Composition of the early Upanishads

Date

c. 800–500 BCE

Category

Culture, arts & philosophy

Region

Northern India (Indo-Gangetic plain)

Era

Ancient Civilizations

Significance

The earliest Upanishads, including the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya, were composed in northern India during the later Vedic period, roughly between 800 and 500 BCE.

Marking a decisive turn from the ritual and sacrificial focus of the older Vedas toward speculative philosophy, these texts pursue metaphysical questions about the nature of reality, the self and human destiny. Their central insight is the identification of Brahman, the ultimate ground of all existence, with Atman, the innermost self, summed up in formulas such as 'tat tvam asi' (that thou art). They also develop the linked doctrines of karma, the moral causality of action, and samsara, the cycle of rebirth, together with the goal of liberation (moksha) through knowledge of this underlying unity. Transmitted orally within teacher-pupil lineages, the Upanishads became the philosophical foundation of later Hindu thought, especially the Vedanta schools, and shaped enduring currents of Indian religion and philosophy. Their composition forms part of the wider 'Axial Age' flowering of reflective, world-questioning thought across Eurasia.

Empires active in c. 800–500 BCE

• Neo-Assyrian Empire
  911 BCE – 609 BCE
• Zhou Dynasty
  1046 BCE – 256 BCE
• Scythians
  800 BCE – 300 BCE
• Kingdom of Kush
  1070 BCE – 350 CE
• Phoenician City-States
  1200 BCE – 539 BCE
• Elamite Kingdom
  2700 BCE – 539 BCE

Related culture, arts & philosophy events

• Compilation of the Zhouyi (Core of the I Ching)
  c. 9th century BCE
• Oracle-Bone Script: Earliest Attested Chinese Writing
  c. 1250 BCE
• Olmec colossal heads carved at San Lorenzo
  c. 1200 BCE
• Merneptah Stele: earliest mention of 'Israel'
  c. 1208 BCE
• Tomb of Fu Hao: An Undisturbed Shang Royal Burial
  c. 1250 BCE
• Great Hypostyle Hall and temple-building at Karnak
  c. 1290–1213 BCE

Further reading

The Story of Art

The wider story

The Story of Art

E. H. Gombrich

The best-selling art history ever written, from cave paintings to the modern age.

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