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The '''Upanishads''' ({{IPAc-en|ʊ|ˈ|p|ʌ|n|ɪ|ʃ|ə|d|z}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upanishad "Upanishad"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140920223325/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upanishad |date=20 September 2014 }}. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> {{lang-sa|उपनिषद्}}, {{IAST3|Upaniṣad}}, {{IPA-sa|ˈʊpɐnɪʂɐd|pron}}) are [[Vedic period|late Vedic]] and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions"{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=xxiii}} and the emergence of the central religious concepts of [[Hinduism]].{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=xxiii}}{{refn|group=note|name="Central concepts"}} They are the most recent addition to the [[Vedas]], the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and deal with meditation, [[Indian philosophy|philosophy]], [[consciousness]], and [[Ontology|ontological]] knowledge. Earlier parts of the Vedas dealt with mantras, benedictions, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices.{{sfnp|Flood|1996|p=35–39}}<ref name="A Bhattacharya 2006 pp. 8–14">A Bhattacharya (2006), ''Hindu Dharma: Introduction to Scriptures and Theology'', {{ISBN|978-0595384556}}, pp. 8–14; George M. Williams (2003), Handbook of Hindu Mythology, [[Oxford University Press]], {{ISBN|978-0195332612}}, p. 285</ref><ref name="Jan Gonda 1975">Jan Gonda (1975), ''Vedic Literature: (Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas)'', Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, {{ISBN|978-3447016032}}</ref>
While among the most important literature in the history of Indian religions and culture, the Upanishads document a wide variety of "rites, incantations, and esoteric knowledge"{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=51}} departing from Vedic ritualism and interpreted in various ways in the later commentarial traditions. Almost all upanishads Mentions that Lord Vishnu is supreme God.The Upanishads are widely known, and their diverse ideas, interpreted in various ways, informed later traditions of Hinduism.{{refn|group=note|name="Central concepts"}} The central concern of all Upanishads is to discover the relations between ritual, cosmic realities (including gods), and the human body/person,{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=lii}} postulating [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Ātman]] and [[Brahman]] as the "summit of the hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe,"{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=lv}}{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=59}}{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}} but various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}}{{refn|group=note|name=Olivelle_plurality}}
Around 108 Upanishads are known, of which the first dozen or so are the oldest and most important and are referred to as the principal or main (''[[mukhya]]'') Upanishads.<ref name=stephenphillips/><ref>E Easwaran (2007), The Upanishads, {{ISBN|978-1586380212}}, pages 298-299</ref> The ''mukhya'' Upanishads are found mostly in the concluding part of the ''[[Brahmanas]]'' and ''[[Aranyakas]]''{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=56}} and were, for centuries, memorized by each generation and passed down [[oral tradition|orally]]. The ''mukhya'' Upanishads predate the [[Common Era]], but there is no scholarly consensus on their date, or even on which ones are pre- or post-Buddhist. The [[Brhadaranyaka Upanishad|''Brhadaranyaka'']] is seen as particularly ancient by modern scholars.<ref name=olivelleintro/>{{sfn|King|1995|p=52}}<ref name="Bronkhorst">Bronkhorst, Johannes (2007). ''Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India'', pp. 258-259. BRILL.</ref> Of the remainder, 95 Upanishads are part of the [[Muktikā]] canon, composed from about the last centuries of 1st-millennium BCE through about 15th-century CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}}{{Sfn|Flood|1996|p=96}} New Upanishads, beyond the 108 in the Muktika canon, continued to be composed through the early modern and modern era,{{sfn|Ranade|1926|p=12}} though often dealing with subjects that are unconnected to the Vedas.{{sfn|Varghese|2008|p=101}} The ''mukhya'' Upanishads, along with the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' and the [[Brahmasutra]] (known collectively as the ''[[Prasthanatrayi]]''),{{sfn|Ranade|1926|p=205}} are interpreted in divergent ways in the several later schools of [[Vedanta]].{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}}{{refn|group=note|Vedanta has been interpreted as the "last chapters, parts of the [[Vedas|Veda]]" and alternatively as "object, the highest purpose of the Veda".}}<ref>Max Müller, [https://archive.org/stream/upanishads01ml#page/n93/mode/2up ''The Upanishads''], Part 1, Oxford University Press, page LXXXVI footnote 1</ref>
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