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RIDDLE NO. 8 63
prokto vedante ka pratishthitah, ‘the Om which is pronounced at the beginning of the Veda, and has its place also at the end of the Veda.’ Here Vedanta stands simply in opposition to Vedadu, it is impossible to translate it, as Sayana does, by Vedanta or Upanishad. Vedanta, in the sense of philosophy, occurs in the Taittiriya-aranyaka p. 817, in a verse of the Narayania-upanishad repeated in the Mundak-upanishad
111 2, 6 and elsewhere vedantavignansuniskitarah, ‘those who have well understood the object of the knowledge arising from the Vedanta’ not from the last books of the Veda and Svetasvatara-up VI-22, vedante paramam guhyam, ‘the highest mystery in the Vedanta’. Afterwards it is used in the plural also, e.g., Kshurikopanishad, 10 (bibl. Ind. p. 210) pundariketi Vedanteshu nigadyate, ‘it is called pundarika in the Vedantas’ i.e., in the Khandogya and other Upanishads, as the commentator says, but not in the last books of each Veda.”
More direct evidence on the point is that which is contained in the Gautama Dharma Sutras. In Chapter XIX verse 12 Gautama speaks of purification and says :
“The purificatory (texts are), the Upanishads, the Vedantas, the Samhita—text of all the Vedas” and so on.
From this it is clear that at the date of Gautama the Upanishads were distinguished from Vedantas and were not acknowledged as a part of the Vedic literature. Hardatta in his commentaries says “those parts of the Aranyakas which are not (Upanishads) are called Vedantas”. This is unimpeachable proof that the Upanishads did not come within the range of the Vedic literature and were outside the canons.
This view is also supported by the use of the Veda in the Bhagwat Gita. The word Veda is used in the Bhagwat Gita at several places. And according to Mr. Bhat [1] the word is used in a sense which shows that the author did not include the Upanishads in the term.
The subject matter of the Upanishads is not the same as that of the Vedas. This is also another reason why the Upanishads are not a part of the Vedas. What is the origin of the word Upanishad ? The point is somewhat obscure. Most European scholars are agreed in deriving Upanishad from the root sad, to sit down, preceded by the two prepositions, ni down and upa near, so that it would express the idea of session or assembly of public sitting down near their teacher to listen to his instructions. This is because in the Trikandasesha, the word Upanishad is explained by Samipasadana as sitting down near a person.
1 Sacred Books of the East Vol. II p. 275.