What is the best translation of the Upanishads? Should they be read with a commentary or without?
What is the best translation of the Upanishads? Should they be read with a commentary or without?
Thomas Stewart
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Bentley Sanchez
IMO Radnakrishnan's 'The Principal Upanishads' is the best translation. It has the entire unabridged versions of all the principal Upanishads in addition to several of the minor ones. He provides notes and introductions to help explain parts that might be obscure but they are not intrusive and don't distract from the text much. If you just want to get a rough idea of what the Upanishads are about you don't need to read a commentary, although if you want to deeply understand them it's neccesary. The preeminent commentaries on the Upanishads are those of the great Vedantin Adi Shankara, the commmentaries he wrote on 10 of the principal Upanishads add up to a total of some roughly 2,500-3,000 pages, however reading them all presupposes having an in-depth knowledge of Hindu philosophy (i.e. if you want to go that route read a book or two on Hindu philosophy first)
Dominic Lee
patrick olivelle's translation seems legit, no commentary tho
Gavin Nguyen
What books would you recommend on Hindu philosophy?
Carson Reed
Neoplatonism and Indian Philosophy
Jose Lewis
'The Essentials of Indian Philosophy' by Hiriyanna (this one is the shortest in length but still very good), 'A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy' by Sharma, Radnakrishnan's volumes on Indian Philosophy, and last but not least Rene Guenon's first 2 books on Hinduism (the 3rd one, "studies in hinduism" is just a bunch of random essays and can be ignored unless you are a massive Trad-boo)
Ian Martin
>French Muslim carpet merchant
>Hinduism
LMAO
Zachary Foster
He converted to Sufi Islam because he thought it was the closest thing for a westerner to Vedanta.
Wyatt Reed
Coomaraswamy called his 'Man and His Becoming' the best book on Vedanta in any European language, the Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi also had words of high praise for him. I accept the opinions of Hindus themselves and people who could read Sanskrit over anonymous shitposters on Yea Forums who have an autistic feud with certain authors. I also value the works of other authors and scholars on Hinduism as well though which is why I listed the books of 4 different people.
Jayden Hernandez
Does anyone know how is the translation of pic related? I was going to get the Oxford’s Upanishads (Olivelle’s translation), but I don’t know if Ghambirananda’s translation is superior to it. If so it would be a waste to get Olivelle’s.
Daniel Perry
Forgot to attach the picture.
Jace Ward
I have read the entirety of both volumes of that Gambhirananda translation and I give you my word that they are excellent. In addition to the 8 Upanishads with Shankara's commentaries they also contain the influential early Vedanta text the Mandukya Karika and Shankara's commentary on it which is a very nice addition and goes well with the other Upanishads. The translation of the Upanishads themselves in the book is of a very high quality and doesn't dumb down or simplify them at all.
Liam Williams
Both volumes can be found for free online, although if you intend to read through all of them it's good to have a physical copy. If you want to try sampling the translation and Shankara's commentaries to see what they are like, you could read his commentary on the Isa Upanishad here, it's the first one in the below link and is only around 30 pages.
Camden Morgan
Many thanks!
Colton Reed
Commentaries are gay
>& an introduction by xxx
Camden Thomas
>Commentaries are gay
said no Hindu or serious scholar ever
>dude just form your own (likely incorrect) interpretations of 2,300+ year old metaphysical writings translated from a distant language and ignore the masterly exegesis on them by people who spoke the language and who were intimately familiar with the context of all the details of the texts in question lmao!
Matthew Russell
I tried reading this one a while ago and I remember it didn't make any sense at all. I think you definitely need a commentary
Cameron Brown
>dude just follow this objective commentary by some dude trying to explain the wise words of a 2,300+ Aryan Grandmaster of Spirit and Soul.
Mjeah, Id rather keep with the original
Lincoln Miller
There is nothing inherently wrong with reading them without a commentary, but it is ridiculous to in any way imply that commentaries themselves are bad. Part of the reason Shankara's commmetaries are considered to be a very accurate exegesis is that he exhaustively analyzes the etymology of the words and uses logic to point out the unfeasability of alternative interpretations of key points, it's not just him imposing his own views on the text. Plus he was a lot closer to when they were written and was a member of an initatic tradition centering around the correct interpretation of them. Again, there is nothing wrong with reading them without one but if someone desires to deeply understand them the traditional commentaries by Hindus are the best means to doing so short of personal instruction by a teacher. You're still free to form your own interpretation when reading a commentary but you have at your disposal the interpretation and reasoning of someone who's undoubtedly much more qualified to intepret them.
Lucas Stewart
that was obviously a troll user, but good post anyway
Daniel Perez
bump
Hunter Murphy
Just read through the Mahabharata(Sacred Texts translation) and Ramayana(Valmiki IIT translations). That is what every actual Hindu does.