The Upanishads

The Upanishads are written in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-European language originating in northern India. Sanskrit had stopped being a living, everyday language sometime in the early 1st millennium CE. However, throughout India and Southeast Asia a literary form of Sanskrit continued to be used for religious and cultural purposes, much like Latin in medieval Europe. 

Traditionally, the Upanishads are considered the most recent part of the Vedas. The older Vedas are written collections of hymns, mantras, and instructions for sacred rituals, composed in the 2nd millennium BCE. The Vedas are based on oral traditions that stretch back even further, to before recorded history. The Upanishads focus more on explaining theological and philosophical concepts and the spiritual significance of rituals and mantras. Juan Mascaró himself compares the Upanishads to the New Testament of Christianity (7).

While Hinduism does have recognized sacred texts like the Upanishads, Hinduism itself is a term that is applied to a diverse collection of religious beliefs, practices, and philosophical schools that developed across various cultures in the Indian subcontinent, Nepal, and Southeast Asia. For example, Hinduism is on the surface polytheistic, meaning it recognizes multiple gods. Hinduism also has a widely recognized pantheon of gods and goddesses, including

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