Tripura Upanishad

Tripura Upanishad
Devanagariत्रिपुरा
IASTTripurā
Title meansThree cities
Date~15th-century CE[1][2]
TypeShakta[3]
Linked VedaRigveda[4]
Chapters1
Verses16[5]
PhilosophyShaktism, Vedanta[6]

The Tripura Upanishad (Sanskrit: त्रिपुरा उपनिषद्, IAST: Tripurā Upaniṣad) is a medieval era minor Upanishad of Hinduism.[7] Composed in Sanskrit, the text is classified as a Shakta Upanishad and attached to the Rigveda.[4] It is, as an Upanishad, a part of the corpus of Vedanta literature collection that present the philosophical concepts of Hinduism.[8]

The Tripura Upanishad places the goddess Tripura Sundari as the ultimate Shakti (energy, power) of the universe.[9] She is described as the supreme consciousness, above Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.[10] The text is one of the important texts of the Shakta tradition and notable for its theory of Tripura (literally "three cities") symbolizing the three roads of work, worship and wisdom.[9]

Douglas Brooks states the text is historically notable as being "as close to an introduction to Shakta Tantrism as we may find",[11] distilling into its 16 verses almost every important topic in Shakta Tantra tradition.[12] The text presents the Srividya yantra as a means of meditation.[9] The text links the Shakti Tantra tradition as a Vedic attribute,[13] however this link has been contested by scholars.[14][15]

The philosophical premises in this text as in many Shakta Upanishads, states June McDaniel, is syncretism of Samkhya and Advaita Vedanta schools of Hindu philosophy, called Shaktadavaitavada (literally, the path of nondualistic Shakti).[16]

  1. ^ Cush 2007, p. 740.
  2. ^ Buhnemann 1996.
  3. ^ Warrier 1967, pp. 41–53.
  4. ^ a b Tinoco 1996, p. 88.
  5. ^ Narayanaswami 1999.
  6. ^ Mahadevan 1975, pp. 238–239.
  7. ^ Mahadevan 1975, pp. 234–239.
  8. ^ Muller 1879.
  9. ^ a b c Mahadevan 1975, pp. 235.
  10. ^ Brooks 1990, pp. 155–156.
  11. ^ Brooks 1990, pp. xiii–xiv.
  12. ^ Brooks 1990, pp. xvi.
  13. ^ Dasgupta 1997, p. 3.
  14. ^ Brooks 1990, pp. xiii–xiv, xvi, 21.
  15. ^ Urban 1997.
  16. ^ McDaniel 2004, pp. 89–91.