Mandukya Upanishad
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Part of a series on the Hindu scriptures Upanishads |
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| Rigveda |
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| Aitareya |
| Yajurveda |
| Brihadaranyaka · Isha · Taittiriya · Katha |
| Samaveda |
| Chandogya · Kena |
| Atharvaveda |
| Mundaka · Mandukya · Prashna |
| Other Major Upanishads |
| Shvetashvatara ·Kaushitaki ·Maitrayaniya |
The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (Sanskrit: माण्डूक्य उपनिषद्, Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad) is the shortest of all the Upanishads, and is assigned to Atharvaveda. It is listed as number 6 in the Muktikā canon of 108 Upanishads.
It is in prose, consisting of twelve terse verses, and is associated with a Rig Vedic school of scholars. It discusses the syllable Om, presents the theory of four states of consciousness, asserts the existence and nature of Atman (Soul, Self).
The Mandukya Upanishad is notable for having been recommended in the Muktikā Upanishad, through two central characters of the Ramayana, as the one Upanishad that alone is sufficient for knowledge to gain moksha, and as first in its list of eleven principal Upanishads. The text is also notable for inspiring Gaudapada's Karika, a classic for the Vedanta school of Hinduism. Mandukya Upanishad is among the oft cited texts on chronology and philosophical relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism.
The root of Mandukya is sometimes considered as Manduka (Sanskrit: मण्डूक) which literally has several meanings. It means "frog", "a particular breed of horse", "the sole of horse's hoof", or "a kind of coitus". Some writers have suggested the "frog" as the etymological root for Mandukya Upanishad.
Another root for the Upanishad's name is Mānduka (Sanskrit: माण्डूक) which literally is "a Vedic school" or means "a teacher".Paul Deussen states the etymological roots of Mandukya Upanishad to be a "half lost school of Rigveda". This school may be related to the scholar named Hrasva Māṇḍūkeya, whose theory of semivowels is discussed in Aitareya Aranyaka of Rigveda.
Applying the rules of sandhi, the text is also called Mandukyopanishad.
The chronology of Mandukya Upanishad, like other Upanishads, is uncertain and contested. The chronology is difficult to resolve 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.
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