28 Mr. H. T. Colebrooke on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 



The revealed mode is, like the temporal one, ineffectual : for it is impure ; 

 and it is defective in some respects, as well as excessive in others. A method, 

 different from both, is preferable, consisting in a discriminative knowledge 

 of perceptible principles, and of the imperceptible one ; and of the thinking 

 soul."* 



The revealed mode, to which allusion is here made, is not theological doc- 

 trine, with the knowledge of first principles, insuring exemption from trans- 

 migration ; but performance of religious ceremonies enjoined in the practical 

 Vedas ; and especially the immolation of victims, for which a heavenly 

 reward, a place among the Gods, is promised. 



It is not pure, observes the scholiast, for it is attended with the slaughter 

 of animals, which, if not sinful in such cases, is, to say the least, not harm- 

 less. The merit of it, therefore, is of a mixed nature. A particular precept 

 expresses " slay the consecrated victim :" but a general maxim ordains 

 " hurt no sentient being." It is defective, since even the Gods, Indra and 

 the rest, perish at the appointed period. It is in other respects excessive, 

 since the felicity of one is a source of unhappiness to another. 



Visible and temporal means, to which Hkewise reference is made in the 

 text, are medicine and other remedies for bodily ailment ; diversion alle- 

 viating mental ills ; a guard against external injury j charms for defence 

 from accidents. Such expedients do not utterly preclude sufferance. But 

 true knowledge, say Indian philosophers, does so ; and they undertake to 

 teach the means of its attainment. 



By three kinds of evidence, exclusive of intuition, which belongs to beings 

 of a superior order, demonstration is arrived at, and certainty is attained, by 

 mankind : namely, perception, inference, and affirmation.t All authorities 

 among the Sdnc'hj/as (Patanjali and Capila, as well as their respective 

 followers) concur in asserting these. Other sources of knowledge, admitted 

 in different systems of philosophy, are reducible to these three. Compari- 

 son, or analogy, which the logicians of Gotama's school add to that enume- 

 ration, and tradition and other arguments, which Jaimini maintains (viz. 

 capacity, aspect, and privation of four sorts, antecedent, reciprocal, absolute, 

 and total,) are all comprehended therein. Other philosophers, who recog- 

 nise fewer sources of knowledge, as ChArvaca, who acknowledges percep- 



* Car. Land 2, with Scholia. t Car. 4. Pat. 1. 7. Cap. 1. 



