1851.] Review of " A Lecture on the Sdnkhya Philosophy " 401 



From all this it appears evident, that at least two of the Hindu sys- 

 tems preceded Buddha, and we shall probably be nearly correct, if we 

 assign their commencement to the century before him. Of the Sutras we 

 found it probable, that they were composed within the last three 

 centuries B. C. although some parts may afterwards have been added 

 to them. The speculative genius of the Hindus would accordingly be 

 enclosed within a period of about 600 or 700 years. After the time of 

 the Sutras there was not made any great progress in philosophical think- 

 ing. The commentaries on them commenced about the fifth century 

 A. D. Hence the development of the systems is clear. Some of the 

 commentaries changed the system itself which they professed to ex- 

 pound. There were different explanations of the same doctrine, by which 

 the doctrine itself became modified, and it is for the history of philoso- 

 phy to show the differences of conception in one and the same school.* 



If we now turn our attention to the Sutras of the Sdnkhya, we find 

 a double set of them, either ascribed to Kapila, the one known by the 

 name of Sankhya Pravachana Sutra, which was published in 1821, at 

 Serampore, together with a commentary of Vijnanachanya.f Colebrooke 



Vedas, and taught, that absolute liberation from transmigration was only possible 

 by knowledge. Buddha taught the liberation from the infinite succession of births 

 by the nirvana (extinction of existence.) A sign of it is infinite knowledge. An 

 essential element of the Sankhya, the doctrine of the three qualities, is also ante- 

 rior to Buddha, as it is not only found in Manu, but is also mentioned in the last 

 chapter of the Nirukta." (Manu S. 12, 24, Nir. 14, 3.) 



* There originated for instance a difference in the Vedanta, as the modern Vedan- 

 tists introduced the Maya, or illusive power, by which the whole creation turns out 

 to be only an illusion, which notion took its rise evidently from the attempt to ac- 

 count for the variety of phenomena, independent of the one eternal and identical 

 substance, — further the amalgamation of the Nyaya and the Vais'eshika systems, or 

 rather the adoption of the latter by the former with some modifications which belong 

 rather to detail than to difference of view ; for the Nyaya Sutras do not give a me- 

 taphysical system of their own ; they contain nothing else but logic with an appen- 

 dix, showing the mode of conducting a scientific dispute, — further in all the schools 

 modifications of some parts of the doctrine, and a more comprehensive and exact 

 deduction of their tenets. 



t The full title is : Kapilacharya pranitadhyatma vidya pratipadaka Sutrasamu- 

 hatmaka Sankhyapravachananamaka grantha : Tadbhashyam Vijnaracharya vira- 

 chitam. 



