The Mandukya Upanisad - माण्डूक्य उपनिषद्, is the shortest of all the Upanishads, and is assigned to Atharvaveda. It is listed as number 6 in the Muktikā canon of 108 Upanishads.

It is in prose, consisting of twelve terse verses, and is associated with a Rig Vedic school of scholars. It discusses the syllable Om, presents the theory of four states of consciousness, asserts the existence and nature of Atman (Soul, Self).

The Mandukya Upanishad is notable for having been recommended in the Muktikā Upanishad, through two central characters of the Ramayana, as the one Upanishad that alone is sufficient for knowledge to gain moksha, and as first in its list of eleven principal Upanishads. The text is also notable for inspiring Gaudapada's Karika, a classic for the Vedanta school of Hinduism. Mandukya Upanishad is among the oft cited texts on chronology and philosophical relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism

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