398 RSview of " A Lecture on the Sankhya Philosophy" [No. 5. 



poetical garb, and give therefore as much space to fancy as to strict 

 research. The Bhagavadgita especially is more an attempt to fuse the 

 ideas of several systems into one, than the precise exposition of any of 

 them. The Sankhya Karika, no doubt, is able to open a correct view 

 into the system of the Sankhya, and if it has not done so, we must 

 take into account the difficulties of a first attempt to understand the 

 intricacies of a metaphysical system, unconnected with the development 

 of philosophy in Europe. 



There are, however, already now many more materials, which might 

 have led to a more complete insight into the peculiarities of Hindu 

 philosophy, viz. the S'aririka Sutras (the Sutras of the Vedanta) the San- 

 khya Sutras, the Nyaya Sutras, the Bhashaparich'heda, and the Vedanta 

 Sara, which works have been published a long time ago. But, with the 

 exception of the Vedanta Sara, they remained inaccessible to European 

 philosophers, as no translations of them had appeared. There exists, 

 to our knowledge, no account, for instance, of the Saririka Sutras or the 

 Sankhyapravachana Sutras, independent of what Colebrooke has given 

 in his essays.* 



The first and indispensable condition to form a correct idea of Hin- 

 du philosophy, is a knowledge of the Sutras or aphorisms which are 

 considered as the original expositions of the reputed founders of those 

 systems, and which certainly are the first systematical expositions of 

 it which are still extant. They consist in short sentences, gener- 

 ally containing the doctrines of the system together with the reasons 

 for them, although they sometimes refute the tenets of other systems 

 or the prejudices of common belief about certain topics. There is no 

 want of systematical connexion between them ; but the intermediate 

 links of thought between one Sutra and another are often omitted, 

 which gives them frequently an abrupt appearance, and it must there- 

 fore be borne in mind, that aphorism, which is the common rendering 

 of Sutra, means here a short, concise sentence, but not an unconnected 

 one. 



* Of philosophical works which have been lately published in Calcutta, we may 

 mention : 1. The Tattwakaumudi, by Srivachaspati Mis'ra (this is a commentary 

 to fwara Krishta's Karika). 2. The Paribhasha, by Dharmarajadhwarindra. 3. 

 The Panchadasi by Vidyaranyaswami, with commentary by Ramakrishfa. 4. The 

 S'abdas'aktiprakaVikaby Srijagadwis'a Tarkalankara Bhattacharya. 5. Kusumanjali 

 by Srimadudayauacharya with a commentary by Haridasa Bhattacharya. 



