Signe Cohen has done a marvelous job of editing and authoring the majority of the chapters in The Upanishads, giving readers a rich treatment of the history, culture, and philosophy contained within them. Her introduction sheds light on many aspects of the Upanishads. It is interesting, though, that while she analyzes the meaning of the word “Upanishad” based on interpretations of scholars like Hermann Oldenberg, Paul Deussen, Gunilla Gren-Eklund, Harry Falk, Patrick Olivelle, and Michael Witzel, she completely avoids the meaning given by Shankaracharya in his commentary on the Katha Upanishad, where he explains that the shad part of the word means “the loosening up of bondage.”