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Mandukya Upanishad
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Mandukya Upanishad
The Mandukya Upanishad (Sanskrit: माण्डूक्योपनिषद्, IAST: Māṇḍūkyopaniṣad) is the shortest of all the Upanishads, and is assigned to Atharvaveda. It is listed as number 6 in the Muktikā canon of 108 Upanishads.
It is in prose, consisting of twelve short verses, and is associated with a Rig Vedic school of scholars. It discusses the syllable Aum; adds turiya to the three states of consciousness; and asserts that Aum is Brahman – which is the Whole – and that Brahman is this self (ātman).
The Mandukya Upanishad is recommended in the Muktikā Upanishad, in a dialogue between two of the most important characters of the Ramayana, Rama and Hanuman, as the one Upanishad that alone is sufficient for knowledge to gain moksha, and as sixth in its list of ten principal Upanishads. The text is also notable for inspiring Gaudapada's Mandukya Karika a classic for the Vedanta school of Hinduism. The Mandukya Upanishad is among the often cited texts on chronology and the philosophical relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism.
The root of Mandukya is sometimes considered as Manduka (Sanskrit: मण्डूक) which has several meanings. Some of its meanings include "frog", "a particular breed of horse", "the sole of horse's hoof", or, "Spiritual distress" Some writers have suggested that "frog" is the etymological root for Mandukya Upanishad.
Another root for the Upanishad's name is Mānduka (Sanskrit: माण्डूक) which literally is "a Vedic school" or means "a teacher". Paul Deussen states the etymological roots of Mandukya Upanishad to be a "half lost school of Rigveda". This school may be related to the scholar named Hrasva Māṇḍūkeya, whose theory of semivowels is discussed in Aitareya Aranyaka of Rigveda.
Applying the rules of sandhi, the text is also called Mandukyopanishad.
The chronology of Mandukya Upanishad, like that of other Upanishads, is uncertain and contested. The chronology is difficult to resolve because all opinions rest on scanty evidence, an analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies.
Several academics have dated the Mandukya Upanishad to the early centuries of the Common Era. The Japanese scholar of Vedic, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, Hajime Nakamura, dated the Mandukya Upanishad to "about the first or second centuries A.D." The scholar of South Asian religions, Richard E. King too dated the Mandukya Upanishad at the first two centuries of the Common Era. Indologist and Sanskrit scholar Patrick Olivelle states, "we have the two late prose Upanisads, the Prasna and the Mandukya, which cannot be much older than the beginning of the common era".
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Mandukya Upanishad
The Mandukya Upanishad (Sanskrit: माण्डूक्योपनिषद्, IAST: Māṇḍūkyopaniṣad) is the shortest of all the Upanishads, and is assigned to Atharvaveda. It is listed as number 6 in the Muktikā canon of 108 Upanishads.
It is in prose, consisting of twelve short verses, and is associated with a Rig Vedic school of scholars. It discusses the syllable Aum; adds turiya to the three states of consciousness; and asserts that Aum is Brahman – which is the Whole – and that Brahman is this self (ātman).
The Mandukya Upanishad is recommended in the Muktikā Upanishad, in a dialogue between two of the most important characters of the Ramayana, Rama and Hanuman, as the one Upanishad that alone is sufficient for knowledge to gain moksha, and as sixth in its list of ten principal Upanishads. The text is also notable for inspiring Gaudapada's Mandukya Karika a classic for the Vedanta school of Hinduism. The Mandukya Upanishad is among the often cited texts on chronology and the philosophical relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism.
The root of Mandukya is sometimes considered as Manduka (Sanskrit: मण्डूक) which has several meanings. Some of its meanings include "frog", "a particular breed of horse", "the sole of horse's hoof", or, "Spiritual distress" Some writers have suggested that "frog" is the etymological root for Mandukya Upanishad.
Another root for the Upanishad's name is Mānduka (Sanskrit: माण्डूक) which literally is "a Vedic school" or means "a teacher". Paul Deussen states the etymological roots of Mandukya Upanishad to be a "half lost school of Rigveda". This school may be related to the scholar named Hrasva Māṇḍūkeya, whose theory of semivowels is discussed in Aitareya Aranyaka of Rigveda.
Applying the rules of sandhi, the text is also called Mandukyopanishad.
The chronology of Mandukya Upanishad, like that of other Upanishads, is uncertain and contested. The chronology is difficult to resolve because all opinions rest on scanty evidence, an analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies.
Several academics have dated the Mandukya Upanishad to the early centuries of the Common Era. The Japanese scholar of Vedic, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, Hajime Nakamura, dated the Mandukya Upanishad to "about the first or second centuries A.D." The scholar of South Asian religions, Richard E. King too dated the Mandukya Upanishad at the first two centuries of the Common Era. Indologist and Sanskrit scholar Patrick Olivelle states, "we have the two late prose Upanisads, the Prasna and the Mandukya, which cannot be much older than the beginning of the common era".
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