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As per Muktika Canon, there are 108 upanishads. Is it the exact number or this is just 108 important upanishads. I read elsewhere that each branch of 4 Vedas have one upanishad each. Traditionally, what is the upper limit on number of upanishads?

Refer this link to know what exactly I am asking about.

  • Are you talking about Mukhya Upanishads? – Pandya Dec 19 '18 at 14:26
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    Traditionally, there were more than 100 upanishads. What are mukhya is opinion based. – Sarvabhouma Dec 19 '18 at 17:36
  • Possible duplicate of Available sources for the 108 Upanishads? – Swami Vishwananda Dec 20 '18 at 02:55
  • @Sarvabhouma Can you provide list of authentic Upanishads than? – Pandya Dec 20 '18 at 12:31
  • @Pandya Many upanishads are lost. Traditional scholars say that there were more than 100. Other than the upanishads we have now. – Sarvabhouma Dec 20 '18 at 16:46
  • @Sarvabhouma Ok. Out of we currently have which are authentic? – Pandya Dec 20 '18 at 17:36
  • How many Upanishads were there traditionally? No one really knows. If you browse through the books of old traditional Vedanta teachers (acaryas) such as Shankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka, Baladeva Vidyabhushana, etc, and other authors in their respective traditions, you'll get insight into which exactly Upanishadic texts they had quoted from. Thus you can see how many Upanishads are there which they were interested into. Some of those Upanishads mentioned in their books got lost and cannot be found today anymore. ... – brahma jijnasa Nov 25 '20 at 08:22
  • ... Besides those there are many Upanishads which no one has quoted from although Hindu tradition preserved them. Which Upanishads are authentic? That's also a difficult question to answer. The simplest answer would be that at least we can say that those Upanishads which old traditional Vedanta teachers mentioned in their books they believed to be authentic. Now, it's your personal choice which authors/ teachers and their respective traditions you trust. – brahma jijnasa Nov 25 '20 at 08:22

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Kurma Purana, Purva Bhaga 52.19,20

eka-vimsati-bhedena rg-vedam kravān purā sākhânāṁ tu satenaiva yajur-vedam athākarot. 19

sama-vedam sahasrena śākhānāṁ prabibheda saḥ atharvánam atho vedam vibheda navakena tu. 20

" , , , , ."

Each branch has 4 subdivisions called Samhitā, Brāhmana, Aranyaka, and Upanisad. So all together the Vedas consist of 1,130 Samhitās, 1,130 Brāhmaṇas, 1,130 Aranyakas, and 1,130 Upanişads-a total of 4,520 .

At the present only about 11 Samhitas, 18 Brahmanas, 7 Aranyakas, and 220 Upanisads are available.

Krsna Dasa
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  • Is it possible to find english versions of the 11 Samhitas over mentioned? @Krsna Dasa –  Jan 10 '21 at 00:59
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    @hindustudent, i dont think all those different veda recension samhitas have been translated. https://archive.org/details/tattvasandarbh/page/n68/mode/1up page 42, also this link also speaks of different recensions https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/23871/how-many-brahmanas-and-aranyakas-are-there-in-the-vedas . Upanishads :--- https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.326692/page/n1/mode/2up – Krsna Dasa Jan 10 '21 at 01:33
  • Thank you Krsna Dasa –  Jan 10 '21 at 01:35
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There are only a handful of texts that can be termed classical Vedic Upanishads, as they form part of a Vedic text such as a Samhita, a Brahmana or an Aranyaka. Some of these are recognized as having been part of a Veda shakha that is lost now, and only the Upanishad has survived. This can be deduced from the linguistic elements and the subject matter of them.

Accordingly, the Vedic Upanishads that at least Adi Shankara has written commentaries on are enumerated in this shloka:

ईश केन कठा प्रश्न मुण्ड माण्डूक्य तैत्तिरी । ऐतरेयं च छान्दोग्यं बृहदारण्यकं दशम् ॥

Isha, Kena, Katha, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Chandogya, Brhadaranyaka.

In addition, Kaushitaki, Mahanarayana, and Shvetashvatara are also Vedic Upanishads.

The above texts are distinguishable not only because of their location within a Vedic text, but also by their archaic and ancient Vedic language style, and also by the fact that their subject matter and discussion are classical Vedic in character. The key factor is that they don't stress sannyasa.

All other texts that go under the title of "Upanishad" are just copying the format of the classical texts due to the prestige and renown for the term "Upanishad".

Just as Bhagavad Gita is the original "Gita", but later texts such as Ashtavakra Gita, Uddhava Gita, Manki Gita, Rama Gita, Hanuman Gita, etc. all copied the format of Bhagavad Gita because of the prestige and renown for the term "Gita".

RamAbloh
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  • I dont think uddhava gita is a fabrication. It was a discourse between krishna and uddhava mentioned in bhagavata purana. – Ikshvaku Dec 09 '20 at 04:01