Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha

I well remember the interest excited among the learned Hindus of Calcutta by the publication of the Sarva-darśana-saṃgraha of Mádhava Áchárya in the Bibliotheca Indica in 1858. It was originally edited by Paṇḍit Íśvarachandra Vidyáságara, but a subsequent edition, with no important alterations, was published in 1872 by Paṇḍit 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.

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. 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 Darśanas 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.

CONTENTS:

I. The Chárváka System (E. B. C.) II. The Bauddha System (A. E. G.) III. The Árhata or Jaina System (E. B. C.) IV. The Rámánuja System (A. E. G.) V. The Púrṇa-prajña System (A. E. G.) VI. The Nakulíśa-Páśupata System (A. E. G.) VII. The Śaiva System (E. B. C.) VIII. The Pratyabhijñá or Recognitive System (A. E. G.) IX. The Raseśvara or Mercurial System (A. E. G.) X. The Vaiśeshika or Aulúkya System (E. B. C.) XI. The Akshapáda or Nyáya System (E. B. C.) XII. The Jaiminíya System (E. B. C.) XIII. The Páṇiníya System (E. B. C.) XIV. The Sáṅkhya System (E. B. C.) XV. The Pátañjala or Yoga System (E. B. C.) XVI. The Vedánta or System of Saṃkara Áchárya

Appendix—On the Upádhi (E. B. C.)