CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

The achievements of the ancient Indians in the field of philosophy are only vaguely known to the world at large, and it is unfortunate that this situation is no better even within India itself. There is a small group of Hindu scholars and ascetics living a retired life in solitude who are well acquainted with the subject, but they do not know English and are not used to modern ways of thinking. Furthermore, the idea that they should write books in local languages original: "vernaculars" to make the subject popular does not appeal to them.

Through the work of various learned societies and private individuals in both Europe and India, a large number of philosophical works in Sanskrit and Pāli have been published, along with translations of a few of them. However, scholars have yet to make a systematic attempt to study them and judge their value. There are hundreds of Sanskrit works on most of the systems of Indian thought, yet scarcely a hundredth part of them has been translated.

Indian modes of expression, which involve difficult technical philosophical terms, are so different from those of European thought that they can hardly ever be accurately translated. It is, therefore, very difficult for a person unfamiliar with Sanskrit to understand Indian philosophical thought in its true context through translations alone. Pāli is a much easier language than Sanskrit, but a knowledge of Pāli is helpful only for understanding the earliest school of Buddhism when it was in its semi-philosophical stage.

Sanskrit is generally regarded as a difficult language. But no one, even with an acquaintance with the Vedas The oldest scriptures of Hinduism. or ordinary literary Sanskrit, can truly grasp the difficulty of the logical and complex original: "abstruse" parts of Sanskrit philosophical literature. A person who can easily understand the Vedas, the Upaniṣads Late Vedic texts dealing with the nature of reality and the self., the Purāṇas Ancient Hindu texts containing encyclopedic knowledge and mythology., the Law Books, and literary works—and who is also well acquainted with European philosophical thought—may still find it literally impossible to understand even small portions of a work of advanced Indian logic or the dialectical Vedānta A school of philosophy using rigorous logical arguments to establish the nature of the ultimate reality, Brahman.. This difficulty is due to two reasons: the use of technical terms and extreme condensation in expression, and the hidden allusions to the doctrines of other philosophical systems. The...