List of 108 Upaniṣads

‘Upaniṣad’ usually stands for the first ten Īśāvāsya, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Taittirīya, Aitareya, Chāndogya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Muṇdaka and Māṇdūkya, that have been commented on by Śaṅkara Bhagavatpāda, and the other three Kauṣītaki, Śvetāśvatara and Jābāla, that are referred by him in his commentaries on Brahmasūtra and Upaniṣads,.

The number of Upaniṣads translated by Dara Sikoh amounts to 50; their number as given in Mahāvākya-muktāvalī, and in the Muktikopaniṣad is 108.

Paul Deussen has commented on sixty Upaniṣads

Professor Weber thinks that the number of Upaniṣads, may be reckoned at 235 (Weber, History of Sanskrit Literature, pg.155 notes).

However, in order to arrive at so high a number, every title of an Upaniṣad would have to be counted separately, while in several cases it is clearly the same Upaniṣad, which is quoted under different names. In an alphabetical list, the number of real Upaniṣads reached 149. To that number Dr. Burnellin his catalogue added 5, Prof. Haug 16, making the sum total to 170. (source – Indian Antiquary, II,267).

This is mainly about the earliest set of Upaniṣads. Thereafter in later times, most scholars appeared to have become sectarian. Over the centuries, varieties of texts gave themselves (or were tagged) the suffix-Upaniṣad – to their title. That was perhaps meant to provide those texts a halo of authority and an elevated position in the hierarchy of traditional texts. The thoughts in most of such texts were neither fresh nor universal. Most of those texts were theistic and sectarian in their approach; and were therefore, classified according to their affiliations, such as Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, Śākta, Yoga etc. With that, the spirit of enquiry also vanished. Each was busy championing his cause, putting down the other. There was neither the spirit, nor the wisdom of enquiry.

Now, there are as many Upaniṣads as one can list; there is no definite number. According to some, there are more than 360 Upaniṣads, which include the major and the minor ones; the ancient and the not so ancient; some well known and some hardly known.

Furnished below is the list of 108 Upaniṣads that have been commented by Śrī Upaniṣad Brahmendra Yogin (whose original name is Śri Rāmachandrendra Saraswatī, belonging to Śrī Śaṅkarācārya Maṭha, Kānchi), a disciple of Swāmi Vāsudevendra. The entire group is divided into six categories, namely i) Sāmānya Vedānta ii) Yoga Vedānta iii) Sannyāsa Vedānta iv) Śaiva Vedānta v) Vaiṣṇva Vedānta vi) Śākta Vedānta. All these 108 Upaniṣads in the six categories are available as separate books with original texts, the commentary of Upaniṣad Brahmendra Yogin, and the English translation of some of them published by Adyar Library and Research Centre, Adyar, Chennai – 600 020.