Who Wrote the Upanishads?

[Tathagata]

Who wrote the Upanishads? And if the authors are unknown, is there a central sage of Hinduism like Lao Tzu of Taoism or Mahavira of Jainism?


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[kaisersose]

Who wrote the Upanishads? And if the authors are unknown, is there a central sage of Hinduism like Lao Tzu of Taoism or Mahavira of Jainism?
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The Upanishads are part of the Veda and believed to be eternal. As an eternal entity cannot be created, the Vedas are said to be unauthored. They were "revealed" to Rishis (Sages) who passed it down to their students. Popular sages who had these revelations are Vashista, Angirasa, Yajnvalkya, Atharvana, etc.

There is no Buddha or Mahavira or Bible equivalent for Hinduism in general. But several individual Hindu beliefs have such a principal entity specific to that belief system.

 

[Riverwolf]

Who wrote the Upanishads? And if the authors are unknown, is there a central sage of Hinduism like Lao Tzu of Taoism or Mahavira of Jainism?
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The Upanishads were written by Sages, but we don't know who.

There are several Sages, going back to ancient times. (Exact years are debated.)

 

[Pradyumnan]

Dear friends, just like the vEdAs, upaniShads were not written, they were passed on from guru to SiShya. The ending part of each vEda is known as the vEdAnta and upaniShads are a part of vEdAnta. There are 108 upaniShads totally. Each upaniShad has the name of its preceptor embedded in it. They were taught by RShis of the vEdAs on different aspects of soul. Some upaniShads have the RShis`s names as the title and others have different titles. Example: mANDUkyOpaniShad after RShi maNDUka. talavakArOpaniShad after its original directory, talavakAra brAhmaNa of sAmavEda. Literally upaniShad means the knowledge imparted while sitting near. Its a wonderful world in these scriptures. Any more info needed, please feel free to ask. Thank you.