Talk:Traditional Commentaries and Modern Translations

By Vishal Agarwal

In a broad sense, the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, in both its Mādhyandina and Kāṇva recensions, functions as a continuous exegetical exposition of the forty chapters of the corresponding Śukla Yajurveda Saṃhitā. In both traditions, the Brāhmaṇa culminates in the six chapters of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, which together constitute an extensive philosophical elaboration closely related to the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, though the precise nature of this relationship is not always explicit. Several verses of the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad are directly cited within the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, attesting to their textual and doctrinal continuity.

Among the major Upaniṣads, the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad possesses one of the largest bodies of surviving Sanskrit commentarial literature, second only to the Taittirīya Upaniṣad. The earliest extant commentary is that of Śaṅkarācārya, composed on the Kāṇva recension. Since the Kāṇva Śākhā historically predominated in peninsular India, except in certain regions such as parts of Maharashtra most subsequent commentators likewise focused on this recension, with relatively fewer works devoted to the Mādhyandina text.

Nevertheless, the oldest known commentary, now lost and predating Śaṅkarācārya, was most likely composed on the Mādhyandina recension. This work is traditionally attributed to Bhartṛprapañca, a representative of the Bhedābheda school of Vedānta.

Śaṅkarācārya (7th century CE), the foremost systematizer of Advaita Vedānta, produced a commentary renowned for its clarity, rigor, and philosophical coherence. His interpretation has exercised a decisive influence on later exegetes and continues to guide most modern translations of the Upaniṣad. Over the subsequent millennium, his bhāṣya inspired numerous sub-commentaries and glosses by scholars such as Anubhūtisvarūpācārya, Narendra Purī, Ānandagirī, Śaṅkarānanda, Sāyaṇācārya, Appayya Dīkṣita, and Brahmendra Sarasvatī.

In addition to Advaita Vedānta exegesis, several scholars composed commentaries on the Mādhyandina recension of the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad within broader works on the Śukla Yajurveda Saṃhitā. Notable among these are Uvaṭa and Mahīdhara, whose interpretations encompass the Saṃhitā as a whole and reflect ritual as well as philosophical concerns.

Rāmānuja (1017–1137 CE), the illustrious systematizer of Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, did not himself compose a commentary on the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad. Nevertheless, several eminent scholars of his tradition authored commentaries on the text, notably Vedānta Deśika, Raṅgarāmānuja, and Kūranārāyaṇa.

Madhva (1238–1317 CE), the founder of the Dvaita Vedānta school, composed a commentary on the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad that became foundational for the Dvaita exegetical tradition. His work inspired numerous sub-commentaries and independent expositions by later scholars, including Jayatīrtha, Vādirāja, and Rāghavendra Tīrtha.

In addition, commentators belonging to the Rāmānandī tradition, as well as various schools of Bhedābheda Vedānta—notably that of Nimbārka—and Śuddhādvaita Vedānta, founded by Vallabha in the sixteenth century, produced a substantial body of interpretive literature on the Upaniṣad. Independent pre-modern scholars such as Vijñānabhikṣu also contributed notable commentaries that integrate Vedāntic and Sāṃkhya perspectives.

In the modern period, Dayānanda Sarasvatī and scholars associated with the Ārya Samāj, founded by him in 1875 CE, composed numerous commentaries on the Mādhyandina recension of the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad, either as independent works or as part of comprehensive commentaries on the Śukla Yajurveda Saṃhitā of the Mādhyandina Śākhā.

Owing to its brevity and profound philosophical depth, the Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad has been translated into a wide range of Indian and European languages. The present author is personally familiar with only a limited number of these languages and is therefore unable to provide an exhaustive list. Among the Hindi translations consulted are those by Dāmodara Sātavalekar, Jagdīśvarānanda, and Rājvīr Śāstrī.

Prominent English translations consulted include those by Max Müller, Sri Aurobindo, Swami Sarvānanda, P. B. Gajendragadkar, Swami Sivananda, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Swami Chinmayananda, Anirvan, Swami Gambhirananda, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Eknath Easwaran, Patrick Olivelle, Valerie Roebuck, and Swami Lokeśvarānanda.