Chandogya Upanishad

Part of a series on the Hindu scriptures Upanishads
Rigveda
Aitareya
Yajurveda
Brihadaranyaka · Isha · Taittiriya · Katha
Samaveda
Chandogya · Kena
Atharvaveda
Mundaka · Mandukya · Prashna
Other Major Upanishads
Shvetashvatara ·Kaushitaki ·Maitrayaniya

Om symbol

The significance of Om syllable is discussed in the Chandogya Upanishad, as well as other Principal Upanishads. Chandogya's exposition of syllable Om in its first chapter combines etymological speculations, symbolism, metric structure and philosophical themes.

The Chandogya Upanishad (Sanskrit: छान्दोग्योपनिषद्, IAST: Chāndogyopaniṣad) is a Sanskrit text embedded in the Chandogya Brahmana of the Sama Veda of Hinduism. It is one of the oldest Upanishads. It lists as number 9 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.

The Upanishad belongs to the Tandya school of the Samaveda. Like Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, the Chandogya Upanishad is an anthology of texts that must have pre-existed as separate texts, and were edited into a larger text by one or more ancient Indian scholars. The precise chronology of Chandogya Upanishad is uncertain, and it is variously dated to have been composed by the 8th to 6th century BCE in India.

It is one of the largest Upanishadic compilations, and has eight Prapathakas (literally lectures, chapters), each with many volumes, and each volume contains many verses. The volumes are a motley collection of stories and themes. As part of the poetic and chants-focussed Samaveda, the broad unifying theme of the Upanishad is the importance of speech, language, song and chants to man's quest for knowledge and salvation, to metaphysical premises and questions, as well as to rituals.

The Chandogya Upanishad is notable for its lilting metric structure, its mention of ancient cultural elements such as musical instruments, and embedded philosophical premises that later served as foundation for Vedanta school of Hinduism. It is one of the most cited texts in later Bhasyas (reviews and commentaries) by scholars from the diverse schools of Hinduism. Adi Shankara, for example, cited Chandogya Upanishad 810 times in his Vedanta Sutra Bhasya, more than any other ancient text.

The name of the Upanishad is derived from the word Chanda, which means "poetic meter, prosody". The name implies that the nature of the text relates to the patterns of structure, stress, rhythm and intonation in language, songs and chants.

The text is sometimes known as Chandogyopanishad.

Chandogya Upanishad was in all likelihood composed in the earlier part of 1st millennium BCE, and is one of the oldest Upanishads. The exact century of the Upanishad composition is unknown, uncertain and contested. The chronology of early Upanishads is difficult to resolve, states Stephen Phillips, because all opinions rest on scanty evidence, an analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies. Patrick Olivelle states, "in spite of claims made by some, in reality, any dating of these documents (early Upanishads) that attempts a precision closer than a few centuries is as stable as a house of cards".