Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/55

 III] Rev£val of Upan£ad studies 39 emancipation. It was thus that the Upaniad style of expression, when it once came into use,came to possess the greatest charm and attraction for earnest religious people; and as a result of that we fi nd that even when other forms of prose and verse had been adapted for the Sanskrit language, the U paniad form of com- position had not stopped. Thus though the earliest U pani!?ads were compiled by 500 B.c., they continued to be written even so late as the spread of Mahommedan influence in India. The earliest and most important are probably those that have been commented upon by Sankara namely Brhadaral)yaka, Chandogya, Aitareya, Taittirlya, Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, MUt)9aka and MaI)9ukya 1. It is important to note in this connection that the separate Upani!?ads differ much from one another with regard to their content and methods of exposition. Thus while some of them are busy laying great stress upon the monistic doctrine of the self as the only reality, there are others which lay stress upon the practice of Yoga, asceticism, the cult of Siva, of Vi!?I)u and the philosophy or anatomy of the body, and may thus be respectively called the Yoga, Saiva, ViI)u and Sarjra Upaniads. These in all make up the number to one hundred and eight. Revival of U paniad studies in modern times. How the Upani!?ads came to be introduced into Europe is an interesting story. Dara Shiko the eldest son of the Emperor Shah Jahan heard of the Upani!?ads during his stay in Kashmir in 1640. He invited several Pandits from Benares to Delhi, who undertook the work of translating them into Persian. In 1775 Anquetil Duperron, the discoverer of the Zend-A vesta, received a manuscript of it presented to him by his friend Le Gentil, the French resident in Faizabad at the court of Shuja-uddaulah. Anquetil translated it into Latin which was published in 1801- 1802. This translation though largely unintelligible was read by Schopenhauer with great enthusiasm. It had, as Schopenhauer himself admits, profoundly influenced his philosophy. Thus he 1 Deussen supposes that Kaultaki is also one of the earliest. Max Miiller and Schroeder think that Maitrayal)l also belongs to the earliest group, whereas Deussen counts it as a comparatively later production. Winternitz divides the U paniads into four periods. In the first period he includes Brhadiiral)yaka, Chiindogya, Taittiri)'a, Aitare)'a, Kaultaki and Kena. In the second he includes Kii!haka, isa, Svetiisvatara, MUl)9-aka, Mahiiniirayal)a, and in the third period he includes Prasna, Maitriiyal)l and Miil)9-ukya. The rest of the U panids he includes in the fourth period.