Editing Upanishads (section)

===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/>