The Upanishads
Indian thinkers turn from ritual to the question of what the self actually is.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 300 years
- Known to
- ± 100 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
Composed from around 800 BCE, the Upanishads shift the focus of Vedic religion from sacrifice to speculation, asking what underlies the self and the universe and answering that they are the same — atman is brahman. They introduce karma, rebirth and liberation as a systematic framework. Written as dialogues, often with a teacher deflecting the question until the student reframes it, they are the foundation of Vedanta and of most later Indian philosophy.