Text and authority in the older Upaniṣads / by Signe Cohen.

Based on the author's dissertation (University of Pennsylvania).

Includes bibliographical references (p. [297]-312) and index.

Preliminary Materials / S. Cohen -- Introduction / S. Cohen -- Chapter One. Textual Criticism And Mnemonic Texts / S. Cohen -- Chapter Two. Philosophical And Religious Themesin The Upaniṣads / S. Cohen -- Chapter Three. The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Four. The Chāndogya Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Five. The Aitareya Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Six. The Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Seven. The Taittirīya Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Eight. The Īśā Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Nine. The Praśna Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Ten. The Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Eleven. The Kaṭha Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Twelve. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Thirteen. The Kena Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Fourteen. The Maitrī Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Fifteen. The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Sixteen. The Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Seven. Teenthe Kaivalya Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Chapter Eighteen. The Bāṣkalamantra Upaniṣad / S. Cohen -- Conclusion / S. Cohen -- Bibliography / S. Cohen -- Index / S. Cohen.

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The Upaniṣads have often been treated as a unified corpus of religious and philosophical texts, separate from the older Vedic tradition. It is well known that the Upaniṣads were initially composed and transmitted within specific schools of Vedic recitation, or Śākhās, but the Śākhā affiliation of each Upaniṣad has received very little attention in the scholarly literature. The author offers a new interpretation of the older Upaniṣads in the light of the Vedic school affiliations of each text. This book argues that issues of textual authority, and in particular the authority of the various Vedic schools, are central in the Upaniṣads, and that the Upaniṣads can, on one level, be read as texts about text. While analyzing the theme of textual authority in the Upaniṣads, the author also outlines a theory of textual criticism as applied to orally transmitted texts that will be of use to textual scholars in other fields as well.