Interestingly, the term Upanishad or u (at), pa (foot), ni (down) and s(h)ad (to sit), i.e. to sit down near (the teacher), describes the text completely. We have more than 200 known Upanishads and the teacher usually passed them down verbally to his students in the forest while they sat in front of him. This tradition was part of the guru-shishya parampara.These are treatises written in Sanskrit and give an account of the Vedas in predominantly monastic and mystical terms. As they are generally the last part of the Vedas, they are also known as Vedanta or ‘end (anta) of the Veda’. The Upanishads are said to have the ‘truth’ about human life and show the way towards human salvation or moksha. They continue to talk about the abstract and philosophical problems faced by mankind, especially about the origin of this universe, supposed origin of the mankind, life and death cycle and the material and spiritual quests of man.
Out of the above-mentioned 200 Upanishads, a set of 108 Upanishads has been called the Muktika Canon. This is supposed to be an important canon as the number 108 is equivalent to the number of beads on a Hindu rosary or mala.
The teachings propounded in the Upanishads have been part of the founding rituals of Hinduism.