Editing Upanishads (section)

==Development==

===Authorship===
The authorship of most Upanishads is unknown. [[Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan]] states, "almost all the early literature of India was anonymous, we do not know the names of the authors of the Upanishads".<ref name=sradha22>S Radhakrishnan, [https://archive.org/stream/PrincipalUpanishads/129481965-The-Principal-Upanishads-by-S-Radhakrishnan#page/n25/mode/2up The Principal Upanishads] George Allen & Co., 1951, pages 22, Reprinted as {{ISBN|978-8172231248}}</ref> The ancient Upanishads are embedded in the Vedas, the oldest of Hinduism's religious scriptures, which some traditionally consider to be ''[[apauruṣeya]]'', which means "not of a man, superhuman"<ref>Vaman Shivaram Apte, [http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/~tjun/sktdic/ ''The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150515160048/http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/~tjun/sktdic/ |date=15 May 2015 }}, see apauruSeya</ref> and "impersonal, authorless".<ref>D Sharma, Classical Indian Philosophy: A Reader, Columbia University Press, ISBN, pages 196-197</ref><ref>Jan Westerhoff (2009), Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka: A Philosophical Introduction, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195384963}}, page 290</ref><ref>Warren Lee Todd (2013), The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva: A Selfless Response to an Illusory World, {{ISBN|978-1409466819}}, page 128</ref> The Vedic texts assert that they were skillfully created by ''[[Rishi]]s'' (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.<ref name=scharfe>Hartmut Scharfe (2002), Handbook of Oriental Studies, BRILL Academic, {{ISBN|978-9004125568}}, pages 13-14</ref>

The various philosophical theories in the early Upanishads have been attributed to famous sages such as [[Yajnavalkya]], [[Uddalaka Aruni]], [[Shvetaketu]], [[Sandilya (Rishi)|Shandilya]], Aitareya, Balaki, [[Pippalada]], and [[Sanatkumara]].<ref name=sradha22/>{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|pp=59-60}} Women, such as Maitreyi and [[Gargi Vachaknavi|Gargi]], participate in the dialogues and are also credited in the early Upanishads.<ref>Ellison Findly (1999), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25002352 Women and the Arahant Issue in Early Pali Literature] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604033550/http://www.jstor.org/stable/25002352 |date=4 June 2016 }}, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 15, No. 1, pages 57-76</ref> There are some exceptions to the anonymous tradition of the Upanishads. The [[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]], for example, includes closing credits to sage ''Shvetashvatara'', and he is considered the author of the Upanishad.<ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 301-304</ref>

Many scholars believe that early Upanishads were interpolated<ref>For example, see: [https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n327/mode/2up/search/interpolation Kaushitaki Upanishad] Robert Hume (Translator), Oxford University Press, page 306 footnote 2</ref> and expanded over time. There are differences within manuscripts of the same Upanishad discovered in different parts of South Asia, differences in non-Sanskrit version of the texts that have survived, and differences within each text in terms of meter,<ref>Max Müller, {{Google books|l1ApAAAAYAAJ|The Upanishads|page=PR72}}, Oxford University Press, page LXXII</ref> style, grammar and structure.<ref>Patrick Olivelle (1998), Unfaithful Transmitters, Journal of Indian Philosophy, April 1998, Volume 26, Issue 2, pages 173-187;<br />Patrick Olivelle (2014), The Early Upanishads, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195124354}}, pages 583-640</ref><ref>WD Whitney, The Upanishads and Their Latest Translation, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 7, No. 1, pages 1-26;<br />F Rusza (2010), The authorlessness of the philosophical sūtras, Acta Orientalia, Volume 63, Number 4, pages 427-442</ref> The existing texts are believed to be the work of many authors.<ref>Mark Juergensmeyer et al. (2011), Encyclopedia of Global Religion, SAGE Publications, {{ISBN|978-0761927297}}, page 1122</ref>

===Chronology===
Scholars are uncertain about when the Upanishads were composed.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=12-13}} The chronology of the early Upanishads is difficult to resolve, states philosopher and [[Sanskritist]] Stephen Phillips,<ref name="stephenphillips">Stephen Phillips (2009), ''Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0231144858}}, pp. 25-29 and Chapter 1.</ref> because all opinions rest on scanty evidence and analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, and are driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies. Indologist [[Patrick Olivelle]] says that "in spite of claims made by some, in reality, any dating of these documents [early Upanishads] that attempts a precision closer than a few centuries is as stable as a house of cards".<ref name="olivelleintro">Patrick Olivelle (2014), ''The Early Upanishads,'' Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195124354}}, pages 12-14.</ref>

Some scholars have tried to analyse similarities between Hindu Upanishads and Buddhist literature to establish chronology for the Upanishads.{{sfn|King|1995|p=52}} Precise dates are impossible, and most scholars give only broad ranges encompassing various centuries. [[Gavin Flood]] states that "the Upanisads are not a homogeneous group of texts. Even the older texts were composed over a wide expanse of time from about 600 to 300 BCE."<ref>Flood, Gavin D. (2018). ''An Introduction to Hinduism'', p. 40, Cambridge University Press.</ref> Stephen Phillips places the early or "principal" Upanishads in the 800 to 300 BCE range.<ref name="stephenphillips" />

[[Patrick Olivelle]], a Sanskrit [[Philology|Philologist]] and [[Indology|Indologist]], gives the following chronology for the early Upanishads, also called the [[Principal Upanishads]]:{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=12-13}}<ref name="olivelleintro" />
* The [[Brhadaranyaka Upanishad|''Brhadaranyaka'']] and the [[Chandogya Upanishad|''Chandogya'']] are the two earliest Upanishads. They are edited texts, some of whose sources are much older than others. The two texts are pre-Buddhist; they may be placed in the 7th to 6th centuries BCE, give or take a century or so.{{sfn|Olivelle|p=xxxvi|1998}}{{sfn|King|1995|p=52}}
* The three other early prose Upanishads—''Taittiriya, Aitareya'', and ''Kausitaki'' come next; all are probably pre-Buddhist and can be assigned to the 6th to 5th centuries BCE.<ref>Patrick Olivelle (2014), ''The Early Upanishads,'' Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195124354}}, pp. 12-13.</ref>
* The Kena is the oldest of the verse Upanishads followed by probably the Katha, Isa, [[Shvetashvatara Upanishad|Svetasvatara]], and Mundaka. All these Upanishads were composed probably in the last few centuries BCE.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Upanishad|title=Upanishad &#124; Hindu religious text &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|date=23 May 2023 }}</ref> According to Olivelle, "All exhibit strong [[Theism|theistic]] tendencies and are probably the earliest literary products of the theistic tradition, whose later literature includes the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas."<ref>Patrick Olivelle (2014), ''The Early Upanishads,'' Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195124354}}, p. 13.</ref> 
* The two late prose Upanishads, the Prasna and the Mandukya, cannot be much older than the beginning of the common era.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=12-13}}<ref name="olivelleintro" />
Meanwhile, the Indologist [[Johannes Bronkhorst]] argues for a later date for the Upanishads than has generally been accepted. Bronkhorst places even the oldest of the Upanishads, such as the ''Brhadaranyaka'' as possibly still being composed at "a date close to [[Kātyāyana|Katyayana]] and [[Mahābhāṣya|Patañjali]] [the grammarian]" (i.e., {{circa}} 2nd century BCE).<ref name="Bronkhorst" />

The later Upanishads, numbering about 95, also called minor Upanishads, are dated from the late 1st-millennium BCE to mid 2nd-millennium CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}} [[Gavin Flood]] dates many of the twenty [[Yoga]] Upanishads to be probably from the 100 BCE to 300 CE period.{{Sfn|Flood|1996|p=96}} [[Patrick Olivelle]] and other scholars date seven of the twenty [[Sannyasa#Sannyasa Upanishads|Sannyasa Upanishads]] to likely have been complete sometime between the last centuries of the 1st-millennium BCE to 300 CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}} About half of the Sannyasa Upanishads were likely composed in 14th- to 15th-century CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}}

===Geography===
[[File:Late Vedic Culture (1100-500 BCE).png|thumb|400px|right|Geography of the Late Vedic Period]]
The general area of the composition of the early Upanishads is considered as northern India. The region is bounded on the west by the upper Indus valley, on the east by lower Ganges region, on the north by the Himalayan foothills, and on the south by the Vindhya mountain range.<ref name=olivelleintro/> Scholars are reasonably sure that the early Upanishads were produced at the geographical center of ancient Brahmanism, [[Kuru Kingdom|Kuru]]-[[Panchala]], and [[Kosala]]-[[Videha]], a "frontier region" of Brahmanism, together with the areas immediately to the south and west of these.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=xxxvii-xxxix}} This region covers modern [[Bihar]], [[Nepal]], [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[Uttarakhand]], [[Himachal Pradesh]], [[Haryana]], eastern [[Rajasthan]], and northern [[Madhya Pradesh]].<ref name=olivelleintro/>

While significant attempts have been made recently to identify the exact locations of the individual Upanishads, the results are tentative. Witzel identifies the center of activity in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as the area of Videha, whose king, Janaka, features prominently in the Upanishad.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=xxxviii}} The Chandogya Upanishad was probably composed in a more western than eastern location in the Indian subcontinent, possibly somewhere in the western region of the Kuru-Panchala country.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=xxxix}}

Compared to the Principal Upanishads, the new Upanishads recorded in the {{IAST|Muktikā}} belong to an entirely different region, probably southern India, and are considerably relatively recent.{{sfn|Deussen|1908|pp=35–36}} In the fourth chapter of the Kaushitaki Upanishad, a location named Kashi (modern [[Varanasi]]) is mentioned.<ref name=olivelleintro/>