Chapter I: Preface

I well remember the interest excited among the learned Hindus of Calcutta by the publication of the Sarva-darsana-samgraha of Mádhava Áchárya in the Bibliotheca Indica in 1858. It was originally edited by Pandit Ísvarachandra Vidyáságara, but a subsequent edition, with no important alterations, was published in 1872 by Pandit Táránátha Tarkaváchaspati. The work had been used by Wilson in his "Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus" (first published in the Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi., Calcutta, 1828); but it does not appear to have been ever much known in India. MS. copies of it are very scarce; and those found in the North of India, as far as I have had an opportunity of examining them, seem to be all derived from one copy, brought originally from the South, and therefore written in the Telugu character. Certain mistakes are found in all alike, and probably arose from some illegible readings in the old Telugu original. I have noticed the same thing in the Nágarí copies of Mádhava's Commentary on the Black Yajur Veda, which are current in the North of India.

As I was at that time the Oriental Secretary of the Bengal Asiatic Society, I was naturally attracted to the book; and I subsequently read it with my friend Pandit Mahesachandra Nyáyaratna, the present Principal of the Sanskrit College at Calcutta. I always hoped to translate it into English; but I was continually prevented by other engagements while I remained in India. Soon after my return to England, I tried to carry out my intention; but I found that several chapters, to which I had not paid the same attention as to the rest, were too difficult to be translated in England, where I could no longer enjoy the advantage of reference to my old friends the Pandits of the Sanskrit College. In despair I laid my translation aside for years, until I happened to learn that my friend, Mr. A. E. Gough, at that time a Professor in the Sanskrit College at Benares, was thinking of translating the book. I at once proposed to him that we should do it together, and he kindly consented to my proposal; and we accordingly each undertook certain chapters of the work. He had the advantage of the help of some of the Pandits of Benares, especially of Pandit Ráma Misra, the assistant Professor of Sánkhya, who was himself a Rámánuja; and I trust that, though we have doubtless left some things unexplained or explained wrongly, we may have been able to throw light on many of the dark sayings with which the original abounds. Our translations were originally published at intervals in the Benares Pandit between 1874 and 1878; but they have been carefully revised for their present republication.

The work itself is an interesting specimen of Hindu critical ability. The author successively passes in review the sixteen philosophical systems current in the fourteenth century in the South of India, and gives what appeared to him to be their most important tenets, and the principal arguments by which their followers endeavoured to maintain them; and he often displays some quaint humour as he throws himself for the time into the position of their advocate, and holds, as it were, a temporary brief in behalf of opinions entirely at variance with his own.[1] We may sometimes differ from him in his judgment of the relative importance of their doctrines, but it is always interesting to see the point of view of an acute native critic. In the course of his sketches he frequently explains at some length obscure details in the different systems; and I can hardly imagine a better guide for the European reader who wishes to study any one of these Darsanas in its native authorities. In one or two cases (as notably in the Bauddha, and perhaps in the Jaina system) he could only draw his materials second-hand from the discussions in the works of Brahmanical controversialists; but in the great majority he quotes directly from the works of their founders or leading exponents, and he is continually following in their track even where he does not quote their exact words.[2]

The systems are arranged from the Vedánta point of view,--our author having been elected, in A.D. 1331, the head of the Smárta order in the Math of Sringeri in the Mysore territory, founded by Samkara Áchárya, the great Vedántist teacher of the eighth century, through whose efforts the Vedánta became what it is at present--the acknowledged view of Hindu orthodoxy. The systems form a gradually ascending scale,--the first, the Chárváka and Bauddha, being the lowest as the furthest removed from the Vedánta, and the last, the Sánkhya and Yoga, being the highest as approaching most nearly to it.

The sixteen systems here discussed attracted to their study the noblest minds in India throughout the mediæval period of its history. Hiouen Thsang says of the schools in his day: "Les écoles philosophiques sont constamment en lutte, et le bruit de leurs discussions passionnées s'élève comme les flots de la mer. Les hérétiques des diverses sectes s'attachent à des maîtres particuliers, et, par des voies différentes, marchent tous au même but." We can still catch some faint echo of the din as we read the mediæval literature. Thus, for instance, when King Harsha wanders among the Vindhya forests, he finds "seated on the rocks and reclining under the trees Árhata begging monks, Svetapadas, Mahápásupatas, Pándarabhikshus, Bhágavatas, Varnins, Kesaluñchanas, Lokáyatikas, Kápilas, Kánádas, Aupanishadas, Ísvarakárins, Dharmasástrins, Pauránikas, Sáptatantavas, Sábdas, Páñcharátrikas, &c., all listening to their own accepted tenets and zealously defending them."[3] Many of these sects will occupy us in the ensuing pages; many of them also are found in Mádhava's poem on the controversial triumphs of Samkara Áchárya, and in the spurious prose work on the same subject, ascribed to Anantánandagiri. Well may some old poet have put into the mouth of Yudhishthira the lines which one so often hears from the lips of modern pandits--

Vedá vibhinnáh smritayo vibhinná,
Násau munir yasya matam na bhinnam,
Dharmasya tattvam nihitam guháyám,
Mahájano yena gatah sa pantháh.[4]

And may we not also say with Clement of Alexandria,

[Greek: mias toinyn ousês tês alêtheias, to gar pseudos myrias ektropas echei, kathaper hai bakchai ta tou Pentheôs diaphorêsasai melê hai tês philosophias tês te barbarou tês te Hellênikês haireseis, hekastê hoper elachen, hôs pasan auchei tên alêtheian, phôtos d', oimai, anatolê panta phôtizetai.]

E. B. C.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The most remarkable instance of this philosophical equanimity is that of Váchaspati Misra, who wrote standard treatises on each of the six systems except the Vaiseshika, adopting, of course, the peculiar point of view of each, and excluding for the time every alien tenet.]

[Footnote 2: An index of the names of authors and works quoted is given in Dr. Hall's Bibliographical Catalogue, pp. 162-164, and also in Professor Aufrecht's Bodleian Catalogue, p. 247.]

[Footnote 3: Sríharsha-charita, p. 204 (Calcutta ed.)]

[Footnote 4: Found in the Mahábh. iii. 17402, with some variations. I give them as I have heard them from Pandit Rámanáráyana Vidyáratna.]

CONTENTS.

Page

I. The Chárváka System (E. B. C.) 2

II. The Bauddha System (A. E. G.) 12

III. The Árhata or Jaina System (E. B. C.) 36

IV. The Rámánuja System (A. E. G.) 64

V. The Púrna-prajña System (A. E. G.) 87

VI. The Nakulísa-Pásupata System (A. E. G.) 103

VII. The Saiva System (E. B. C.) 112

VIII. The Pratyabhijñá or Recognitive System (A. E. G.) 128

IX. The Rasesvara or Mercurial System (A. E. G.) 137

X. The Vaiseshika or Aulúkya System (E. B. C.) 145

XI. The Akshapáda or Nyáya System (E. B. C.) 161

XII. The Jaiminíya System (E. B. C.) 178

XIII. The Pániníya System (E. B. C.) 203

XIV. The Sánkhya System (E. B. C.) 221

XV. The Pátañjala or Yoga System (E. B. C.) 231

XVI. The Vedánta or System of Samkara Áchárya 273