teaching has some
individuality. They are merely reported as words of the wise without an
attempt to harmonize them. There are many apparent inconsistencies due
to the use of divergent metaphors to indicate different aspects of the
indescribable, and some real inconsistencies due to the existence of
different schools. Hence, attempts whether Indian or European to give a
harmonious summary of this ancient doctrine are likely to be erroneous.

There are a great number of Upanishads, composed at various dates and
not all equally revered. They represent different orders of ideas and
some of the later are distinctly sectarian. Collections of 45, 52 and 60
are mentioned, and the Muktika Upanishad gives a list of 108. This is
the number currently accepted in India at the present day. But
Schrader[172] describes many Upanishads existing in MS. in addition to
this list and points out that though they may be modern there is no
ground for calling them spurious. According to Indian ideas there is no
_a priori_ objection to the appearance now or in the future of new
Upanishads[173]. All revelation is eternal and self-existent but it can
manifest itself at its own good time.

Many of the more modern Upanishads appear to be the compositions of
single authors and may be called tracts or poems in the ordinary
European sense. But the older ones, unless they are very short, are
clearly not the attempts of an individual to express his creed but
collections of such philosophical sayings and narratives as a particular
school thought fit to include in its version of the scriptures. There
was so to speak a body of philosophic folk-lore portions of which each
school selected and elaborated as it thought best. Thus an apologue
proving that the breath is the essential vital constituent of a human
being is found in five ancient Upanishads[174]. The Chandogya and
Brihad-Aranyaka both contain an almost identical narrative of how the
priest Aruni was puzzled and instructed by a king and a similar story is
found at the beginning of the Kausihtaki[175]. The two Upanishads last
mentioned also contain two dialogues in which king Ajatasatru explains
the fate of the soul after death and which differ in little except that
one is rather fuller than the other[176]. So too several well-known
stanzas and also quotations from the Veda used with special applications
are found in more than one Upanishad[177].

The older Upanishads[178] are connected with the oth