March, 1910.] Proc. of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. xcix 



bear upon it, and the manner in which the task has been 

 accomplished, make the book one of special value to the 

 students of Sanskrit philosophy." 



3. Extracts from Triibner's Record of October, 1890, 3rd 

 Series, Vol. II, No. 2 : — . . . "There are, however, 

 exceptions ; and it is a notable one among these to whom the 

 present notice is intended to draw the attention of Sanskritists 

 and students of Indian philosophy in Europe. Professor 

 Chandrakanta's Sanskrit learning is of the most varied kind. 

 He is also a voluminous writer on a variety of subjects. But 

 though the Mahamahopadhyaya is a varied scholar and a volu- 

 minous writer, his speciality is Hindu Philosophy, and parti- 

 cularly that system which is known as the Vaicesika of Kana- 

 da. It is this field in which he has shown himself to be a 

 thinker of great independence, force and originality; and it 

 will be his works in this branch of learning that will henceforth 

 be classed with the standard works of old and secure to his 

 name undying fame. The last remark applies more particularly 

 to his work which bears the name of Bhasya, or Exposition, of 

 the Vaicesika Sutras. The Sutras, or aphorisms, of the Vaice- 

 sika system of philosophy, as is well known, are attributed to 

 Kanada. There are no early commentaries on these aphorisms 

 extant. The earliest expository work known is a gloss, called 

 Kiranavali, by Udayana Acarya, — a gloss not on the Sutras 

 themselves, but on the work called Padartha Dharma Sangra- 

 ha, generally, though not quite correctly, looked upon as a 

 Vaicesika text-book. It is this gloss of Udayana which is 

 accepted in Bengal as the orthodox and authoritative inter- 

 pretation of Kanada's aphorisms. The object of the new 

 Bhasya is to show that Udayana and the prevalent school in 

 some essential matters have misinterpreted and unjustifiably 

 amplified the teaching of Kanada, and that Udayana, being an 

 adherent of the Nyaya system, has in fact, for objects of his 

 own, adulterated the pure Vaicesika doctrine. The Bhasya 

 thus claims to set forth, for first time, the doctrines of Kanada 

 in its pure and genuine form. This is the outcome of Profes- 

 sor Chandrakanta's mature thought and close study of the Vai- 

 cesika aphorisms. It marks a gradually accomplished revolu- 

 tion in his own views. For he was not always of this mind; 

 he commenced with an unquestioning belief in the orthodox 

 interpretation. It was in this state of mind that he published 

 his Tattvavali, a metrical work in the style of the old Karikas, 

 to which he added copious notes. In this work he fully 

 plains and still upholds with every possible argument the Vai- 

 cesika doctrines as hitherto understood and accepted in Bengal. 

 The work, when it appeared, was received with an eagerness 

 unprecedented in the history of recent Sanskrit publications ; 

 for it supplied the long- felt desideratum of a good text-book 



