Vedanta வேதாந்தம்

 Vedanta

Vedanta means ‘the end of Veda’ i.e. the complete knowledge of Veda.

It is explained on page 329 to 330 in the ‘Dictionary of Hinduism’ as under:

The Vedanta, the complete knowledge of Veda, is not an appendage to any particular portion of the Veda as were the Brahmanas, but a re-interpretation of its basic truths in the light of aupanisadic (not Upanishad) revelation. The Vedanta is thus associated with the Uttara-Mimamsa ‘upper or later examination’, regarded as one of the six Hindu darsanas which represented the ‘views’ of particular religious groups, and is distinguished from the Purva-Mimamsa, the conservative and fundamentalist appraisal of the original parts of the Veda.

The Vedanta views, unlike those of the other darsanas, were not initiated by a particular teacher, but were derived from the teaching of the Upanishads. As these presented both a doctrine of pure monism (Advaita) and that of a modified dualism (Dvaita), the expositions differ. 

It was not until Badarayana produced his Brahma-sutras (between A.D. 200 and 450) that particular Vedanta views were systematically presented. Despite the lack of indisputable evidence, it is probable that the a-Upanisadic notion of the atman was current in the sixth century B.C., as is suggested by the Buddisht anatta (Skt. Anatman) non-atman doctrine, which by the second century A.D. had become the sunyavada of the Mahayana Buddhists.

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