Gopala Tapani Upanishad


Upanishad is a Sanskrit text, and 1 of the later Upanishad attached to the Atharvaveda. The Gopāla-tāpanī is one of the four Tāpinī Upanishads.
The Upanishad belongs to the Tandya school of the atharvaveda. Like the gopal tapani Upanishad is an anthology of texts that must have pre-existed as separate texts, and were edited into a larger text by one or more ancient Indian scholars. The precise chronology of gopal tapani Upanishad is uncertain, and it is variously dated to have been composed by the 8th to 6th century BCE in India.
It is one of the largest Upanishadic compilations, and has eight Prapathakas , each with many volumes, and each volume contains many verses. The volumes are a motley collection of stories and themes. As part of the poetic and chants-focussed atharvaveda, the broad unifying theme of the Upanishad is the importance of speech, language, song and chants to man's quest for knowledge and salvation, to metaphysical premises and questions, as well as to rituals.
The gopaltapani Upanishad is notable for its lilting metric structure, its mention of ancient cultural elements such as musical instruments, and embedded philosophical premises that later served as foundation for Vedanta school of Hinduism. It is one of the most cited texts in later Bhasyas by scholars from the diverse schools of Hinduism.

Date

Farquhar dates it to have been composed after Nṛsiṁha-tāpanī Upanishad, which he estimates to be complete by the 7th century. He states that the first of the Tāpanīya Upanishads is believed to be the Nṛsiṁha, which served as the model for the others which took this name. But it is not sure whether the text was of 7th century because it has no mention in Shankara's works.
The Gopalatapani text was extensively commented by the 16th-century scholar Jiva Goswami placing the two limits on its composition century. The 14th-century scholar Vidyaranya commented on Tapani series of Upanishad, so it is possible the text existed by then.

The meaning of the series name

The Sanskrit word tāpanīya in the context of these Upanishads is not clear. The word is found in four different forms: Tāpanī is the most common form used in titles and references, but this appears to be an abbreviated form of the more correct tāpanīya, which appears in the texts themselves.
According to Monier-Williams verdict we should assume tāpanīya to be the name of a school of the Vājaseyani Saṁhitā that produced the four Upanishads bearing this name.
This assumes that they come from a common source something disputed by others, who believe that the three other works were written on the model of the as a result of the success enjoyed by that work in bringing legitimation a particular ancient tradition containing Nṛsiṁha mantra.
Deussen reads tapanīya, which means "that which must be heated" or "gold". It also has the meaning of "self-mortification".
The process of self-purification is often compared to smelting gold, which is heated repeatedly in fire to remove any impurities. Deussen thus explains the term is as follows: "Tapanam is burning pain-suffering or ascetic self-sacrifice; Nṛsiṁha-tapanam thus means ascetic self-surrender to Nṛsiṁha. Therefore Nṛsiṁha-tapanīya Upanishad'' is "the doctrine concerning the ascetic surrender to Nṛsiṁha."

Early commentaries

Verses as reference: used in Krishna Sandarbha by Jiva Goswami
Verses as reference: used in Hari Bhakti Vilasa by Gopala Bhatta Goswami

Recent editions and commentaries

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