Upanishads, Upanishads

The Upanishads have exerted an important influence on the rest of Hindu Philosophy, and were collectively considered one of the 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written by the British poet Martin Seymour-Smith.

The Muktika Upanishad (predates 1656) contains a list of 108 canonical Upanishads Chapter: VEDIC LITERATURE AND UPANISHADS. p. 19: "..according to the Vedas to which they are supposed to belong, ... The muktika list of 108 upanishad is as follows:" and lists itself as the final one. Although there are a wide variety of philosophical positions propounded in the Upanishads, commentators since Shankara have usually followed him in seeing idealist monism as the dominant one. Randall Collins, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change.

The mystical nature and intense philosophical bent of the Upanishads has led to their explication in numerous manners, giving birth to three main schools of Vedanta. Shankara's exegesis of the Upanishads does not describe Brahman as the God in a monotheistic sense. His philosophy is named advaita, "not two" as opposed to dvaita, founded by Madhvacharya, which holds that Brahman is ultimately a personal God, to be aligned with Vishnu, or Krishna ( brahmano hi pratisthaham , I am the Foundation of Brahman Bhagavad Gita 14.27). The third major school of Vedanta is Vishishtadvaita, founded by Ramanujacharya and it has some aspects in common with the other two.

Shikoh was, like his father, a liberal Muslim and wrote a book that attempted to reconcile Islam with Hinduism. In 1640, Dara Shikoh visited Kashmir and met pandits, who told him about the Upanishads.

In 1657, the translation of the Upanishads into Persian was completed. In his translation, known by the name Sirr-e-Akbar (The Greatest Mystery), he states at the Introduction that the work referred to in the Qur'an as the " Kitab al-maknun " or the hidden book is none other than the Upanishads. Two years later, in 1659, his brother Aurangzib, who was a strict Muslim, had him executed under the Sharia law as an apostate from Islam. This may have been a pretext, because Shikoh had been the eldest son and Aurangzib ascended the throne after Shikoh's execution. "…the prince was put to death by his brother Aurangzib, in reality, no doubt, because he was the eldest son and legitimate successor of Shah Jehan, but under the pretext that he was an infidel, and dangerous to the established religion of the empire." Max Mller, , Part I, "Introduction," p. lvii.

Source: Wikipedia > Upanishads