishads . . . The work has been undertaken chiefly with a view to bring within easy reach of the English-reading public the priceless teachings of the Upanishads in the light of the interpretation of Sri Sankaracharya.’
Tattvabhushana, Sitanatha. The Upanishads, edited with Annotations and English Translation. Calcutta, Som Brothers, 3 vols., 1900-1904.
The contents are as follows:
Vol. 1, Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., and Māṇḍ.; 1900. 163 pp.
Vol. 2, Śvet., Ait., Tait., and Kaush.; 1904. 225 pp.
Vol. 3, Chānd. and Bṛih.
The Kaushītaki Upanishad in vol. 2 is presented in the same recension as in the Ānandāśrama edition of that Upanishad, which is designated as A in the footnotes of the present Translation, in distinction from the recension presented in the Bibliotheca Indica edition, which is designated as B.
Vasu, Srisa Chandra. Isa, Kena, Katha, Praśna, Muṇḍaka, and Mâṇḍuka. Allahabad, Panini Office, 1911. 321 pp. (The Sacred Books of the Hindus, vol. 1.)
Text, translation, notes, and extracts from Mādhava’s Commentary.
Burnouf, Eugène. Commentaire sur le Yaçna. Paris, 1833.
At pp. clxx-clxxiii there are extracts from the Bṛih. in Devanāgarī characters, together with French or Latin translations.
Böhtlingk, Otto. Brhadaranjakopanishad in der Madhjamdina-Recension, herausgegeben und übersetzt. St. Petersburg, Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1889. 172 pp.
Vasu, Śrîś Chandra. Bṛihadaraṇyaka-Upaniṣad: Text and English Translation, together with translations of parts of Mādhava’s Commentary. Allahabad, Panini Office, 1913-. (The Sacred Books of the Hindus, vol. 14.)
Böhtlingk, Otto. Khandogjopanishad, kritisch herausgegeben und übersetzt. Leipzig, Haessel, 1889. 201 pp.
Along with the same author’s edition of the Bṛih., which appeared in the same year, this edition of the Chāndogya is the first text-edition of any Upanishad in which the attempt has been made to differentiate the verse-portions from the prose-portions, namely by giving to the verse a wider margin in the text than to the prose, and by using, in the metrical part of the text, the modern method of arranging the verses in their metrical form.
The text is in notably distinct Devanāgarī characters.
In contrast with the customary method of printing Sanskrit prose texts without a single punctuation mark, this edition indicates clause-divisions and sentence-divisions by a simple upright bar—a method which renders the sense much more easily intelligible to a reader who is accustomed to helpful modern punctuation.
In spite of certain criticisms which may be directed against this work of thirty years ago, the total estimate of Bohtlingk’s editions both of the Bṛih. and of the Chānd. must be very high. Thus did Whitney in a detailed review of these two works of Bohtlingk justly observe ( AJP., vol. 11, pp. 407-408): ‘Within the past year the two longest of the ancient or genuine Hindu Upanishads, the Chāndogya and the Bṛhad-Āraṅyaka . . . have been edited and translated by the veteran scholar Bohtlingk, as a new example of his unwearied, many-sided and most fruitful activity. No so permanently valuable addition to our knowledge of this class of works has been made hitherto. The texts themselves are carefully revised and (especially that of the Chāndogya, which is more faulty than the other) in a host of places emended. No such version has been even attempted before, and the next one preceding this in time (that contained in vols. i and xv of the Sacred Books of the East) is, unfortunately, also made in so slovenly a manner as to be practically worthless; it is a pity that it will find, especially among men of English speech, vastly more numerous readers than the present version.’
The character of Böhtlingk’s translation is explicitly defined by the translator himself in his Vorwort (p. ix): ‘It is a purely philological work, in which no reference has been made—nor need be made—to the Vedantic interpretation of C̣am̃karâkârja, since that impresses upon the Upanishad an entirely false stamp.’
Bohtlingk’s estimate of Śaṅkara is stated as follows: ‘I do not demur to regard this famous Vedântist as a great scholar in his department; but I unhesitatingly deny that he had a thorough knowledge of the old language, and I characterize a multitude of his explanations as absolutely absurd’ (p. v).
Bohtlingk’s estimate of the Chāndogya Upanishad itself is thus stated in the closing sentence of his Vorwort (p. x): ‘A great thought runs through the whole work, but by what strange, indeed absurd, fancies so often marred!’
Vasu, Śriśa Chandra. Chhandogya Upanisad, with [extracts from] the Commentary of Śrî Mâdhvâchârya called also Anandatirtha, translated. Allahabad, Panini Office, 1909-1910 (reprinted 1917). 623 pp. (The Sacred Books of the Hindus, vol. 3.)
Sastri, A. Mahadeva. The Taittiriya Upanishad, with the Commentaries of Sankaracharya, Suresvacharya, and Sayana (Vidyaranya), translated into English. Mysore, G. T. A. Printing Works, 1903. 791 pp.
With its analytical headings for chapters and sections, and with the different fonts of type used to distinguish the material of the Upanishad itself and that of each of the Commentaries, this Translation has the best elaborated form of all that have appeared in India. And the rendering of the Sanskrit original is unusually close.
Bhagavata, Rajaram Ramkrishna. The Aitareya Upanishad: An Attempt to Interpret in Marathi the Eleven Upanishads, with Preface, Translation, and Notes in English; 1st of the Series. Bombay, Tukarama Javaji, Nirnaya-sagar Press, 1898. 40 pp.
By the Professor of Sanskrit at St. Xavier’s College, Bombay.
‘This is an attempt to translate into Marathi and English those Upanishads, only eleven in number, which have had the good fortune of being commented upon by Shankaracharya . . . His system is sure to last “as long as the Moon and Sun endure.” ’
Cowell, E. B. Kaushitaki-Brahmana-Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankarananda, edited with an English Translation. Calcutta, Bibliotheca Indica, 1861. 191 pp.
The recension which is printed in this edition of Kaushītaki is designated as B in the footnotes of the present Translation, thus being distinguished from the recension printed in the Ānandāśrama edition of the Kaushītaki, which is designated as A.
Oertel, Hanns. The Jaiminīya, or Talavakāra-Upaniṣad-Brāhmaṇa. In Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 16, pp. 79-260, New Haven, 1894.
By the former Professor of Linguistics and Comparative Philology in Yale University.
In the Brāhmaṇa which is here presented with transliterated text, translation, and notes, the Kena Upanishad is imbedded at pp. 215-219.
Prasad, Durga. An English Translation of the Kena Upanishat, with Exposition. Lahore, Virajanand Press, 1898. 34 pp.
‘The perusal of these Upanishads makes one religious. Nowhere God is so truly described as in those wonderful metaphysical books of India.’
Vasu, Sris Chandra, and A. C. Thirlwall. Kenopanishad with the Sanskrit text, anvaya, vritti, word-meaning, translation, notes, and index. Allahabad, Indian Press, 1902. 105 pp.
Singh, Chhajju. Kainopanishat, translated into English, after Consulting every Gloss available. Lahore, Anglo-Sanskrit Press, 1891. 44 pp.
An elementary ‘word-and-word translation,’ intended apparently as a reading-text for beginners in the Sanskrit language and also as a religious tract.
Poley, L. Kathaka-Oupanichat, extrait du Yadjour-Véda, traduit du Sanskrit en Français. Paris, Dondey-Dupré, 1835. 22 pp.
Text and French translation.
Regnaud, Paul. Études Védiques et Post-Védiques. Paris, Leroux, 1898. 217 pp.
By the Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Grammar at the University of Lyons.
The text of the Kaṭha Upanishad in Roman transliteration, stanza by stanza, with translation and commentary, occupies pp. 57-167. The verse-portions of the original are lined in quatrain metrical form.
A thorough, scholarly piece of work.
Vasu, Sris Chandra. Kathopanishad, with the Sanskrit text, anvaya, vritti, word-meaning, translation, notes, and index. Allahabad, Panini Office, 1905. 230 pp.
Datta, Guru. Ishnopanishad, with Sanskrit Text and English Translation, to which an Exposition is appended. Lahore, Virajanand Press, 1888. 34 pp.
The Exposition is a passionate appeal for a pure religion based upon the teachings of this Upanishad.
The translating is quite free—a typical instance of the way in which a number of enthusiastic, but uncritical, translations have, unwittingly, injected modern ideas into the transmitted utterances of the ancient Upanishads. For example:—
2. Aspire, then, O man, to live by virtuous deeds for a hundred years in peace with thy neighbours.
12. Miserable are they who worship atoms as the efficient cause of the world. But far more miserable are they who worship the visible things born of atoms.
15. O Thou who givest sustenance to the world, unveil that face of the true sun which is now hidden by a veil of golden light; so that we may see the truth and know our whole duty.
— The foregoing reprinted in:
Works of the late Guru Datta, Vidyarthi, M.A. Lahore, Aryan Printing G. Trading Co., 2d edition, 1902, at pp. 107-124.
Mozoomdar, Yadunatha. Isa Upanishad, or the last chapter of the Sukla Yajur Veda, with text, easy Sanskrit notes, English and Bengali translations. Jessore, Subhakari Press, 1893. 18 pp.
Gosvami, Sri Syamalala. Isa Upanishad, with the Bhashyas of Baladeva, Vidyabhushana, Sri Sankaracharyya, and the Tika of Anandagiri, etc., with Bengali translation and commentary, and with an English translation and commentary. Calcutta, Aghornath Datta, People’s Press, 1895. 70 pp.
‘This short Upanishad . . . appears to be composed for the purpose of exalting the realization of the Supreme Spirit over every other object. It embodies the sum total of human wisdom.’
Prasad, Durga. The Third Vedic Reader, in the Dayanand High School Series. Lahore, Virajanand Press. 2d ed, 1896. 34 pp.
Contains at pp. 8-31 the Īśā Upanishad (as the Fortieth Chapter of the Yajur-Veda) both in Devanāgarī and in Roman characters, with a ‘word-and-word’ English-Sanskrit translation.
Singh, Chhajju. Ishopanishat, translated into English, to which is appended The Vedic Truth Vindicated. Lahore, Anglo-Sanskrit Press, 1891. 40 pp.
An elementary ‘word-and-word’ Sanskrit-English translation. The ‘Vedic Truth’ is ‘vindicated’ against the charge of ‘a very revolting moral teaching’ in Yajur-Veda 23. 18-31 by presenting ‘a correct translation’ of that passage.
Vasu, Sris Chandra, and A. C. Thirlwall. Isavasya Upanishad, with the Sanskrit text, anvaya, vritti, word-meaning, translation, notes, and index. Allahabad, Indian Press, 1902. 62 pp.
‘This Upanishad has been the subject of several commentaries. We give the interpretation according to the three well-known schools,—Advatta (Sankara), Visista Advaita (Ramanuja), and Dvaita (Madhava).’
Prasad, Durga, corrected by Pandit Guru Datta, Vidyarthi. The Mundakopanishat with English Translation. Lahore, Virajanand Press, 2d ed., 1893. 13 pp.
On the reverse of the title-page is quoted the following from Max Müller: ‘Whatever other scholars may think of the difficulty of translating the Upanishants, I can only repeat what I have said before, that I know few Sanskrit texts presenting more formidable problems to the translator than these philosophical treatises. I have again and again had to translate certain passages tentatively only, or following the commentators, though conscious all the time that the meaning which they extract from the text cannot be the right one.’
— The foregoing reprinted in:
The works of the late Guru Datta, Vidyarthi, M.A. Lahore, Aryan Printing Co., 2d edition, 1902, at pp. 151-167.
Prasad, Durga. An English Translation of the Prashnopanishat, containing Six Questions of Life and Death, with Sanskrit Text. Lahore, Virajanand Press, 1899. 35 pp.
‘It has six questions of vital importance to all human beings. As arranged in this spiritual treatise, they form a systematic and scientific search after God.’
Datta, Guru. The Mandukyopanishat, being the Exposition of OM, the Great Sacred Name of the Supreme Being in the Vedas, translated and expounded. Chicago edition, printed and published under the auspices of the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, Punjab. Lahore, Virajanand Press, 1893. 34 pp.
By the late Professor of Science, Government College, Lahore.
‘Worship is the first act of pure religion . . . A true mode of worship is the subject of the Mandukyopanishat. It enjoins the worship of the Supreme Deity alone, the Eternal Omnipresent Being, the Supreme Soul of Nature. For, what but a true conception, knowledge and realization of this Universal Spirit can be consistent with that overflowing, exultant, blissful attitude of the mind, otherwise designated as worship! The worship of the Eternal Being is the only worship that is inculcated in the Upanishats; and this Eternal Being is everywhere named Omkara.’
—The foregoing reprinted in:
Works of the late Guru Datta, Vidyarthi, M.A. Lahore, Aryan Printing Co., 2d edition, 1902, at pp. 125-149.
Narayana, Har. Vedic Philosophy; or, An Exposition of the Sacred and Mysterious Monosyllable AUM; The Mandukya Upanishad: Text, with an English Translation and Commentary and an Introduction. Bombay, Tatva-Vivechaka Press, 1895. 171 pp.
‘I venture to advise my readers to try to fit themselves for the study of Brahma-Vidya. I trustfully venture to say that they will thus finally attain liberation from reincarnation by the realization of Self, which is the only reality, the substratum of all appearances. I venture to express the hope that the reader will earnestly take the subject to heart, and studiously examine it for himself; and not lose the opportunity afforded him of removing the ignorance of Self, under which his soul is labouring.’
Bhagavata, Rajarama Ramkrishna. An Attempt to Interpret in Marathi the Eleven Upanishads, with Preface, Translation and Notes in English: The Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 2d of the Series. Bombay, Nirnaya-sagara Press, 1900. 119 pp.
A companion volume to the author’s translation of the Aitareya Upanishad.
The ‘creed of the Upanishad’ is formulated in the Preface as follows: ‘The unity of God pervades through the whole of the Upanishad. “God is one; he is without a second, without an equal”—is the burden of almost all the verses. This all-pervading God has been pleased to place his image into the heart of every human being to guide him, is another point . . . Independently of its monotheistic doctrine, the one special feature which will strike the student as characteristic of this Upanishad is that it inspires a sense of dependence and of prayerfulness. The general tone of the Upanishads is either contemplative or discursive to a fault; but in this Upanishad even the additions made to it are for the most part in keeping with this prayerful tone of the original. This constitutes the human interest which will always secure to this Upanishad a high place in our affections.’ (Preface, p. 5.)
A detailed examination of the sectarian statements in the Upanishad is presented to the reader in support of the theory that ‘the original and sweet Upanishad was encrusted with layers successively added by the Rudra-worshippers, the Kapilas, the Yogins and the followers of some of the schools now completely forgotten.’ This explanation will ‘prepare him for its unconnected and at times contradictory, though varied and therefore interesting, contents.’ (Preface, p. 8.)
In the Preface the author also contends that the Shankaracharya to whom the received commentary on the Upanishad is ordinarily ascribed is not the same as the great Commentator of that name. This same theory, by the way, had been previously urged by Regnaud in 1876 in his Matériaux, vol. 1, p. 28, and also by Col. G. A. Jacob in his article on the Nṛisiṁhatāpanī Upanishad in the Indian Antiquary for March 1886.
Cowell, E. B. The Maitri or Maitrāyaṇīya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Rāmatīrtha, edited with an English Translation. London, Watts, 1870. 291 pp. (Bibliotheca Indica.)
By the late Professor of Sanskrit at Cambridge University.
Roy, Rammohun. Four Upanishads in the Bengali character, viz. Kaṭha, Īśā, Kena, and Muṇḍ. Calcutta, 1818. 191 pp.
By the pioneer Hindu reformer of the nineteenth century. The very first printed appearance of any collected text of the Upanishads.
Poley, L. Four Upanishads, viz. Kaṭha, Muṇḍ., Kena, and Īśā, with the Commentary of Śaṅkara on the first three. Paris, Dondey-Dupré, 1835. 200 pp.
Poley, L. Vrihadáranyakam, Káthakam, Iça, Kena, Mundakam; oder fünf Upanishads aus dem Yagur-, Sáma- und Atharva-Veda, nach den Handschriften der Bibliothek der Ost-Indischen Compagnie zu London. Bonn, Marcus, 1844. 124 pp.
Noteworthy as containing the first printed appearance of the Bṛihad-Āraṇyaka Upanishad. The text of the other four in this collection had already appeared, together with a French translation by the same author, in 1835.
Seven Upanishads in the Bengali character, viz. Kaṭha, Vājasaneyasaṁhitā, Talavakāra, Muṇḍ., Māṇḍ., Praśna, and Ait., with a verbal commentary for instruction in Brahmist schools. Calcutta, 1845. 127 pp.
Röer, E. Three Upanishads, viz. the Taittariya and the Aittareya Upanishads, edited with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Gloss of Ananda Giri; and the Śwetaśwatara Upanishad, edited with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya. Calcutta, 1850. 378 pp. (Bibliotheca Indica.)
Röer, E. Six Upanishads, viz. Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., and Māṇḍ., edited with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Gloss of Ananda Giri. Calcutta, 1850. 598 pp. (Bibliotheca Indica.)
Vidyasagara, Jibananda. Six Upanishads, viz. Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., and Māṇḍ., with the Commentary of Sankaracharya and the Gloss of Ananda Giri. Calcutta, 1873. 598 pp.
Vidyasagara, Jibananda. Three Upanishads, viz. Tait. and Ait., with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Gloss of Ananda Giri; and Śvet. with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya. Calcutta, 1874. 361 pp.
Ten Upanishads in the Telugu character, viz. Īśā, Kena, Katha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., Māṇḍ., Tait., Bṛih., Chānd., and Ait., with a verbal Commentary by Ramanujacharya. Madras, Viveka Kalanidhi Press, 1875. 540 pp.
—The foregoing reprinted, 1876. 298 pp.
Pala, Mahesachandra. Nine Upanishads in the Bengali character, viz. Ait., Īśā, Kena, Śvet., Kaṭha, Tait., Māṇḍ., Muṇḍ., and Praśna, with Sankara Acharya’s Commentaries, and Bengali Translations. Calcutta, 1881-1889.
Sastri, Subrahmanya. Hundred and Eight Upanishads. Madras, 1883. 1029 pp.
Ten Upanishads. Bombay Venkatesvara Press, 1885. 357 pp.
Ramachandra, Venkatarau. Upanishatsangraha: A Collection of Upanishads, edited with Sanskrit Glosses and Marathi Paraphrases, Notes, and Introductions. Poona, 1885.
Eleven Upanishads, viz. Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., Māṇḍ., Tait., Ait., Chānd., Bṛih., and Śvet., edited by Keśavāla Harirātmaja. Bombay, Nirnaya-sagara Press, 1886. 242 pp.
This is perhaps the most convenient and reliable text-edition of the eleven Upanishads therein contained.
Pitambara, Sri. Eight Upanishads, viz. Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Tait., Ait., Muṇḍ., Praśna, and Māṇḍ., with a Commentary in Sanskrit. Bombay, 1890. 800 pp.
Twelve Upanishads, viz. Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., Māṇḍ., Tait., Ait., Chānd., Bṛih., Śvet., and Nṛisiṁhatāpanīya. Bombay, Venkatesvara Press, 1890. 372 pp.
Hundred and Eight Upanishads. Bombay, Tatva-vivechaka Press, 1895. 868 pp.
Thirty-two Upanishads, with the Dipika of Narayana Sankarananda. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1895.
Of the thirteen Upanishads contained in the present English Translation this edition contains the text of only two, viz. Kaush. at pp. 113-144, and Maitri at pp. 345-476.
Sastri, K. Venkatakrishna, and Munjurpattu Ramachandra Sastri. Hundred and Eight Upanishads in Grantha character. Madras, Star of India Press, 1896. 893 pp.
Uddhavaji, Ranachhodaji. Four Upanishads, viz. Īśā, Kena, Muṇḍ., and Ait., with Gujarati translations and commentaries. Bombay, Sarasvati Printing Press, 1896. 103 pp.
Tatacharya, A. Srinivasa. Ten Upanishads in Grantha and Telugu characters, viz. Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍ., Māṇḍ., Ait., Bṛih., Chānd., and Tait., with a Tamil commentary comprising word-for-word interpretations of the text, and translations of the Commentaries of Sankara and Ramanuja, together with the Karikas of Gaudapada in Sanskrit and Sankara’s Commentary in Tamil. Madras, 1897-1898.
Phansikar, Vasudev Laxman Shastri. Twenty-eight Upanishads, Īśā, etc. Bombay, Nirnaya-sagara Press, 1904, 334 pp.; 1906 edition, 372 pp.
Contains all of the Upanishads which are contained in the present Translation, except Maitri.
Ten Upanishads. Benares, Tara Printing Works, 1906.
Bhagawan, Swami Achintya. Eleven Upanishads. Bombay, Nirnaya-sagara Press, 1910. 732 pp.
Röer, E. Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad, edited with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Gloss of Ananda Giri. Calcutta, 2 vols., 1849. (Bibliotheca Indica.)
Weber, Albrecht. The Çatapatha Brāhmaṇa. Berlin, 1855.
Contains in the Mādhyaṁdina recension as 10. 6. 4. 5 and 14. 4-9 what in the Kāṇva recension is the separate Bṛihad-Āraṇyaka Upanishad.
Vidyasagara, Jibananda. Bṛihad-Āraṇyaka Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankaracharya and the Gloss of Anandagiri. Calcutta, 1875. 1094 pp.
Bṛihad-Āraṇyaka Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankaracharya and the Super-commentary of Anandagiri. Benares, 1885 328 pp.
Agase, Kashinatha Shastri. Bṛihad-Āranyaka Upanishad, edited with the Commentary of Sankara and the Tika of Anandagiri. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1891. 835 pp.
Pitambara, Sarma. Bṛihad-Āraṇyaka Upanishad, with a Hindi Translation, a Hindi Commentary founded on the works of Sankara and Anandagiri, and Notes. Bombay, Nirnaya-sagara Press, 2 vols., 1892.
Agase, Kashinatha Bala Shastri. Bṛihad-Āraṇyaka Upanishad, edited with the Commentary entitled Mitākshara of Nityānanda. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1895. 271 pp.
Röer, E. Chhāndogya Upanishad, edited with the Commentary of Sankara Āchārya and the Gloss of Ānanda Giri. Calcutta, 1850. 628 pp. (Bibliotheca Indica.)
Vidyasagara, Jibananda. Chāndogya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Gloss of Anandagiri. Calcutta, 1873. 634 pp.
Chāndogya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Gloss of Anandagiri. Benares, 1884.
Pala, Mahesachandra. Chāndogya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and a Bengali Translation. Calcutta, 1885-1887. 674 pp.
Agase, Kashinatha Sastri. Chāndogya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Gloss of Anandagiri. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1890. 482 pp.
Pantulu, M. B. Chāndogya Upanishad, with a Telugu Translation and Commentary. Madras, Sree Rajah Ram Mohan Roy Press, 1899. 674 pp.
Chāndogya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Madhavacharya and the Gloss of Vedesha Tirtha. Kumbakonam, 1904. 524 pp.
Sarma, Sivasankara. Chāndogya Upanishad, with Hindi Translation and Commentary, also a Sanskrit Commentary setting forth the doctrines of the Arya Samaj. Ajmere, 1905. 1003 pp.
Taittirīya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and a Supercommentary corresponding in its text to that of Anandagiri, but here attributed to Jnanamrita Yati. Benares, 1884. 42 pp.
Taittirīya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Suresvacharya and the Supercommentary of Anandagiri. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1889. 213 pp.
Pantulu, M. B. Taittirīya Upanishad, with Telugu translation and Commentary. Madras, Sree Rajah Ram Mohan Roy Press, 1889. 150 pp.
Islamapurkara, Vamanashastri, Taittirīya Upanishad with the Commentary of Sankara and the Supercommentary of Sankarananda and Vidyaranya. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1889. 330 pp.
Sarma, Bhimasena. Taittirīya Upanishad, with a Hindi and a Sanskrit Commentary. Allahabad, Sarasvati Press, 1895. 180 pp.
Sandrananda Acharya. Taittirīya Upanishad, with Bengali Translation and Notes. Calcutta, Sandrananda Press, 1896. 66 pp.
Isalamapurakara, Vamanashastri. Taittirīya Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Supercommentary of Anandagiri, also with the Dipikas of Sankarananda and of Vidyaranya. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1897. 163 pp.
Ramakrishna Sastri. Taittirīya Upanishad, in the Grantha character, together with selections from the Taittirīya-Brāhmaṇa and the Taittirīya-Āraṇyaka. Palghat, 1900. 78 pp.
Singh, Zalim. Taittirīya Upanishad, with Hindi glossaries. Lucknow, 1900. 127 pp.
Venkatakrishnaiya, R. S. Taittirīya Upanishad, in the Kannada character, with Kannada Translation and Notes. Bangalore, 1901. 82 pp.
Vaidyanatha, Mullangudi. Taittirīya Upanishad, in the Grantha character and in the Dravidian recension. Kumbakonam, 1903. 44 pp.
Sutaiya, Gorti. Taittirīya Upanishad, in the Telugu character, with the Commentary of Sayana. Madras, 1904. 319 pp.
The longer recension of the text, known as the Mahaitareya, or Bahuvricha, Upanishad, i. e. Aitareya Aranyaka 2 and 3, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya. Benares, 1884. 70 pp.
The shorter recension of the text, i. e. Aitareya Aranyaka 2. 4-7, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya, the Supercommentary of Anandagiri, and a Dipika of Vidyaranya. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1889. 120 pp.
Sarma, Bhimasena. Aitareya Upanishad, with Commentaries in Sanskrit and Hindi. Etawah, Saraswati Press, 1900. 104 pp.
Singh, Zalim. Aitareya Upanishad, with Hindi glossaries. Lucknow, 1900. 50 pp.
Roy, Rammohun. Talavakāra, i. e. Kena Upanishad, with a short Commentary in Bengali. Calcutta, 1816. 17 pp.
Agase, Bala Sastri. Kena Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara and the Supercommentary of Anandagiri, together with the Dipikas of Sankarananda and Narayana. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1888. 89 pp.
Sarma, Bhimasena. Kena Upanishad, with Commentaries in Sanskrit and Hindi. Allahabad, Sarasvati Press, 1893. 56 pp.
Agase, Kashinatha Bala Sastri. Kena Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara and the Dipikas of Sankarananda and Narayana. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1896. 79 pp.
Kena Upanishad, in the Telugu character, with the Commentary of Balasubrahmanya Brahmasvami in Telugu. Madras, Kalaratnakara Press, 1900. 126 pp.
Kena Upanishad, in the Grantha and also in the Tamil characters, with the Commentary of Balasubrahmanya Brahmasvami in Tamil. Madras, Kalaratnakara Press, 1900. 207 pp.
Sarma, Badaridatta. Kena or Talavakāra Upanishad, with a Hindi translation and exposition. Meerut, 1901. 32 pp.
Sarma, Bhimasena. Kaṭha Upanishad, with Sanskrit and Hindi Commentaries. Allahabad, Sarasvati Press, 1893. 220 pp.
Rajvade, Vaijanath Kashinath. Kaṭha Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and two Supercommentaries by Anandagiri and Gopālayatindra. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1897. 127 pp. (Reprinted 1906, 132 pp.)
Sarma, Badaridatta. Kaṭha Upanishad, with Hindi translation and exposition. Meerut, 1903. 96 pp.
Roy, Rammohun. Īśā Upanishad, with a Commentary in Bengali, Calcutta, 1816. 37 pp.
Tarkaratna, Taracharana. Īśā Upanishad, with a Commentary called Vimala. Benares, 1880. 30 pp.
Īśā Upanishad, with a Sanskrit Commentary. Punganur, 1887. 8 pp.
Īśā Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and seven other Commentaries. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1888. 87 pp.
Muhammad, Satyananda. Īśā Upanishad, with a Hindi Translation in verse. Lucknow, 1890. 12 pp.
Sarma, Bhimasena. Īśā Upanishad, with Sanskrit and Hindi Commentaries. Allahabad, Sarasvati Press, 1892. 42 pp.
Brahmaswamy, Bala Subramania. Īśā Upanishad in Telugu and Tamil characters, with Tamil Commentaries. Madras, 1899. 107 pp.
Kriparama. Īśā Upanishad, with an Urdu Translation and Commentary based on the teachings of the Arya Samaj. Moradabad, 1899. 32 pp.
Sarma, Badaridatta. Īśā Upanishad, with Hindi Translation and Exposition. Meerut, 1901. 18 pp.
Ganda, Brahmanishta. Īśā Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and Gujarati Explanations. Broach, 1906. 82 pp.
Yamuna Sankara. Muṇḍaka Upanishad, with a Commentary in Hindi founded on the Commentaries of Sankara and Anandagiri. Lucknow, 1884. 138 pp.
Sarma, Bhimasena. Muṇḍaka Upanishad, with Commentaries in Sanskrit and Hindi. Allahabad, Sarasvati Press, 1894. 154 pp.
Muṇḍaka Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya and the Supercommentary of Anandagiri and also a Dipika by Narayana. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1896. 61 pp.
Singh, Zalim. Muṇḍaka Upanishad, with Hindi Glossaries. Lucknow, 1900. 84 pp.
Yamuna Sankara. Praśna Upanishad, with a Commentary in Hindi founded on the Commentaries of Sankara and Anandagiri. Lucknow, 1884. 177 pp.
Praśna Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sanḳara Acharya and the Supercommentary of Narayanendra Sarasvati. Benares, 1885. 40 pp.
Sarma, Bhimasena. Praśna Upanishad, with Commentaries in Sanskrit and Hindi. Allahabad, Sarasvati Press, 1894. 148 pp.
Praśna Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya, the Supercommentary of Anandagiri, and also a Dipika of Sankarananda. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1896. 90 pp.
Singh, Zalim. Praśna Upanishad, with Hindi Glossaries. Lucknow, 1900. 90 pp.
Sarma, Bhimasena. Māṇḍūkya Upanishad, with Sanskrit and Hindi Commentaries. Allahabad, Sarasvati Press, 1894. 62 pp.
Kathavate, Abaji Vishnu’s-son. Māṇdūkya Upanishad, with the Karika of Gaudapada, the Commentary of Sankara Acharya, the Supercommentary of Anandagiri, and a Dipika of Sankarananda. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1900. 233 pp.
Śvetāśvatara Upanishad, with the Commentary of Sankara Acharya, a Dipika of Sankarananda, a Dipika of Narayana, and a Vivarana of Vijnana Bhagavat. Poona, Anandasrama Press, 1890. 210 pp. (Reprinted 1905, 225 pp.)
Sarma, Bhimasena. Śvetāśvatara Upanishad, with Sanskrit and Hindi Commentaries. Etawah, Sarasvati Press, 1897. 211 pp.
Tulsirama, Swami. Śvetāśvatara Upanishad, with Sanskrit and Hindi Commentaries. Meerut, 1897. 112 pp.
Whitney, W. D. The Upanishads and their Latest Translation. In American Journal of Philology, vol. 7 (1886), pp. 1-26.
Chiefly a detailed review of Max Muller’s translation. ‘If the non-Sanskrit-reading public is to have these obscure treatises placed in its hands at all for study, it ought first of all to know just what they say and what they do not say. Thus far it has had no means of doing this; no simple philological translation, none that was not filled in and tinged throughout with the later Hindu comment, has been given to the world’
Whitney, W. D. Böhtlingk’s Upanishads. In American Journal of Philology, vol. 11 (1890), pp. 407-439.
A detailed review of Böhtlingk’s editions of the text and translation of the Chāndogya and the Bṛihad-Āraṇyaka Upanishads. ‘In all respects so good as to tempt to a detailed examination, in order to the correction of occasional oversights and the suggestion of differences of view which may perhaps be found worthy of notice in case of a revisal of the works’
Then the reviewer proceeds to point out 518 such instances.
Bohtlingk, Otto. A series of articles in the Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Koniglich Sächsischen Gesellschaften zu Leipzig, philologisch-historische Classe, Leipzig, Hirzel, 1890-1897:—
(1) Über eine bisher arg missverstandene Stelle in der Kaushītaki-Brāhmaṇa-Upanishad. Vol. 42 (1891), pp. 198-204.
An elaborate discussion of the variant readings and translations of Kaush. 1. 2, together with a reconstructed text and accordant translation. More learned and ingenious than necessary or convincing.
(2) Zu den von mir bearbeiteten Upanishaden. Vol. 43 (1891), pp. 70-90.
A reply to Whitney’s reviews of Böhtlingk’s editions of Chānd., Bṛih., Ait., Praśna, and Kaṭha.
(3) Über die Verwechselung von pra-sthā und prati-sthā in den Upanishaden. Vol. 43 (1891), pp. 91-95.
Proposes text-emendation and new interpretation of Śvet. 1. 1-3.
(4) Versuch Kaushītaki-Brāhmaṇa-Upanishad i. 1. zu deuten. Vol. 47 (1895), pp. 347-349.
Proposes the omission of the second dhásyasi. This change doubtless leaves the passage easier. But, inasmuch as the received text is perfectly intelligible, the proposed change is not necessary, except in the interest of a degree of literary perfection which perhaps was not the standard of the original author.
(5) Bemerkungen zu einigen Upanishaden. Vol. 49 (1897), pp. 78-100.
A review of Deussen’s Translation, Sechzig Upanishad’s. Contains numerous criticisms and dissenting opinions, e.g. on 96 passages in the Chāndogya alone.
(6) Kritische Beiträge. Vol. 49 (1897), pp. 127-138.
Critical notes on several important Sanskrit works, but chiefly on the translation of passages in the Upanishads.
(7) Kritische Beiträge. Vol. 50 (1898), pp. 76-86.
A continuation of the preceding series of critical notes.
Jacob, George A. A Concordance to the [56] Principal Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita. Bombay, Government Central Book Depot, 1891. 1083 pp.
A great and painstaking labor. An exceedingly useful implement for detailed and exhaustive study of the texts of these Upanishads and also of the BhG.
Little, Charles Edgar. A Grammatical Index to the Chāndogya-Upanishad. New York, American Book Co., 1900. 193 pp. (Vanderbilt Oriental Series.)
Both a dictionary and a concordance. Every occurrence of every word is recorded, and the grammatical form in which every inflected word occurs is explicitly stated. ‘Its aim is to classify the linguistic material of this Upanishad. Its second aim is to furnish sufficient grammatical and lexical data to serve as a special dictionary for those who shall read this piece of literature for the first time. Böhtlingk’s text has been taken as the standard.’
Wecker, Otto. Der Gebrauch der Kasus in der älteren Upaniṣad-literatur verglichen mit der Kasuslehre der indischen Grammatiker. Tübingen, Vandenhoeck Ruprecht, 1905. 92 pp.
An exhaustive investigation and tabulation of all the varying uses of the six oblique cases in the ten Upanishads, viz. Chānd., Bṛih., Maitri, Ait., Kaush., Kena, Īśā, Tait., Kaṭha, and Śvet. One important result of the investigation is the following conjectural chronological order and grouping of the Upanishads relative to the great grammarian Pāṇini, viz. Group I, the earliest, Bṛih., Chānd., and Kaush.; Group II, also pre-Pāṇini, Ait., Tait., and Kaṭha; Group III, possibly pre-Pāṇini, Kena and Īśā; Group IV, post-Pāṇini, Śvet, and Maitri.
The foregoing was printed also in two instalments in Beitrage z. Kunde d. indogerman. Sprachen, vol. 30, pp. 1-61, 177-207, Göttingen, 1906.
Windisch, Ernst. Zu Kauṣītaki-Brāhmaṇa-Upaniṣad 1. 2. In Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Koniglich Sächsischen Gesellschaften zu Leipzig, philologisch-historische Classe, vol. 59, pp. 111-128, Leipzig, Teubner, 1907.
Consists of critical notes, comparing Oertel’s text and translation with that of others.
Deussen, Paul. Über die Chronologie der Upanishad-Texte. In Transactions of the International Congress for the History of Religions, vol. 2, pp. 19-24, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1908.
Kirfel, Willibald. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Nominalkomposition in den Upaniṣads und im Epos. Bonn, Georgi, 1908. 99 pp.
An exhaustive investigation, with statistically tabulated results, of all the phenomena of compound nouns of the five classes, dvandva, upapada, tat-puruṣa, bahu-vrīhi, and avyayībhāva, as these occur in five of the Upanishads, viz. Kaṭha, Praśna, Bṛih., Muṇḍ., and Śvet., and also in three episodes of the MBh. and in two chapters of the Rāmāyaṇa.
Colebrooke, Henry Thomas. On the Vedas, or Sacred Writings of the Hindus. In Asiatic Researches, vol. 8, pp. 369-476, Calcutta, 1805.
This exposition of the literature of the Vedas contains at pp. 408-414 an original translation of the Aitareya Upanishad entire and also of other important sections of the Upanishads, viz. Chānd. 5. 11-24; Tait. 3. 1-6; and Muṇḍ. 1.
This article is notable for showing how over a century ago, before the great advance in modern Sanskrit scholarship, the importance of the Upanishads had been recognized, and also how the Upanishads were being actually mediated to the West.
This essay was reprinted in:
Essays on Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus. London, Williams Norgate, 1837; new edition, 1858; pp. 1-69.
Life and Essays of H. T. Colebrooke, by his son, T. E. Colebrooke. London, Trubner, 1873, vol. 2, pp. 8-132.
In the latter edition the ‘Essay’ is provided with numerous supplementary notes by W. D. Whitney.
Rixner, Thaddaus Anselm. Versuch einer Darstellung der uralten indischen All-Eins-Lehre, oder der berühmten Sammlung Oupnek’hat; Erstes Stück, Oupnek’hat Tschebandouk genannt. Nürnberg, Stein, 1808.
The first appreciation on the continent of Europe, through the medium of a modern language, of the ancient religio-philosophical scriptures of India. An attempt to make more generally available the contents of Duperron’s extensive (two-volume) Latin translation. Includes a German translation of the first part of the Oupnek’hat.
Windischmann, Friedrich Heinrich Hugo, in the work of his father, Carl Joseph Hieronymus Windischmann, Die Philosophie im Fortgange der Weltgeschichte. Bonn, Marcus, 3 vols., 1827-1833.
Book 11 (comprising volumes 2 and 3) deals with ‘Philosophy in India.’ Chap. 10 in vol. 3 deals with ‘The Mystical Contents of the Upanishads.’
Contains translations of selections from Chānd., Bṛih., Kena, Kaṭha, Īśā, Muṇḍ.
Lanjuinais, J. D. Recherches sur les Langues, la Littérature, la Religion et la Philosophie des Indiens. Paris, Dondey-Dupré, 1832.
Vol. 2 (at pp. 246-357) contains an Essay entitled ‘La Religion des Hindous selon des Védas, ou Analyse de l’Oupnek’hat publiée par Anquetil du Perron en 1802.’ This was the first rendition into French of the substance of Duperron’s epoch-making Latin translation of the Upanishads.
Windischmann, Friedrich Heinrich Hugo. Sancara, sive de Theologumenis Vedanticorum. Bonn, Habicht, 1833. 205 pp.
An exposition of the Vedanta philosophy in Latin. One of the very earliest treatises on the subject. Noteworthy as being the first attempt to use grammatical and historical considerations for determining the age of the Upanishads.
Chap. 2 (pp. 34-88) is ‘On the Life of Sancara and the Antiquity of the Vedanta.’ Chap. 3 is ‘A Brief Exposition of the Vedantic Doctrines.’ Contains numerous quotations, both in the Devanāgarī characters of the original and in Latin translation, from the Sūtras as well as from the Upanishads.
Weber, Albrecht. Akademische Vorlesungen uber indische Literaturgeschichte. Berlin, Dümmler, 1852, 291 pp.; 2d edition, 1876-1878, 370 pp.
— The foregoing translated into French:
Histoire de la Littérature indienne, traduite par Alfred Sadous. Paris, A. Durand, 1859. 495 pp.
— The same translated into English:
The History of Indian Literature, translated by Mann and Zachariae. London, Trübner, 4th edition, 1904. 383 pp.
By the late Professor of Sanskrit at Berlin University, most erudite of German scholars on the subject.
Contains (at pp. 153-171) a section dealing with the Upanishads.
Müller, F. Max. History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature. London, Williams Norgate, 1859. 607 pp.
Contains at pp. 316-328 an exposition of the Upanishads, together with translations of extracts.
‘The old Upanishads did not pretend to give more than guesses at truth; and when, in the course of time, they became invested with an inspired character, they allowed great latitude to those who professed to believe in them as revelation’
— The foregoing reprinted:
Allahabad, Panini Office, 1912.
Manning, Mrs. Ancient and Mediaeval India. London, Allen, 2 vols., 1869.
Chap. 7 of vol. 1 (pp. 122-147) presents a sketch of the period of the Upanishads with extracts from the Translations of Roy, Mitra, Röer, and Muller.
[ Krempelhuber, Max Karl von. ] Maha-bak, das grosse Wort der Geheim-Lehre der Brahmanen, oder die Unifikation des Welt-Ganzen: Grundgedanken über das Wesen der Weltsubstanz im Allgemeinen und des Menschengeschlechtes insbesondere: Reflexionen aus dem berühmten Oupnek’hat (Auszüge aus den Veden) für gebildete denkende Leser. Munich, G. Franz, 1869. 87 pp.
An exposition of the philosophy of the Upanishads as found in Duperron’s Latin translation, particularly in relation to Western philosophy.
Regnaud, Paul. Matériaux pour servir à l’Histoire de la Philosophie de l’Inde. Paris, Vieweg, 2 vols., 1876-1878.
While this book has already been listed above (p. 470) among Translations of Selections from the Upanishads, it aims primarily to be a systematic exposition of the philosophy of the Upanishads, arranged under various outstanding categories.
Barth, Auguste. The Religions of India. Authorised Translation [from the French] by J. Wood. London, Trübner, 1882. 3d edition, 1891.
‘We shall now [i. e. in the chapter on “Brahmanism: II. Philosophic Speculations,” pp. 64-86] give, in a summary form, an analysis of such of the doctrines of the Upanishads as are more especially connected with the history of religion; we shall indicate at the same time the essential developments they have undergone in the systems properly so called’
A brief sketch, but thoroughly scholarly and in correct proportions. The estimates expressed are sympathetically appreciative, yet keenly discriminating, withal judicial. The presentation of the main conceptions of the Upanishads is made with a historical perspective which exhibits clearly the course of previous development as well as the subsequent action and reaction.
‘They are pre-eminently exhortations to the spiritual life, perplexed and confused indeed, but delivered at times with a pathos that is both lofty and affecting. The tone which prevails in them, especially in their manner of address and in the dialogue, in which there is at times a touch of singular sweetness, is that of a preaching which appeals to the initiated’
‘India will remain at heart attached to the manner of philosophizing found in the Upanishads. To that its sects will come back again one after another; its poets, its thinkers even, will always take pleasure in this mysticism, with its modes of procedure, at once so vague and so full of contradictions’
‘All the aspirations, good and bad, of the Hindu people will henceforth find in them their fit expression. They will supply to all the sects a theological science of a high order. Some will be inspired by them as with an ideal, and under their inspiration will arise at intervals a set of works of incomparable elevation and delicacy of sentiment, while others will drag them down to their own level and treat them as a repertory stored with commonplaces. The less religious will borrow from them the externals of devotion; the baser sort and more worthless will wrap themselves up in their mysticism and appropriate their formulas. It is with the word brahman and deliverance on his lips that the alchemist will form to himself a religion of his search for the philosopher’s stone, that the votaries of Kâlî will slaughter their victims, and certain of the Çivaites will give themselves over to their riotous revels. No literature so demonstrates as this does the vanity of mysticism and its inability to found anything that will prove durable’
Oldenberg, Hermann. Buddha: His Life, His Doctrine, His Order, translated from the original German by William Hoey. London, Williams Norgate, 1882. 454 pp.
Chap. 2 (pp. 16-60) presents ‘Hindu Pantheism and Pessimism before Buddha.’ Reports ‘the ideas, images, and expressions which passed to Buddhism as an inheritance from Brahmanical speculation’ (p. 54).
Contains translations of portions of the Kaṭha Upanishad at pp. 54-58 and the entire conversation of Yājñavalkya with his wife Maitreyī with running exposition at pp. 33-40.
‘If I am correct in my surmise as to the time of the production of this [Kaṭha] Upanishad, it contains an important contribution to the history of thought preparatory to Buddhist thought: namely, we here find the Satan of the Buddhist world, Māra, the Tempter, the demon death-foe of the deliverer, in the form of Mrityu, the God of Death’
Gough, Archibald E. The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics. London, Trübner, 1882; 2d edition, 1891; 3d edition, 1903. 268 pp.
By a former Principal of the Calcutta Madrasa.
Six articles originally appearing in the Calcutta Review, rewritten and extended.
Contains translations of four complete Upanishads, viz. Muṇḍ., Kaṭha, Śvet., and Māṇḍ., the larger part of Tait. and Bṛih., and portions of the Chānd. and Kena, together with extracts from the works of the Indian schoolmen.
The renderings in many places are really paraphrases, rather than exact versions. Indeed, in spite of a liberal use of quotation marks, the work as a whole is a popular exposition of the popular Vedānta philosophy, rather than a scientifically rigorous translation of difficult texts.
The author states explicitly his judgment on the relation of the later ‘schoolmen’ to these early documents: ‘The teaching of Sankara himself is the natural and legitimate interpretation of the doctrines of the Upanishads’ (Preface, p. viii). And again: ‘The Vedānta is only a systematic exposition of the philosophy of the Upanishads’ (p. 240).
His estimate of the Upanishads themselves is indicated by the following: ‘The Upanishads exhibit the pantheistic view of things in a naively poetical expression, and at the same time in its coarsest form’ (Preface, pp. v-vi); and he proceeds to quote Hegel’s estimate: ‘If we wish to get so-called Pantheism in its poetic, most exalted, or—if one will—most crass form, one has to look for it in the oriental poets; and the most extensive expositions are found in the Indian poets.’
‘The Upanishads are an index to the intellectual peculiarities of the Indian character. The thoughts that they express are the ideas that prevail through all subsequent Indian literature, much of which will be fully comprehensible to those only who carry with them a knowledge of these ideas to its perusal. A study of the Upanishads is the starting-point in any intelligent study of Indian philosophy. As regards religion, the philosophy of the Upanishads is the ground-work of the various forms of Hinduism, and the Upanishads have been justly characterized by Goldstucker as “the basis of the enlightened faith of India.” ’
‘The philosophy of ancient India . . . is sublime, and it is puerile. It is marked at once by sagacity and by poverty, by daring independence and by grovelling superstition’ (p. 89).
‘The Upanishads are the loftiest utterances of Indian intelligence. They are the work of a rude age, a deteriorated race, and a barbarous and unprogressive community. Whatever value the reader may assign to the ideas they present, they are the highest product of the ancient Indian mind, and almost the only elements of interest in Indian literature, which is at every stage replete with them to saturation.’
Deussen, Paul. Das System des Vedanta. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1883, 550 pp.; 2d ed. 1906, 540 pp.
The standard European treatise on the Vedānta. Contains copious references to, and translated extracts from, the principal Upanishads. All the Upanishad quotations are conveniently listed.
— The foregoing translated:
The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana’s Brahma-Sutras and Çankara’s Commentary thereon, set forth as a Compendium of the Dogmatics of Brahmanism from the Standpoint of Çankara; Authorized Translation by Charles Johnston. Chicago, Open Court, 1912. 513 pp.
‘The great Upanishads are the deep, still mountain tarns, fed from the pure waters of the everlasting snows, lit by clear sunshine, or by night mirroring the high serenity of the stars . . . And now, in this our day, when the ancient waters are somewhat clogged by time, and their old course hidden and choked, you come as the Restorer, tracing the old holy streams, clearing the reservoir, making the primal waters of life potable for our own people and our own day . . . May the sunlit waters once more flow in life-restoring streams, bringing to the world the benediction of spiritual light.’
Bose, Ram Chandra. Hindu Philosophy, Popularly Explained: the Orthodox Systems. New York, Funk Wagnalls, 1884. 420 pp.
The first three chapters (pp. 1-95) present an extensive survey of the Upanishads, and references to these documents occur frequently elsewhere in the book.
A superficial account, without keen philosophical discernment, though quite reliable so far as it goes in facts.
‘The Upanishads are the sources not only of Hindu pantheism, but of Hindu philosophy in all its phases of development’ (p. 312).
‘The Upanishads were roughly handled, twisted and tortured by all classes of thinkers, both orthodox and heterodox, friend and foe. They were appealed to, not only by the Sankhyas in support of their apparently dualistic but really materialistic creed, not only by the Vaisheshikas in support of their theory of various kinds of atoms led into varieties of combination by unseen forces, but even by the champions of heterodoxy in favor of their anti-Vedic sentiments and theories’
Sreeram Lala. Vichar Sagar: The Metaphysics of the Upanishads, Translated. Calcutta, H. Dhole, 1885. 404 pp.
This is a translation into English of a Sanskrit compendium which, the Translator explains, ‘has made its way in the outlying districts of the Punjab; and every Sadhu who knows how to read and write receives instructions from his Guru on this very work, so that perusing it he learns all that is worth knowing of the Upanishads’
‘Thanks to the late Swamy Dayanand Saraswati and other allumini [!] there is an increasing activity noticeable everywhere for a study of our Shastras and what they teach. The impulse to this novel movement received no mean help from the Theosophical Society.
‘Thus then, if the present work would tend to increase the national spirituality, if it would be the means of inciting the active sympathies of our young men and old, and stimulate them to study our ancient writings and the faith they inculcate, if it would stem the tide of materialism and supplant it with the noble and high aspirations which Non-duality teaches, if it will suppress bad karma and incite the good of our fellow creatures, we would think ourselves highly gratified and amply repaid.’
Schroeder, Leopold von. Indiens Literatur und Cultur in historischer Entwicklung: Ein Cyklus von funfzig Vorlesungen, zugleich als Handbuch der indischen Literaturgeschichte, nebst zahlreichen, in deutscher Übersetzung mitgetheilten Proben aus indischen Schriftwerken. Leipzig, Haessel, 1887. 785 pp.
Lectures 15 and 16 (pp. 212-240) give a sketch of the philosophy of the Upanishads with illustrative extracts from Bṛih., Chānd., Īśā, Kaṭha, etc.
Whitney, W. D. Hindu Eschatology and the Kaṭha Upanishad. In Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 13 (1889), pp. ciii-cviii.
Dutt, Romesh Chunder. A History of Civilization in Ancient India, based on Sanskrit Literature. Calcutta, Thacker, 3 vols., 1889-1890; London, Trübner, 2 vols., 1893.
Chap. 9 of vol. 1 is devoted to ‘The Religious Doctrines of the Upanishads,’ and contains original translations from Chānd., Kena, Īśā, Bṛih., and Kaṭha. Interspersed throughout this volume are also various extracts from the Upanishads illustrating the civilization of their periods.
By one of the foremost of Indian litterateurs writing in English.
‘The monotheism of the Upanishads, which has been the monotheism of the Hindu religion ever since, recognizes God as the Universal Being. This is the great idea which is taught in the Upanishads in a hundred similes and stories and beautiful legends, which impart to the Upanishads their unique value in the literature of the world’
‘Who can, even in the present day, peruse these pious inquiries and fervent thoughts of a long buried past without feeling a new emotion in his heart, without seeing a new light before his eyes? The first recorded attempts to solve them [i. e. the mysteries of the unknown future] will ever have an abiding interest for every patriotic Hindu and for every thoughtful man’
Lanman, Charles Rockwell. The Beginnings of Hindu Pantheism. Cambridge, Mass., 1890. 25 pp.
By the Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University. A Presidential Address before the American Philological Association. A brief, but appreciatively discriminating, treatment, with illustrative extracts from the Upanishads.
‘A good critical text of all the old Upanishads, conveniently assembled in one volume, with a philologically accurate translation and various useful appendices, is still one of the pressing needs of Indology’
Dutt, Romesh Chandra. Ancient India. London, Longmans Green, 1893. 196 pp.
Assigns the date of the Upanishads to the Epic Age, 1400-1000 bc
‘Nothing is more fresh and life-giving than the earnest speculations which are known as the Upanishads’ (p. 49).
‘The Upanishads are among the most remarkable works in the literature of the world’ (p. 66).
‘Though in these ancient ideas we find much that is fanciful, and though they are clothed in quaint similes and legends, yet it is impossible not to be struck with the freshness, the earnestness and the vigour of thought which mark these yearnings after the truth’
Deussen, Paul. Elements of Metaphysics: A Guide to Truth. London, Macmillan, 1894. 337 pp.
Contains as an Appendix the author’s Address delivered before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which he concluded with this peroration: ‘The Vedānta in its unfalsified form is the strongest support of pure morality, is the greatest consolation in the sufferings of life and death. Indians, keep to it!’
Deussen, Paul. Erinnerungen an Indien. Kiel Leipzig, Lipsius Tischer, 1894. 254 pp.
Contains as an Appendix the author’s English Address ‘On the Philosophy of the Vedanta in its Relation to Occidental Metaphysics’ delivered before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, a quotation from which is made in the preceding entry.
Garbe, Richard. Die Samkhya-Philosophie: eine Darstellung des Indischen Rationalismus nach den Quellen. Leipzig, Haessel, 1894. 353 pp.
Contains a thorough discussion of the relation of the Upanishads to the Sāṅkhya system. By the foremost European authority on that philosophic system.
‘The influence of the Samkhya system on Brahmanism occurs first in the time which lies between the origin of those Upanishads which belong to the three older Vedas and the composition of the Katha, Maitri, Çvetaçvatara, Praçna and similar Upanishads’
‘The pre-Buddhistic Upanishads represent a time (perhaps from the eighth to the sixth centuries) in which there developed those ideas which became determinative of Indian thought in the later time’
The Theosophy of the Upanishads. London, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1896. 203 pp.
An attempt to expound modern theosophy as being the clear and systematic teaching of the Upanishads.
Apte, Raghunath N. The Doctrine of Māyā: Its Existence in the Vedāntic Sūtra, and Development in the later Vedānta. Bombay, 1896.
‘His conclusions are, that the doctrine of Māyā, although it had its germ in the Upanishads, does not exist in the Sūtras, and that it arose from the fourth century ad on a revival of Brāhmanism and vigorous speculation of Gaudapada and Śankara’
Slater, T. E. Studies in the Upanishads. Madras, Christian Literature Society for India, 1897. 74 pp.
‘I find in all their best and noblest thoughts a true religious ring, and a far-off presentiment of Christian truth; their finest passages having a striking parallelism to much of the teaching of the Christian Gospels and Epistles, and so supplying the Indian soil in which many seeds of true Christianity may spring’
Frazer, R. W. A Literary History of India. London, Unwin (New York, Scribners), 1897. 470 pp.
Chapter 6, ‘From Brahmanism to Buddhism,’ contains a brief account of the Upanishads, which, especially at pp. 99-113, sets forth their main contents in salient outline. It is a clear and comprehensive presentation of the connection of ideas—the progress of philosophic thought from the Vedas and Brāhmaṇas, the development and interrelations of speculations within the Upanishads themselves, and the preparation for the subsequent protest of Buddhism.
‘Nowhere in the history of the world’s thought can there be found more earnest efforts to seek out for suffering mankind some solution of the perplexing questions which surround his life than in those sedately and reverently expressed speculations of the awakened thought of India’
Rai, Dalpat. The Upanishads: An Introduction to their Study. Lahore, Arorbans Press, 1897. 118 pp.
‘I have only arranged, collected and compiled whatever I have thought would bring home to the minds of the impartial readers a true estimate of the value and character of these ancient relics of Aryan wisdom.’
Hopkins, E. W. The Religions of India. Boston, Ginn, 1898. 612 pp.
By the Professor of Sanskrit in Yale University. The most scholarly book in English on the large subject.
Chapter 10, ‘Brahmanic Pantheism—the Upanishads’ (pp. 216-241), presents an able sketch of the main religious conceptions of the Upanishads with abundant first-hand citations from the texts themselves.
Baynes, Herbert. Ideals of the East. London, Swan Sonnenschein, 1898. 99 pp.
Contains original verse-translations and expositions of choice quotations from Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Muhammadanism, and Christianity, classified according to four types of the ideal, viz. ethical, metaphysical, theosophical, and religious. Under the Theosophical Ideal are cited the Īśā and Māṇḍūkya Upanishads.
Perhaps no class of metaphysical literature is likely to exercise so great an influence on future schools of thought in Europe as those mystical products of the Indian mind known as the Upaniṣads’ (p. 42).
‘We shall never rightly appreciate such majestical Mantras of the aspiring Spirit until we strive to render them into verse’
Deussen, Paul. Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Religionen. Vol. 1, part 2: Die Philosophie der Upanishad’s. Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1899, 368 pp.; 2d edition, 1907, 401 pp. (including a valuable index).
— The foregoing translated into English:
The Religion and Philosophy of India: The Philosophy of the Upanishads. Edinburgh, Clark, 1906. 429 pp.
The most systematic and scholarly work on the subject yet produced, executed with a rare combination of linguistic and philosophic qualification for such a task.
‘The thoughts of the Vedānta became for India a permanent and characteristic spiritual atmosphere, which pervades all the products of the later literature. To every Indian Brâhman to-day the Upanishads are what the New Testament is to the Christian.’
‘Amongst the ancient Indians, whose consciousness of human solidarity, of common needs and common interests was but slightly developed, the sense of the objective worth of moral action (that is, the worth it possesses for others) is very inferior to ours, while their estimate of its subjective worth (that is, its significance for the actor himself) was advanced to a degree from which we may learn much’
Garbe, Richard. The Philosophy of Ancient India. Chicago, Open Court, 1899. 89 pp.
By the Professor of Sanskrit at Tübingen University. An excellent summary.
‘The Upanishads, those famous works which immediately upon their appearance in Europe filled the greatest thinkers of the Occident with admiration and enthusiasm . . . In the elder Upanishads the struggle for absolute knowledge has found an expression unique in its kind. There are indeed in these Upanishads many speculations over which we shake our heads in wonder, but the meditations keep recurring to the Brahman,—the world-soul, the Absolute, or “Ding an sich,” or however the word so full of content may be translated,—and culminate in the thought that the Atman, the inner self of man, is nothing less than the eternal and infinite Brahman. The language of the Upanishads is enlivened in such passages by a wonderful energy, which testifies to the elevated mood in which the thinkers of that time labored to proclaim the great mystery. New phrases, figures, and similes are constantly sought, in order to put into words what words are incapable of describing’
Müller, F. Max. The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy. London and New York, Longmans Green, 1899. 618 pp.
The section pp. 159-183 presents, with the help of some extended quotations, the fundamental doctrines of the Vedānta as taught in the Upanishads.
Griswold, Hervey D. Brahman: A Study in the History of Indian Philosophy. New York, Macmillan, 1900. 89 pp.
By the Professor of Philosophy, Forman Christian College, Lahore, India.
Chapter 3 (pp. 43-70) presents ‘The Doctrine of Brahman in the Upanishads: A. Remarks on the Sources. B. Doctrine. C. Consequences, I. Religious, II. Ethical, III. Eschatological, IV. Philosophical.’
A brief but compact exposition. The product of philosophical acumen as well as of thorough general scholarship on the subject. Benefited, too, by a sympathetic, but discriminating, appreciation, resulting from personal contacts in India and from a broad knowledge of comparative philosophy and comparative religion. For its compass, it is noteworthy as a clear, succinct introduction to the Upanishads, and as a summary of their main conceptions.
Royce, Josiah. The World and the Individual; vol. 1, entitled Four Historical Conceptions of Being. New York, Macmillan, 1900. 588 pp.
By the late Professor of Philosophy in Harvard University, one of the most eminent modern philosophers of the West, whose own system of idealistic monism contains some of the features of the Vedānta philosophy of India.
Chapters 4 and 5 (pp. 141-222) present the mystical method of interpreting reality, which is a characteristic feature of the Upanishads.
Contains some translations of portions of the Upanishads which were made especially for this book by the author’s colleague, Charles R. Lanman, Professor of Sanskrit in Harvard University.
Macdonell, Arthur A. A History of Sanskrit Literature. London, Heinemann (New York, Appleton), 1900. 472 pp.
By the eminent Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University. Chapter 8 on ‘The Brāhmaṇas’ contains (at pp. 218-243) an excellent general account and summary of the several important Upanishads.
Contains the very first published reproductions of metrical portions of the Upanishads in the form of English lines which are syllabically commensurate with the Sanskrit originals.
‘It must not of course be supposed that the Upanishads, either as a whole or individually, offer a complete and consistent conception of the world logically developed. They are rather a mixture of half-poetical, half-philosophical fancies, of dialogues and disputations, dealing tentatively with metaphysical questions. Their speculations were only reduced to a system in the Vedānta philosophy’
Geden, Alfred S. Studies in Eastern Religions. London, Kelly, 1900. 378 pp.
The chapter on the Upanishads (pp. 82-104) contains a brief, but clear and comprehensive, sketch of these documents.
‘It is by the Upanishads alone that, in the ultimate resort, native Indian students whether of philosophy or of religion establish their reasonings and justify their opinions. It is from them that all attempts at religious reform from within have taken their rise in India; and to them all orthodox native reformers have turned, as representing their religion in its purest, fairest form’
‘There is, however, in this literature [beside speculation] a large element of earnest religious and practical teaching, of lofty exhortation to morality and devotion, of commendation of self-denial and soberness and truth. Beyond a doubt it is this ethical content that has given to the Upanishads their unique position in the history of religious thought in India, the most widely known and influential of the sacred books of the Hindus. It was Rammohun Roy, perhaps the greatest and most enlightened of native Indian reformers, who declared that in his judgment a selection from the Upanishads, published and largely circulated, would contribute more than anything else to the moral and religious elevation of his fellow countrymen. These books with the doctrines derived from them are, if not the only, certainly the main, source from which Buddhism has derived those precepts of moral law and conduct which have been so justly commended’
Upanishadas, or An Account of their Contents and Nature. Calcutta, Society for the Resuscitation of Indian Literature, H. C. Dass, Elysium Press, 1900. 99 pp.
‘In this work the compiler claims no originality. He has simply arranged the subjects culled from the writings of eminent orientalists. In this work he is particularly indebted to the publications of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (Dr. Röer’s translations), Babu Sitanath Datta, the annotator of the Upanishadas, Professor Maxmuller [!], Colebrooke and other eminent orientalists. In the appendix we have given Dr. Roer’s translation of two most important Upanishadas [part of the Kaṭha and the Īśā] in order to give our readers an idea of the nature of this class of work.’
Ewing, Arthur H. The Hindu Conception of the Function of Breath: A Study in Early Hindu Psycho-physics. Part 1, in Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 22 (1901), pp. 249-308. Part 2, Allahabad, Liddell’s Printing Works, 1903, 48 pp.
A complete collation and attempted interpretation of all the data in the Vedas, Brāhmaṇas, and Upanishads concerning the various breaths
Hopkins, E. W. Notes on the Çvetāçvatara, c. In Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 22 (1901), pp. 380-387.
Takes issue at three points with Professor Deussen’s theory concerning the authorship of this Upanishad and concerning its relation to the Sāṅkhya system of philosophy.
Ramakrishnananda. The Philosophy of the Upanishads. In Brahmavadin, vol. 7, pp. 314-328, Madras, 1902.
Slater, T. E. The Higher Hinduism in Relation to Christianity. London, Elliot Stock, 1902; 2d edition, 1903. 298 pp.
Chapter 6 (pp. 69-84) deals with ‘The Upanishads and Vedantism.’ The quotations are taken from Max Muller’s translation.
Oldenberg, Hermann. Die Literatur des Alten Indien. Stuttgart Berlin, Cotta, 1903. 299 pp.
Deals at pp. 62-83 with the intellectual and social culture of the age of the Upanishads. Gives a few translated extracts.
Abhedananda, Swami. Vedanta Philosophy, Self-Knowledge. New York, Vedanta Society, 1905. 178 pp.
By a leader of the Vedānta cult in the United States.
An attempt to present the conceptions of the Vedānta philosophy, especially as contained in the Upanishads, in terms of modern thought.
Deussen, Paul. Outline of the Vedanta System of Philosophy according to Shankara, translated by J. H. Woods and C. B. Runkle. New York, Grafton Press, 1906. 45 pp.
This consists solely of a translation from the original German of Appendix I, entitled ‘Kurze Übersicht der Vedantalehre,’ of the author’s Das System des Vedanta, pp. 487-517. (Translated again in Johnston’s English translation of the entire book entitled The System of the Vedanta, at pp. 453-478.)
‘On the tree of Indian wisdom there is no fairer flower than the Upanishads, and no finer fruit than the Vedanta philosophy. This system grew out of the teachings of the Upanishads, and was brought to its consummate form by the great Shankara. Even to this day Shankara’s system represents the common belief of nearly all thoughtful Hindus, and deserves to be widely studied in the Occident.’
Suresvaracharya. Sambandhu-Vartika: A metrical expansion of the introductory portion of Sankara Acharya’s commentary on the Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad, translated into English. Benares, Lazarus, 1906. 167 pp.
Deussen, Paul. Outlines of Indian Philosophy, with an Appendix on the Philosophy of the Vedanta in its Relation to Occidental Metaphysics. Berlin, Curtius, 1907. 70 pp.
Contains (pp. 21-33) a section on ‘The Philosophy of the Upanishads.’ These ‘Outlines’ are reprinted from their original appearance in the Indian Antiquary in 1900 (not in 1902, which is the date stated in the book).
The Appendix contains an Address originally delivered before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Feb. 23, 1893. This Address appears also as an Appendix in the same author’s Elements of Metaphysics.
‘The philosophy of the Indians must become, for every one who takes any interest in the investigation of philosophical truth, an object of the highest interest; for Indian Philosophy is, and will be, the only possible parallel to what so far the Europeans have considered as philosophy.’
Oltramare, Paul. L’Histoire des Idées théosophiques dans l’Inde. Vol. 1: La Théosophie brahmanique. Paris, Leroux, 1907. 382 pp.
The second part (pp. 63-131) presents a sketch of ‘The Formation of Theosophic Ideas in the Upanishads.’
This is the most important French work on the subject, superseding Regnaud’s Matériaux.
Barnett, L. D. Brahma-Knowledge: an Outline of the Philosophy of the Vedānta, as set forth by the Upanishads and by Śankara. London, Murray, 1907. 113 pp. (The Wisdom of the East Series.)
Besant, Mrs. Annie. The Wisdom of the Upanishads. Benares, Theosophical Publishing Society, 1907. 103 pp.
Rumball, Edwin A. Sin in the Upanishads. In Open Court, vol. 21, pp. 609-614, Chicago, 1907.
‘The Upanishads seek a sinless ideal, like the other religious systems’ (p. 612). But the specific aims and methods are different.
Holmes, W. H. G. The Upanishads and the Christian Gospel. Madras, Christian Literature Society, 1908. 70 pp.
Bloomfield, Maurice. The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India, from the Rig Veda to the Upanishads. New York London, Putnam, 1908. 300 pp.
Lecture 6 (pp. 249-289) presents ‘The Final Philosophy of the Veda’ together with quotations from the Upanishads.
More, Paul Elmer. The Forest Philosophy of India. A chapter in Shelburne Essays, vol. 6, ‘Studies in Religious Dualism,’ New York London, Putnam, 1909, pp. 1-45.
A review and criticism of the philosophy of the Upanishads, starting with a review of Geden’s translation of Deussen’s The Philosophy and Religion of India: The Philosophy of the Upanishads.
Bhandarkar, Sir Ramkrishna Govind. Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, and Minor Religious Systems. Strassburg, Trübner, 1913. 169 pp. (Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie und Altertumskunde.)
‘It is generally believed that the Upaniṣads teach a system of Pantheism; but a closer examination will show that they teach not one, but various systems of doctrines as regards the nature of God, man and the world, and the relations between them. The religio-philosophic systems of modern times, which are mutually inconsistent, quote texts from the Upaniṣads as an authority for their special doctrines’
Geden, Alfred S. Studies in the Religions of the East. London, Kelly, 1913. 904 pp.
Contains (at pp. 255-301) a section on the Upanishads.
An enlargement of the author’s earlier Studies in Eastern Religions.
Jacobi, Hermann Georg. Über die ältere Auffassung der Upaniṣad-lehren. In Festschrift Ernst Windisch zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, Leipzig, Harrassowitz, 1914, pp. 153-157.
Points out some of Śaṅkara’s later re-interpretations of Upanishad teachings which are quite different from the original meaning.
Tagore, Rabindranath. Sādhanā, the Realisation of Life. New York, Macmillan, 1914. 164 pp.
A collection of papers by the most eminent of living Indian poets and essayists, who has received an award of the Nobel Prize in English Literature.
This volume presents what is fundamentally the pantheistic philosophy of life. But it contains considerable, though probably unwitting, infusions of theistic and ethical elements which are not a part of pure pantheism—as in the manner of the great English poet Tennyson’s re-interpretation in his ‘Higher Pantheism.’
The numerous original translations from the Upanishads have been made, not for a philological, but for a homiletical purpose. Such a method may be serviceable in the exposition of a practical religious education, but it needs to be distinguished from the method of exact translation which is used in careful linguistic scholarship. Such a general disavowal is, indeed, made in the very first sentence of the preface.
‘Perhaps it is well for me to explain that the subject-matter of the papers published in this book has not been philosophically treated, nor has it been approached from the scholar’s point of view. The writer has been brought up in a family where texts from the Upanishads are used in daily worship . . . To me the verses of the Upanishads and the teachings of Buddha have ever been things of the spirit, and therefore endowed with boundless vital growth; and I have used them, both in my own life and in my preaching, as being instinct with individual meaning.’
Frazer, R. W. Indian Thought, Past and Present. London, Unwin, 1915. 339 pp.
Chap. 3 (pp. 44-72) deals with the Upanishads.
‘On these early Upanishads rests almost all of the philosophic, and much of the religious, thought of India to-day’
‘The answers of the Upanishads are held by orthodox thought in India not to rest solely on abstract metaphysical reasoning, but to be divine revelations. . . . Orthodox thought in India holds that the nature of God is known, and can be explained, only through the correct interpretation of texts of Vedas and Upanishads’
Macnicol, Nicol. Indian Theism Oxford University Press, 1915. 292 pp.
Chapter 3 (pp. 42-61) deals with ‘The Theism of the Upanishads.’
Oldenberg, Hermann. Die Lehre der Upanishaden und die Anfänge des Buddhismus. Gottingen, Vandenhoeck Ruprecht, 1915. 374 pp.
Part 1 deals with the older Upanishads; Part 2, with the later Upanishads and the beginnings of the Sāṅkhya and Yoga philosophies; Part 3, with the beginnings of Buddhism.
This book is more than an exposition of the contents of the Upanishads. It is especially valuable for its tracing of the historical connections of the Upanishads with the other systems besides the Vedānta, which of course is the system most closely related.
Pratt, James B. India and its Faiths. Boston New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1915. 483 pp.
By the Professor of Philosophy at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
An unusually interesting and appreciative, yet fair and discriminating, book. Discusses the Upanishads at pp. 72-79 and elsewhere in the eight chapters devoted to Hinduism.
‘The Upanishads, like the Bible, are essentially religious, rather than systematically philosophical’
‘They were the result of real philosophical discussion and logical thought; only the conclusions to which the various thinkers came were not fully carried out, and not fully correlated with each other’
‘The directness with which the Upanishads speak to the Indian heart is finely illustrated in the Autobiography of Devendranath Tagore (the father of the poet). He had long been seeking inner peace in vain, when one day a page of the Īśā Upanishad blew past him. He had never read any of the Upanishads before, and the effect of this one page was the transformation of his whole life and the new-directing of all his energies. The message from the ancient book came to him as a divine answer specially sent for his salvation . . . “Oh, what a blessed day that was for me!” ’
Urquhart, W. S. The Upanishads and Life. Calcutta, Oxford University Press and Association Press, 1916. 150 pp.
Edgerton, Franklin. Sources of the Filosofy of the Upaniṣads. In Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 36 (1916), pp. 197-204.
By the Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Pennsylvania.
Radhakrishnan, S. The Reign of Religion in Contemporary Philosophy. London, Macmillan, 1920. 463 pp.
In a book notable for acquaintance with modern philosophy in the West, the Professor of Philosophy in the University of Mysore devotes his final chapter to ‘Suggestions of an Approach to Reality based on the Upanishads.’ The concluding sentence of the book declares: ‘The Upanishads being the earliest form of speculative idealism in the world, all that is good and great in subsequent philosophy looks like an unconscious commentary on the Upanishadic ideal, showing how free and expansive and how capable of accommodating within itself all forms of truth that ideal is’
Carpenter, Edward. Pagan and Christian Creeds: their Origin and Meaning. London, Allen Unwin, 1920. 318 pp.
Beside numerous references to the Upanishads, there is an ‘Appendix on the Teachings of the Upanishads’