5 Interesting Facts about Upanishads

In this post I will talk about 5 interesting facts about Upanishads.

The Upanishads are commonly referred to as Vedanta. They form the concluding part of the Vedas and deal purely with the philosophical aspects of Hindu tradition. They also shed useful light on the social tradition of ancient Hindu India.

Below are 5 interesting facts about Upanishads.

#1 Interesting Facts about Upanishads

There are more than 200 Upanishads in existence. Traditionally however most of the Hindu texts refer to 108 Upanishads.

Of these some of the oldest ones are referred to as Mukhya Upanishads (main) and the rest are known as Minor Upanishads.

#2 Interesting Facts about Upanishads

The Upanishads are the oldest philosophical system in the world. Some of the Upanishads are almost as old as 800 BC.

The oldest Upanishads predate Bible by 800 years and Koran by 1300 years!

#3 Interesting Facts about Upanishads


Photo Courtesy: drikpanchang

Along with Bhagavad Gita, the major Upanishads provide the foundation of almost all later Philosophical schools in India like Advaita Vedanta and so on.

#4 Interesting Facts about Upanishads

Such was the freedom of women in ancient India that esteemed women such as Maitreyi and Gargi participated in the spiritual debates of ancient Hindu India!

Women were held in very high esteem in ancient Hindu India.

However later after the Muslim invasion and destruction of India women started being treated with disrespect and as commodities.


Even today in many so called modern countries especially Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia women are treated like animals.

#5 Interesting Facts about Upanishads

The authors of the Upanishads, the Vedic Rishis chose to remain anonymous.

However from various internal and external sources we known about some of the authors like Yajnavalkya, Uddalaka Aruni, Shvetaketu, Shandilya, Aitareya, Balaki, Pippalada and Sanatkumara..

They were spiritual giants who wanted to improve humanity and had no interest in fame and material wealth like modern West and not so modern Arab countries who only hanker after money and power.

--- END ---

That's it. Thank you for reading Interesting Facts about Upanishads. You may also like the following.

Interesting Facts about Rig Veda
Interesting Facts about Atharva Veda
An Introduction to Tantra 
The Hindu World View 
Introduction to Trika

Thank you for reading Interesting Facts about Upanishads. Please leave your comments and feel free to share with your friends and family.