Vedas Vs Upanishads Essay

Hinduism started out with the Vedas as its primary text, but the concepts from the Vedas have been expanded on with the addition of the Upanishads. While the Vedas and the Upanishads both depict the social classes of Hindu society, in the Upanishads, these classes represent the level of the true inner selves. In addition, both social class setups are similar in some ways because at the top of each hierarchy, there is a social class called Brahman.
The Vedas, in general, provide the four social classes of Hindu society with the highest class being the Brahmans or the priests and then on down through the warriors and rulers then onto the merchants and finally at the bottom, the laborers. This social system becomes established in verse 10:90 which provides an account of

Purusha’s, the creator of the world, sacrifice. From this sacrifice comes four parts of his body, “his mouth became the brahman, his two arms were made into the rajanya; his two thighs the vaishyas; from his two feet the shudra was born” (Vedas 10:90). After reading this quote in the Vedas, one learns that the Brahmans are of the highest class in society and the ones who rule society. Besides ruling society, the Brahmans attain an extremely important skill, which is, the ability to Sanskrit because the Vedas are written in Sanskrit. As a result, the Brahmans are the only ones who can interpret what the Vedas are saying, whereas the other classes are incapable of, so the Brahmans are able to have the majority of the control in society. Also, the correlation of the social classes to the body parts is quite intriguing because the mouth is the highest body part of a human as compared to the arms, thighs and feet. By connecting the social classes to the body parts, the reader can understand how each class fits into society.
The Upanishads also explain the different social classes of Hindu society, but in a different and more complex way than the Vedas.

Upanishadic texts relate the social classes of society to the different levels of the inner human self. For instance, there is the physical outer part of the body that transcends into the vital part, which then leads into the mental stage and finally the intellectual part of the body. Supported evidence of these levels is derived from the Upanishad in verse 2.1-6 which states, “Of the essence of food is the body which consists of breath; Verily, different from and within this body which consists of vital breaths is the body which consists of minds” (Upanishad 2.1-6). So as compared to the Vedas, which went from the highest part of the body to the lowest part of the body to associate the social classes of Hindu society, the Upanishads start from the outermost part of the self to the innermost part of the self, with the innermost part being the highest class. The Upanishads add more complexion, as compared to the Vedas, because they look at the layers of the body, so as the parts of the self change complexity, the understanding of the true self becomes harder to

attain.
The Upanishads are considered to be a full completion of the Vedas and one concept, in particular, that is more extensive in the Upanishads than the Vedas is the social classes of Hindu culture. With social classes being depicted in both texts, the Upanishads supplement the Vedas by connecting the social classes to the multiple layers of the human self. By having these similar yet somewhat contrasting issues about Hindu society, there has been confusion about which texts should be followed, which has led to Hinduism being an extremely complex religion to study.