The Upanishads

The Upanishads

Author: BBC Radio 4 November 8, 2012 Duration: 42:00

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Upanishads, the ancient sacred texts of Hinduism. Dating from about 700 BC, the Upanishads were passed down through an oral tradition in priestly castes and were not written down until the 6th century AD. They constitute the final part of the Vedas, the collection of texts which form the foundation of the Indian Hindu world, and were originally spoken during sacrificial rituals.

Yet the Upanishads go beyond incantations performed during sacrifices, and ask profound questions about human existence and man's place in the cosmos. The concepts of Brahman (the universal cosmic power) and Atman (the deeper soul of the individual) are central to the understanding of the Upanishads. Each individual treatise has its own character. Some are poetic; some are scientific; others are dialogues between kings and sages or metaphysical reflections. More than one hundred Upanishads were produced, thirteen of which are regarded as the canonical scriptures of Hinduism.

With:

Jessica Frazier Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies at the University of Oxford

Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster University

Simon Brodbeck Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Cardiff

Producer: Natalia Fernandez.


Melvyn Bragg and a panel of academic experts gather each week to explore the vast and intricate landscape of religious history in In Our Time: Religion. This BBC Radio 4 podcast, a dedicated series within the broader "In Our Time" programme, delves deep into the beliefs, schisms, and social forces that have shaped the world's faiths across centuries. Rather than offering sermons or spiritual guidance, these conversations are rigorous historical inquiries. Listeners will find themselves immersed in detailed discussions about the origins of movements like the Cathars or the Quakers, the philosophical underpinnings of concepts such as the Trinity or Nirvana, and the complex legacies of figures from Maimonides to Martin Luther. Each episode unpacks a single topic with clarity and depth, making profound ideas accessible without sacrificing intellectual rigor. The tone is conversational yet authoritative, driven by curiosity and a genuine desire to understand how these religious ideas emerged, evolved, and fundamentally altered human societies. For anyone fascinated by the powerful role of faith in history, this podcast provides a consistently enlightening and thoughtful exploration, one thoughtful conversation at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

In Our Time: Religion
Podcast Episodes
The Rapture [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:14
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas developed by the Anglican priest John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), drawn from his reading of scripture, in which Jesus would suddenly take His believers up into the air, and those l…
Sir Thomas Browne [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:44
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the range, depth and style of Browne (1605-82) , a medical doctor whose curious mind drew him to explore and confess his own religious views, challenge myths and errors in science and cons…
Judith beheading Holofernes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:30
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how artists from the Middle Ages onwards have been inspired by the Bible story of the widow who killed an Assyrian general who was besieging her village, and so saved her people from his a…
Papal Infallibility [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:38
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why, in 1870, the Vatican Council issued the decree ‘pastor aeternus’ which, among other areas, affirmed papal infallibility. It meant effectively that the Pope could not err in his teachi…
The Thirty Years War [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:35
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war in Europe which begain in 1618 and continued on such a scale and with such devastation that its like was not seen for another three hundred years. It pitched Catholics against Prot…
Hope [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:01
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of hope. To the ancient Greeks, hope was closer to self-deception, one of the evils left in Pandora's box or jar, in Hesiod's story. In Christian tradition, hope became one…
Dietrich Bonhoeffer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:48
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and life of the German theologian, born in Breslau/Wroclaw in 1906 and killed in the Flossenbürg concentration camp on 9th April 1945. Bonhoeffer developed ideas about the role o…
Augustine's Confessions [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:55
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss St Augustine of Hippo's account of his conversion to Christianity and his life up to that point. Written c397AD, it has many elements of autobiography with his scrutiny of his earlier life…
The Siege of Malta, 1565 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:52
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the event of which Voltaire, two hundred years later, said 'nothing was more well known'. In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman leader, sent a great fleet west to lay siege to Mal…
Thomas Becket [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:52
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man who was Henry II's Chancellor and then Archbishop of Canterbury and who was murdered by knights in Canterbury Cathedral (depicted by Matthew Paris, above). Henry believed that Beck…