Talk:Importance, Position, Versions of Īshāvāsya Upaniṣhad

From Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia

By Vishal Agarwal

In most lists of Upaniṣhads, Īshāvāsya Upaniṣhad is mentioned first. Several reasons could be conjectured for this:

  1. Of all the major Upaniṣhads, it is the only one occurring in the Saṃhitā portion of the Vedas. All others are embedded in Brāhmaṇa and Āraṇyaka portions of the Vedas or survive as independent texts. The Vedic Saṃhitās are considered the most authoritative portion of the Vedas and are accepted as divinely revealed[1] who do not regard the other two portions (Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas) as Divine in origin.
  2. The text gives a summary of all the major doctrines of the Upaniṣhads. Its scope is quite broad, despite its short length.
  3. Īshāvāsya is often shortened as ‘Īsha,’ and these lists typically start with names that are short and easy to pronounce (‘Īsha-Kena-Katha….’).

Several mantras of the Upaniṣhad are also found quoted in other texts like the Brihadāraṇyaka and Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣhads, along with added comments. Since these comments are explanations of the Īshāvāsya mantras by ancient Rishis, they will be pointed out at each corresponding Mantra.

As the Shukla-Yajurveda Saṃhitā itself exists in two separate recensions today, namely the Mādhyandina and the Kāṇva, which have very slight differences among them, the Īshāvāsya Upaniṣhad also exists in two versions, forming the last or the fortieth chapter[2] in both:

  1. The Kāṇva version prevailed traditionally in peninsular India and has eighteen mantras[3]. Shankarāchārya commented on this version, and most of the ancient and modern commentaries are on this version. In fact, Īshāvāsya Upaniṣhad is typically taken to mean this version and not the next one.
  2. The Mādhyandina version has seventeen mantras, whose order is slightly different from the eighth mantra onwards.

The first eight mantras occur in the same order with slight textual differences from the Kāṇva version. We will use the Kāṇva version as the default one and point to differences in the Mādhyandina text in our commentary.[4]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ For example, the followers of Arya Samaj.
  2. ↑ In the Orissan manuscripts of Kāṇva Saṃhitā, however, chapters 35-39 are split in a different way to form chapters 35-40, and therefore, the Upaniṣhad is the forty-first chapter. But it has no differences from the text found in nonOrissan manuscripts as far as the Upaniṣhad is concerned. See P Acharya (1964).
  3. ↑ The followers of Dvaita Vedānta school, founded by Madhvāchārya, however, split the 18 mantras differently (splitting mantras 16 and 17 each into two halves), to make them 20 mantras. Likewise, Upaniṣhad Brahmendra (18th19th cent CE) splits mantra 17 into two halves with the first half numbered 17 and the second numbered mantra 18. Therefore, he considers the Kāṇva version as comprised of 19 mantras and says so clearly too that he is commenting on a text of 19 verses. There are no other differences, and we will ignore this numbering here. See Yajneshwar Shastri and Sunanda Shastri (2013), p. xxxix.
  4. ↑ Yajneshwar Shastri and Sunanda Shastri (2013), pp. xxxviii-xxxix
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