Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/876

* UPANISHAD. 748 UPCOTT. {atman) with the world-soul (atman-hrahma) . The formula "that art thou' (tat tvain asi) is the key-note of all Upanishad teaching. It is a curious fact that this doctrine is coupled with the pes- simistic belief in transmigration. Instead of re- joicing in the knowledge of their own divine es- sence, the Hindus look upon their individual ex- istence as a condition of separation from the di- vine essence. The wandering of the soul through the realms of death is the consequence of its sep- aration from the braltma, and the Hindu salva- tion, the escape from the chain of successive deaths, can be attained only by reunion with the brahma. The Hindus never had any theory as to how the individual souls were separated from the all-soul ; they took this for granted. Desire, or clinging to life, is the reason why this separa- tion, with its attendant succession of deaths, continues. The only cure for desire is knowl- edge, or. perhaps better, recognition of the unity of the ego with Brahma and the ever pres- ent recognition of the divided condition of every- thing finite. Thus the ultimate attainment for man is this recognition, which is salvation through the penetrating knowledge of one's own divine nature, which effaces the entire delusion of individual existence. The date of the Upanishads, like that of the Vedic writings, is quite uncertain, but the ear- liest of them can hardlj' be dated later than B.C. 600, since their most important ideas ap- pear in an advanced and somewhat decayed state in the Buddhist writings. The older Upanishads are the products of Vedic schools. The two most important, the Brhaddranynka and the C'hCind-ogya, belong respectively to the White Ya- jur Veda and the Sama-Veda; the A'ltarcya, Eausitaki, Taittiriya, Kathaka, and Maitniy- atxiya or Manara belong to schools of the same names. The Kena and Talavakara Upanishads also belong to the Sania-Veda, the Isa to the White Yajur Veda, the SvctSsvctara and the 'Mahanarayann to the Black Yajur Veda. A large and indefinite number of Upanishads, of which the Muinhika, Prasna, and Maiidukeya are the most important, are counted as belonging to the Atharva-Veda. The most authoritative list counts twenty-seven, but later Upanishads are generally counted as belonging to the Athar- van. A complete list of Upanishads is impos- sible, because the term Upanishad does not represent a closed canon, but rather an indef- initely extensible type of literature which has not been formally concluded, and which may- be continued in the present or future. In 1876 235 Upanishads were enumerated, includ- ing apocrypha, one of those actually a Jloham- niedan treatise called Alia Upanixad. The later Upanishads may be divided into five classes : ( 1 ) Pure Vedanta Upanishads, which combine the Vedanta doctrines of the older texts without un- due development of the notions of YOf/a (con- centration and abstraction from all mundane matters) or .Samnyasa (asceticism) ; (2) Yoga Upanishads, which presuppose the Vedanta ideas, and in addition advise mental concentration upon the sacred syllable Vin (q.v. ) ; (.3) Samnyasa Upanishads, which recommend and describe a life of asceticism as the practical way of attaining the purpose of the T^panishads; (4) Siva Upan- ishads, which interpret the popular god Siva (q.v.) as a personification of the atman; (5) Vishnu Upanishads, which interpret Vishnu (q.v.), or one of liis avatars (see Avatar), as divine or human manifestations of the dtinaii. BiBLiOGKAPHY. Editions of individual Upani- shads are extremely numerous in India. A select list is given by Macdoncll, History of Sanskrit Literature (London, lOOO). A convenient edition of 108 Upanishads was edited by Tukaram Tatya (Bombay, 1895). The older Upanishads we're translated into English by Max Jliiller, Sacred Hooks of the East, vols, i., xv. (2d ed., Oxford, 1900). A more scliolarly translation is given by Deussen, Sechzig Vpanisliads des Veda (Leipzig, 1897), who also published the standard discussion of their philosophy. Die Pliilosopliie der Upani- shads (ib., 1899), superseding the work of Gough, The Philosophy of the Upanishads (London, 1882). A valuable aid to the study of these texts is Jacob, Concordanee to the Principal Upani- shads and Bhagavadgita (Bombay, 1891). UPAS (Malay upas, poison), Antiaris toxi- caria. A tree of the Philippine Islands of the natural order Moraceie, to which also belong the breadfruit, mulberry, etc. The fruit is a kind of drupe, covered with fleshy scales. The Ma- lays mix the milky juice of this tree with black pepper and the root juices of galenga and ginger UPAS TREE for tipping their arrows. The fibre of the bark is sometimes made into cloth, but unless it is thor- oughly cleaned garments made of it are said to produce itching. Some botanists believe that the tree whose bark is used for fibre is a distinct species, as other species of this genus are innoc- uous. The story of a poison-vale in Java, in which the exhalations of numerous poison trees destroy all animal life, and even all other vege- table life, is a mere fable. TTP'COTT, William (1779-1845). A famous English collector of autographs. He was a natu- ral son of Ozias Humphry, one of the greatest English miniaturists, by the daughter of an Oxford shopkeeper. He was brought up to the book trade; and when Richard Porson (q.v.), the celebrated Greek scholar, was appointed li- brarian in the London Institution Upcott be- came his assistant (1806). He resigned in 1834, and passed the rest of his life at Islington. At his home, known as 'Autograph Cottage,' he collected over 32,000 letters illustrated by 3000 portraits. After his death these and other valu- able manuscripts were sold, and many of them have found their way into the British Museum. Upcott published a Bibliographical Account of