A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy

by Chandradhar Sharma

Aim in this work has been to give a clear, comprehensive and critical account of the various systems of Indian philosophy. The book will be found useful by all those who want a clear and accurate exposition of the development of Indian philosophical thought in one volume which is neither too small nor too big. On almost all fundamental points the author has either quoted from the original texts or referred to them to enable the interested reader to compare the interpretations with the texts. Throughout the exposition of the different systems which involves criticism and evaluation, the author has tried to be fair and impartial to them and to present many difficult and obscure points in as clear and correct a manner. Ignorance of Indian philosophy, specially of Buddhism and Vedanta, is still profound and has given rise to un-informed or ill-informed accounts and misleading criticisms. It has been the aim of the book to remove such misconceptions. Honest difference of opinion in interpretation is legitimate in philosophy, but it does not entitle us to impose our own preconceived notions on a system which are repelled by its original texts. The work is only an outline of a vast subject and has no pretensions to completeness.

The present treatise is a critical study of different systems of Indian Philosophy based on original sources and its principal value lies in their interpretation. On almost all fundamental points the author has quoted from the original texts to enable the reader to compare the interpretations with the text. The book opens with the survey of Indian philosophical thought as found in the Vedas, the Upanisads and Bhagavadgita. It proceeds to the study of Materialism, Jainism and Early Buddhism, Sunyavada, Vijnanavada and Svatantra Vijnanavada. It expounds the tenets of the six systems of Indian Philosophy with special reference to Sankara, the pre-Sankara and the post-Sankara Vedanta, and the essentials of Buddhism and Vedanta in comparison and contrast. It discusses the doctrines of Vedanta as interpreted by Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka, Vallabha, Caitanya and Aurobindo. It also contains a clear exposition of Saiva Siddhanta, Kashmir Saivism and Sakta Schools.

Genres: Philosophy, India, History

415 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Marian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book on comparative philosophy. The author obviously has a good understanding of the various philosophical schools of India. The reason why I rate it 4 stars instead of 5 is that the book is biased towards a particular philosophical system (Advaita Vedanta) and tends to ignore the opposing arguments of the other philosophical schools. Also, there is the idea that the Shunyavadins are Advaitins in disguise and not the other way around. This is absurd, since Shunyavada texts were written centuries before Gaudapada and Shankaracharya were born, which the author himself admits. Even Madhavacharya, the founder of the indian dualist school, accused the Advaitins of being Shunyavadins in disguise.

Overall, however, this was a very good read and a good comparison between Advaita and Buddhism, which are usually viewed as very different philosophies. They are both, however, non-dual philosophies and there are more similarities than differences between these two schools.

[Deepak Raja Nadarajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The problem with the discourse around Indian religion/philosophy is that the most popular image of them include polytheism and mysticism even though in reality, there are many diverse school of thoughts with rigorously built philosophies.

This book covers both vedic and non-vedic philosophical schools which originated in India. This also includes a few Buddhist schools. For every philosophical school, the author gives a detailed description of the ontology(nature of reality) and epistemology(nature of our knowledge). It also includes path towards liberation for each of the schools. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of debates which happened in those times. There is also an interesting account of the philosophical conflict between Buddhism and Vedanta.

The author himself is pro-advaita and the bias is visible in a few places. But overall I think the book is well balanced. A few chapters may need repeated readings though.

[Viji (Bookish endeavors) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I read when I have any doubt in Indian philosophy.. It gives a thorough description of all the systems in Indian philosophy.. What I found more interesting was its detailed description of the schools of Buddhism.. Radhakrishnan is more elaborative and dull and Dasgupta is too lengthy.. This book is always my first choice and the second would be Dutta and Chatterjee..

[Naresh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers a vast array of ideas. Remains succinct.

[Anmol]

I definitely prefer this to Chatterjee/Dutta's more popular introductory textbook, but this may seem a bit more intimidating to beginners, I suppose. Chatterjee/Dutta's obsession with Nyaya and Shankara is here replaced with an obsession with the "dialectic" between Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta (read: an Upanishadic interpretation of Mahayana Buddhism, which most practitioners of that tradition of Buddhism would not accept). But at least he covers Buddhism quite extensively, unlike Chatterjee/Dutta. I also appreciate his (all too brief) discussion of the Bhakti Schools of Vedanta beyond Ramanuja, and even a five-pager on Sri Aurobindo. Not the best introduction because he goes into a lot of detail on post-Shankara Advaitins, that whole chapter is not for an introductory text.

[Chandra Kanth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary insights on Indian philosophical doctrine.
This is the first book to start with, don't look anywhere else

[Suresh Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a neat book on philosophy. It does not make the reading tedious and suffering as happens with philosophic writings. Chandradhar Sharma writes in a continuous fashion and without any gaps. The concepts in each of the schools of philosophy are clearly explained and where there is a problem of clarity it is do with the multiple layers of the thinking prevalent then. A number of doctrines did coexist and no one replaced another making it difficult to draw a line of demarcation. Overall a very good book.

[Vvssb Shankar]

An impressive book and comprehensive.

[Chinmay Kumar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a very good book

[Prabhat Gusain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The relational and the analytical, the discursive and the dichotomous intellect points to something higher as its end in which it wants to merge itself. The subject-object duality wants to transcend itself; not that it wants to fall back on the instinctive undifferentiated feeling which it has left behind, but it wants to fulfill its destiny by merging itself in the Absolute, the Abode of Bliss, where there is no trace of duality and plurality. The fifth and the highest state of evolution, therefore, is the non-dual bliss. Here we are on the mystic plane. The empirical trinity of knower, known and knowledge has been fused into a transcendental unity. Here philosophy terminates. This Brahman, the supreme Reality, transcends all, yet it underlines all as their background. The lower is not lost or annihilated; it is simply transformed in the higher. Matter is not lost in life; life is not lost in mind; the mind is not lost in reason; reason is not lost in bliss. Brahman pervades them all.

[Ruben VK · Rating 1 out of 5]

On page 63, Sharma wrote: "Buddha is here transformed into God and worshipped as such. He is identified with transcendental reality and is said to possess the power of reincarnation. The Buddha is the Absolute Self running through all the so-called individual selves. He is the Noumenon behind all phenomena."

To say that any Buddhist school preaches that "the Buddha is the Absolute Self running through all the so-called individual selves" is false and misleading.

[Dany · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Words do not cognize external objects. They cognize only their own Reflections. And on account of the force of ignorance words mistake their own internal reflections to be external objects. This is all that they can do. Words cannot even touch the object."

[Sankalp Agarwal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's a little hard ... But still a good overview of our philosophy :)