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  "work": {
    "slug": "upanishads",
    "name": "Upanishads",
    "stream": "indian",
    "epoch_reflected": "indian",
    "epoch_written": "greco-latin",
    "form": "scripture",
    "tradition": "Hindu (Vedantic)",
    "year_approx": -800,
    "note": "Twelve principal Upanishads — Chandogya, Kena, Aitareya, Kaushitaki, Isa, Katha, Mundaka, Taittiriya, Brihadaranyaka, Svetasvatara, Prasna, Maitri — in Max Müller's translation (Sacred Books of the East, vols. 1 and 15). The Mandukya Upanishad (twelve verses on AUM, a principal Mukhya Upanishad) is not included; Müller discusses it in his introduction but did not translate it.",
    "steiner_loci": []
  },
  "parents": [],
  "works": [
    {
      "slug": "introduction",
      "name": "Müller's Introduction",
      "author": "Max Müller",
      "year_approx": 1879,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1879 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 1)",
      "form": "translator's introduction",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "Max Müller's introduction to the Upanishads (Sacred Books of the East vol. 1, 1879) — on the Vedic context, the position of the Upanishads within Vedic literature, the principal teachers, Śaṅkara's commentaries, and the principles guiding the translation.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 9904,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/introduction/",
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    },
    {
      "slug": "khandogya",
      "name": "Chāndogya Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -700,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1879 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 1)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "One of the two oldest principal Upanishads, attached to the Sāmaveda. Eight *prapāṭhakas* — the *Tat tvam asi* (\"That thou art\") teaching of Uddālaka Āruṇi to his son Śvetaketu sits in book VI.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 44000,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/khandogya/",
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    },
    {
      "slug": "talavakara-kena",
      "name": "Kena Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -500,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1879 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 1)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "A short Upanishad from the Talavakāra (Jaiminīya) school of the Sāmaveda. Asks: *kena* — \"by whom\" is the mind sent, the breath impelled, the eye moved? Answers: by Brahman, the unknowable knower behind all knowing.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 2741,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/talavakara-kena/",
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    },
    {
      "slug": "aitareya-aranyaka",
      "name": "Aitareya-Āraṇyaka and Aitareya-Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -650,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1879 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 1)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "From the Aitareya school of the Ṛgveda. Müller's translation covers both the Āraṇyaka and the embedded Aitareya-Upanishad — meditations on the syllable OM, the cosmic person (*puruṣa*), and the three-fold birth of the self.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 35829,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/aitareya-aranyaka/",
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    },
    {
      "slug": "kaushitaki-brahmana",
      "name": "Kauṣītaki-Brāhmaṇa Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -600,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1879 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 1)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "Also called the Kauṣītaki-Upanishad. From the Kauṣītaki school of the Ṛgveda. Treats the doctrine of *prāṇa* (life-breath) as the supreme, the path of the gods (*devayāna*) versus the path of the fathers (*pitṛyāna*), and the dialogue between Citra Gāṅgyāyani and Śvetaketu.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 11909,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/kaushitaki-brahmana/",
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    },
    {
      "slug": "isa-vagasaneyi",
      "name": "Īśā Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -500,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1879 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 1)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "Eighteen verses appended to the Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā of the Śukla Yajurveda — the shortest of the principal Upanishads and the only one embedded in a Saṃhitā itself. Opens *īśāvāsyam idaṃ sarvam*: \"all this is enveloped by the Lord.\"",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 4140,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/isa-vagasaneyi/",
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    {
      "slug": "katha",
      "name": "Kaṭha Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -400,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1884 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 15)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "The dialogue between young Naciketas and Yama, lord of death — on the indestructible self (*ātman*), the chariot of the body, the unmanifest above the manifest, and the secret of *yoga*. From the Kaṭha school of the Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 8124,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/katha/",
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    },
    {
      "slug": "mundaka",
      "name": "Muṇḍaka Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -300,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1884 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 15)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "From the Atharvaveda. Distinguishes lower knowledge (*aparā vidyā* — the four Vedas + grammar + ritual) from higher knowledge (*parā vidyā* — that by which the imperishable is apprehended). Contains the image of two birds on one tree, one eating the fruit, the other looking on.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 4122,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/mundaka/",
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    },
    {
      "slug": "taittiriya",
      "name": "Taittirīya Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -600,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1884 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 15)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "Three *vallīs* (sections) — Śikṣā (instruction in pronunciation), Brahmānanda (the bliss of Brahman, the five sheaths: *annamaya*, *prāṇamaya*, *manomaya*, *vijñānamaya*, *ānandamaya*), and Bhṛgu (the seer Bhṛgu's inquiry into Brahman).",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 7356,
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    {
      "slug": "brihadaranyaka",
      "name": "Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -700,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1884 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 15)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "The longest and (with Chāndogya) the oldest of the principal Upanishads. Six *adhyāyas* including the *Madhu-kāṇḍa* (\"honey doctrine\"), the dialogue of Yājñavalkya and Maitreyī, the *neti neti* (\"not this, not this\") via negativa, and the king Janaka's court debates.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 46218,
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    },
    {
      "slug": "svetasvatara",
      "name": "Śvetāśvatara Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -300,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1884 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 15)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "Six *adhyāyas*. The most theistically inflected of the principal Upanishads — names the supreme as Rudra/Śiva and prefigures later devotional theism. Opens with the four causes (*kāraṇāni*) discussion.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 16260,
      "landing_url": "/sources/upanishads/svetasvatara/",
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    {
      "slug": "prasna",
      "name": "Praśna Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -300,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1884 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 15)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "Six questions (*praśna*) put to the seer Pippalāda by six students — on the origin of beings, the supreme guardian, *prāṇa*, sleep and waking, OM as meditation-object, and the sixteen-fold person.",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 4311,
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    {
      "slug": "maitrayana",
      "name": "Maitrāyaṇa-Brāhmaṇa Upanishad",
      "author": "Anonymous (Vedantic seers)",
      "year_approx": -200,
      "translator": "Max Müller, 1884 (Sacred Books of the East vol. 15)",
      "form": "Upanishad",
      "subtitle": null,
      "blurb": "Also called Maitrī Upanishad. The latest of the twelve translated here — six *prapāṭhakas* synthesizing earlier Upanishadic themes with Sāṃkhya-Yoga vocabulary (*guṇas*, *puruṣa*, *prakṛti*) and introducing six-limbed yoga (*ṣaḍaṅga-yoga*).",
      "chapter_count": 1,
      "word_count": 20939,
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}