![]() History of Indian philosophy is primarily available in Sanskrit and Pali, the basic primeval languages, in which sages were believed to have delivered messages. However, in olden times, students (shishyas) who took to the study of philosophy, had to do so with the help of a teacher (gurus). A teacher would then, on his part, explain the Indian philosophical terms to his student. The teacher himself had received his knowledge from his teacher (guru) and he again from his teacher; and this happened to be the oral chain system of transmitting understanding. There was no tendency to popularise philosophy, for the idea then rampant was that only the chosen few who had otherwise shown their fitness, deserved to become fit students (adhikari) of philosophy under the direction of a teacher. Only those who had the guts and high moral strength to dedicate their whole life to the honest understanding of philosophy and the restructuring of life in accordance with the high truths of philosophy, were permitted to study it. In the present context of history of Indian philosophy, it is necessary to comprehend the justification for the title 'Indian philosophy', when the philosophy of Hindus is being discussed as distinct from that of the other communities which also occupy their pride place in India. The basic evolvement of philosophical history had happened until 1000 A.D. or a little later. During this precise period, Hindus and Hindu philosophy had become more and more linked with those of the non-Hindus. Due to exceedingly lack of solid material for chronological annals, scanty information states that from the time of the birth of Buddha, Indian chronology is on a better foundation. The rise of Buddhism was contemporaneous with the extension of the Persian power to the Indus under the dynasty of Achaemenidae in Persia. Broadly stating, history of Indian philosophy can be sectioned into four divisions. The Vedic Period comes first in line in this context, commencing from 1500 B.C. and ending in 600 B.C. Vedic period covers the age of settlement of the Aryans and the gradual expansion and spread of the Aryan culture and civilisation. It was the time which witnessed the rise of the forest universities, where were evolved the beginnings of the sublime idealism of India. Knowledge can be derived from the successive strata of thought, signified by the Mantras or the hymns, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. The views put forward during Vedic Age are not philosophical in the technical sense of the term. It is the age of probing and fumbling, where superstition and thought are yet in conflict. ![]() Third in line to historical evolvement of Indian philosophy was the Sutra Period, which began from 200 A.D. The mass of material grew so unmanageable that it was found necessary to devise a shorthand scheme of philosophy. This reduction and summarisation occurred in the form of Sutras. These Sutras are however indecipherable without commentaries, so much so that the latter have become more important than the Sutras themselves. The immensely critical attitude in philosophy had developed in the Sutra Period. Without a previous criticism of the human capacity to solve philosophical problems, minds of those times looked towards the world and reached its conclusions. When the Sutra age came into existence, thought and reflection became self-conscious and not just constructive imagination and religious freedom. Among the systems themselves, a definitive statement cannot be made about which are earlier or which later. There exists cross-references throughout. The Yoga accepts the Samkhya, the Vaisheshika recognises both the Nyaya and the Samkhya. Nyaya refers to the Vedanta and the Samkhya. Mimansa directly or indirectly recognises the pre-existence of all others. So does the Vedanta. Historians hold that the Samhkya School is the oldest. Next arrived Yoga, followed by Mimansa and Vedanta and last of all Vaisheshika and Nyaya. The Sutra period cannot be sharply distinguished from the scholastic period of the commentators. The two between them exist up till the present day. The Scholastic Period, fourth to come in history of Indian philosophy, also dates from the second century A.D. It is not possible yet again to draw a hard and fast line between this and the previous one. Yet, it is to this Scholastic period that the great names of Kumarila, Samkara, Sridhara, Ramanuja, Madhva, Vacaspati, Udayana, Bhaskara, Jayanta, Vijnanabhiksu and Raghunatha belong. The literature from this age is witnessed to soon become grossly polemical. A brood of schoolmen, noisy controversialists indulging in over-subtle theories and hair-splitting arguments, who fought fiercely over the nature of logical universals, was also viewed. And none of these men would deny their acuteness and enthusiasm. The better type however, also existed. Commentators like Samkara and Ramanuja re-stated the old doctrine and their re-statement is still just as valuable. |
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History Of Indian Philosophy