Aranyaka literally means "forest books".
The ancient scriptures known as the Vedas include a kind of literature called as Vedic literature.
- The Aranyakas are transitional in character, moving away from the Brahmana literature's emphasis on ritual and sacrifice and foreshadowing the later, more speculative writings known as the Upanishads.
- The Aranyakas are generally assumed to have been written in the woods, perhaps by ascetics who had abandoned formal society, according to their name.
The tone of these texts is inquisitive and speculative, and stylistically, there is no clear distinction between the Aranyakas and the Upanishads:
- One of the earliest upanishads is called Brhadaranyaka ("Great Forest-Book"),
- And the oldest upanishads is named Brhadaranyaka ("Great Forest-Book").
- The Upanishad, which reaffirms the link.
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