Dating the Upanisads:- The date of the Upanisads is still a matter of debate. The view among most scholars is that the Samhitas of the Veda date bake to about 1500-1000 BCE, the Brahmanas & Aranyakas to 1000 BCE on, the Upanisads from about 700 BCE on Attempts set the whole body of literature further back7 always come up against the fact the period of the early Upanisads clearly cannot be too far removed that of the Buddha & Mahavira, now thought by most scholars to have been active around 400 BCE.8 It seems probable, at least, that the main teaching of the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, attributed to the sage Yajnavalkya, are pre-Buddhist. (Parts of the rest are if anything older.) Yajnavalkya presents the doctrine of reincarnation as a new and unfamiliar one, whereas in the earliest Buddhist texts that we have it is already fully developed. Bronkhorst9 disputes this. He considers the Brhadaranyaka to be later than the Buddhist texts, explaining the difference in teachings by the different surroundings in which the two rekligions grew up: The former [Brhadaranyaka] was part of an esoteric movement confined to Brahmans who dwelt in villages; the latter [early Buddhism] centered in the cities., This seems to conflict with the view of society portrayed in either group of texts. The Buddha is recorded as having debated with learned Brahmanas, & several of his chief monks were Brahmanas with a traditional Vedic education. It seems impossible to accept any theory about the dating of the Upanisads that depends upon such a slow movemant of ideas, in either direction. The Translation:- When I began the present translation, I had for some years been involved in teaching courses on Indian religious traditions to students of a wide range of ages & backgrounds. I frequently found myself cautionong them about the translations of the Upanisads that were available to them. Some seemed inaccurate or partial, others coloured too strongly by the translators’ own religious convictions. Others, though excellent in certain ways, were written in language that the students found difficult to read, leaving them with the feeling that the original texts must themselves have been crabbed & archaic in their expression. So the project began as an attempt to provide students & the general reader with a complete, accurate & readable version of these important texts. BOOK ONE:- I.1. OM Dawn is the head of the sacrificial horse.1 The sun is the eye of the sacrificial horse, the wind his breath, the fire that is in all men2 his open mouth, the year his body (atman). The sky is his minddle-air3 his belly, earth his flanks, the directions4 his two side, the intermediate directions his ride, the seasons his limbs, the months & half-months5 his joints, the days & nights his feet, the constellations6 his bones, the clouds his flesh. The feed in his stomach is the sands; the rivers are his bowels, liver & lungs; the mountains, plants & trees are his hairs; the rising sun is his front half, the setting sun his rear half; when he yawns, it lightens; when he shakes himself, it thunders; when he urinates, it rains; speech is his voice.7 2. Day arose as the sacrificial vessel8 in front of the horse: its birthplace9 was in the eastern ocean. Night arose as the sacrificial vessel behind it: its birthplace was in the western ocean. These two came being as the vessals at either end of the horse. Becoming Steed,10 he carried the gods; becoming Charger, he carried the gandharvas; becoming Courser, he carried the demons; becoming Horse, he carried human beings. The ocean was his kinsman, the ocean his birthplace. BOOK TWO II.1. Balaki the Proud, the Gargya, was a learned man. He said to Ajatasatur of Kasi, I’ must teach you about brahman.’83 Ajatasatru said, ‘We will give you a thousand cows84 for such a teaching. People will run, crying, ‘A Janaka, a Janaka!84 2. Gargya said, ‘I worship as brahman the person (purusa) who is in the sun.’ Ajatasatur said, ‘Do not talk to me about him. I worship him as the topmost, the head & king of all beings. Whoever worships him as such becomes the topmost, the head & king of all beings.’