The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Part 1

The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha.

by Madhava Acharya.

PREFACE.

I well remember the interest excited among the learned Hindus of Calcutta by the publication of the Sarva-darsana-sa?graha of Madhava acharya in the Bibliotheca Indica in 1858. It was originally edited by Pa??it isvarachandra Vidyasagara, but a subsequent edition, with no important alterations, was published in 1872 by Pa??it Taranatha Tarkavachaspati. The work had been used by Wilson in his "Sketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus" (first published in the Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi., Calcutta, 1828); but it does not appear to have been ever much known in India. MS. copies of it are very scarce; and those found in the North of India, as far as I have had an opportunity of examining them, seem to be all derived from one copy, brought originally from the South, and therefore written in the Telugu character. Certain mistakes are found in all alike, and probably arose from some illegible readings in the old Telugu original. I have noticed the same thing in the Nagari copies of Madhava's Commentary on the Black Yajur Veda, which are current in the North of India.

As I was at that time the Oriental Secretary of the Bengal Asiatic Society, I was naturally attracted to the book; and I subsequently read it with my friend Pa??it Mahesachandra Nyayaratna, the present Princ.i.p.al of the Sanskrit College at Calcutta. I always hoped to translate it into English; but I was continually prevented by other engagements while I remained in India. Soon after my return to England, I tried to carry out my intention; but I found that several chapters, to which I had not paid the same attention as to the rest, were too difficult to be translated in England, where I could no longer enjoy the advantage of reference to my old friends the Pa??its of the Sanskrit College. In despair I laid my translation aside for years, until I happened to learn that my friend, Mr. A. E. Gough, at that time a Professor in the Sanskrit College at Benares, was thinking of translating the book. I at once proposed to him that we should do it together, and he kindly consented to my proposal; and we accordingly each undertook certain chapters of the work. He had the advantage of the help of some of the Pa??its of Benares, especially of Pa??it Rama Misra, the a.s.sistant Professor of Sa?khya, who was himself a Ramanuja; and I trust that, though we have doubtless left some things unexplained or explained wrongly, we may have been able to throw light on many of the dark sayings with which the original abounds. Our translations were originally published at intervals in the Benares Pa??it between 1874 and 1878; but they have been carefully revised for their present republication.

The work itself is an interesting specimen of Hindu critical ability.

The author successively pa.s.ses in review the sixteen philosophical systems current in the fourteenth century in the South of India, and gives what appeared to him to be their most important tenets, and the princ.i.p.al arguments by which their followers endeavoured to maintain them; and he often displays some quaint humour as he throws himself for the time into the position of their advocate, and holds, as it were, a temporary brief in behalf of opinions entirely at variance with his own.[1] We may sometimes differ from him in his judgment of the relative importance of their doctrines, but it is always interesting to see the point of view of an acute native critic. In the course of his sketches he frequently explains at some length obscure details in the different systems; and I can hardly imagine a better guide for the European reader who wishes to study any one of these Darsanas in its native authorities. In one or two cases (as notably in the Bauddha, and perhaps in the Jaina system) he could only draw his materials second-hand from the discussions in the works of Brahmanical controversialists; but in the great majority he quotes directly from the works of their founders or leading exponents, and he is continually following in their track even where he does not quote their exact words.[2]

The systems are arranged from the Vedanta point of view,--our author having been elected, in A.D. 1331, the head of the Smarta order in the Ma?h of S?ingeri in the Mysore territory, founded by Sa?kara acharya, the great Vedantist teacher of the eighth century, through whose efforts the Vedanta became what it is at present--the acknowledged view of Hindu orthodoxy. The systems form a gradually ascending scale,--the first, the Charvaka and Bauddha, being the lowest as the furthest removed from the Vedanta, and the last, the Sa?khya and Yoga, being the highest as approaching most nearly to it.

The sixteen systems here discussed attracted to their study the n.o.blest minds in India throughout the mediaeval period of its history. Hiouen Thsang says of the schools in his day: "Les ecoles philosophiques sont constamment en lutte, et le bruit de leurs discussions pa.s.sionnees s'eleve comme les flots de la mer. Les heretiques des diverses sectes s'attachent a des maitres particuliers, et, par des voies differentes, marchent tous au meme but." We can still catch some faint echo of the din as we read the mediaeval literature. Thus, for instance, when King Harsha wanders among the Vindhya forests, he finds "seated on the rocks and reclining under the trees arhata begging monks, Svetapadas, Mahapasupatas, Pa??arabhikshus, Bhagavatas, Var?ins, Kesalunchanas, Lokayatikas, Kapilas, Ka?adas, Aupanishadas, isvarakarins, Dharmasastrins, Paura?ikas, Saptatantavas, Sabdas, Pancharatrikas, &c., all listening to their own accepted tenets and zealously defending them."[3] Many of these sects will occupy us in the ensuing pages; many of them also are found in Madhava's poem on the controversial triumphs of Sa?kara acharya, and in the spurious prose work on the same subject, ascribed to Anantanandagiri. Well may some old poet have put into the mouth of Yudhish?hira the lines which one so often hears from the lips of modern pa??its--

Veda vibhinna? sm?itayo vibhinna, Nasau munir yasya mata? na bhinnam, Dharmasya tattva? nihita? guhaya?, Mahajano yena gata? sa pantha?.[4]

And may we not also say with Clement of Alexandria,

??? t????? ??s?? t?? ????e?a?, t? ??? ?e?d?? ???a?

??t??p?? ??e?, ?a??pe? a? ???a? t? t?? ?e????? d?af???sasa?

??? a? t?? f???s?f?a? t?? te a????? t?? te ????????? a???se??, ???st? ?pe? ??a?e?, ?? p?sa? a??e?

t?? ????e?a?, f?t?? d', ??a?, ??at??? p??ta f?t??eta?.

E. B. C.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The most remarkable instance of this philosophical equanimity is that of Vachaspati Misra, who wrote standard treatises on each of the six systems except the Vaiseshika, adopting, of course, the peculiar point of view of each, and excluding for the time every alien tenet.]

[Footnote 2: An index of the names of authors and works quoted is given in Dr. Hall's Bibliographical Catalogue, pp. 162-164, and also in Professor Aufrecht's Bodleian Catalogue, p. 247.]

[Footnote 3: Sriharsha-charita, p. 204 (Calcutta ed.)]

[Footnote 4: Found in the Mahabh. iii. 17402, with some variations. I give them as I have heard them from Pa??it Ramanaraya?a Vidyaratna.]

THE SARVA-DARSANA-SA?GRAHA.

THE PROLOGUE.

1. I worship Siva, the abode of eternal knowledge, the storehouse of supreme felicity; by whom the earth and the rest were produced, in _him_ only has this all a maker.

2. Daily I follow my Guru Sarvajna-Vish?u, who knows all the agamas, the son of Sar?gapa?i, who has gone to the further sh.o.r.e of the seas of all the systems, and has contented the hearts of all mankind by the proper meaning of the term Soul.

3. The synopsis of all the systems is made by the venerable Madhava mighty in power, the Kaustubha-jewel of the milk-ocean of the fortunate Saya?a.

4. Having thoroughly searched the Sastras of former teachers, very hard to be crossed, the fortunate Saya?a-Madhava[5] the lord has expounded them for the delight of the good. Let the virtuous listen with a mind from which all envy has been far banished; who finds not delight in a garland strung of various flowers?

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: Dr. A. C. Burnell, in his preface to his edition of the Va?sa-Brahma?a, has solved the riddle of the relation of Madhava and Saya?a. Saya?a is a pure Dravi?ian name given to a child who is born after all the elder children have died. Madhava elsewhere calls Saya?a his "younger brother," as an allegorical description of his body, himself being the eternal soul. His use of the term Saya?a-Madhava?

here (not the dual) seems to prove that the two names represent the same person. The body seems meant by the Saya?a of the third sloka.

Maya?a was the father of Madhava, and the true reading may be _sriman-maya?a_.]

CHAPTER I.

THE CHaRVaKA SYSTEM.

[We have said in our preliminary invocation "salutation to Siva, the abode of eternal knowledge, the storehouse of supreme felicity,"] but how can we attribute to the Divine Being the giving of supreme felicity, when such a notion has been utterly abolished by Charvaka, the crest-gem of the atheistical school, the follower of the doctrine of B?ihaspati? The efforts of Charvaka are indeed hard to be eradicated, for the majority of living beings hold by the current refrain--

While life is yours, live joyously; None can escape Death's searching eye: When once this frame of ours they burn, How shall it e'er again return?

The ma.s.s of men, in accordance with the Sastras of policy and enjoyment, considering wealth and desire the only ends of man, and denying the existence of any object belonging to a future world, are found to follow only the doctrine of Charvaka. Hence another name for that school is Lokayata,--a name well accordant with the thing signified.[6]

In this school the four elements, earth, &c., are the original principles; from these alone, when transformed into the body, intelligence is produced, just as the inebriating power is developed from the mixing of certain ingredients;[7] and when these are destroyed, intelligence at once perishes also. They quote the Sruti for this [B?ihad ara?y. Up. ii. 4, 12], "Springing forth from these elements, itself solid knowledge, it is destroyed when they are destroyed,--after death no intelligence remains."[8] Therefore the soul is only the body distinguished by the attribute of intelligence, since there is no evidence for any soul distinct from the body, as such cannot be proved, since this school holds that perception is the only source of knowledge and does not allow inference, &c.

The only end of man is enjoyment produced by sensual pleasures. Nor may you say that such cannot be called the end of man as they are always mixed with some kind of pain, because it is our wisdom to enjoy the pure pleasure as far as we can, and to avoid the pain which inevitably accompanies it; just as the man who desires fish takes the fish with their scales and bones, and having taken as many as he wants, desists; or just as the man who desires rice, takes the rice, straw and all, and having taken as much as he wants, desists. It is not therefore for us, through a fear of pain, to reject the pleasure which our nature instinctively recognises as congenial. Men do not refrain from sowing rice, because forsooth there are wild animals to devour it; nor do they refuse to set the cooking-pots on the fire, because forsooth there are beggars to pester us for a share of the contents. If any one were so timid as to forsake a visible pleasure, he would indeed be foolish like a beast, as has been said by the poet--

The pleasure which arises to men from contact with sensible objects, Is to be relinquished as accompanied by pain,--such is the reasoning of fools; The berries of paddy, rich with the finest white grains, What man, seeking his true interest, would fling away because covered with husk and dust?[9]

If you object that, if there be no such thing as happiness in a future world, then how should men of experienced wisdom engage in the agnihotra and other sacrifices, which can only be performed with great expenditure of money and bodily fatigue, your objection cannot be accepted as any proof to the contrary, since the agnihotra, &c., are only useful as means of livelihood, for the Veda is tainted by the three faults of untruth, self-contradiction, and tautology;[10] then again the impostors who call themselves Vaidic pundits are mutually destructive, as the authority of the jnana-ka??a is overthrown by those who maintain that of the karma-ka??a, while those who maintain the authority of the jnana-ka??a reject that of the karma-ka??a; and lastly, the three Vedas themselves are only the incoherent rhapsodies of knaves, and to this effect runs the popular saying--

The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the ascetic's three staves, and smearing oneself with ashes,--

B?ihaspati says, these are but means of livelihood for those who have no manliness nor sense.

Hence it follows that there is no other h.e.l.l than mundane pain produced by purely mundane causes, as thorns, &c.; the only Supreme is the earthly monarch whose existence is proved by all the world's eyesight; and the only Liberation is the dissolution of the body. By holding the doctrine that the soul is identical with the body, such phrases as "I am thin," "I am black," &c., are at once intelligible, as the attributes of thinness, &c., and self-consciousness will reside in the same subject [the body]; like and the use of the phrase "my body" is metaphorical "the head of Rahu" [Rahu being really _all head_].

All this has been thus summed up--

In this school there are four elements, earth, water, fire, and air; And from these four elements alone is intelligence produced,-- Just like the intoxicating power from ki?wa, &c., mixed together; Since in "I am fat," "I am lean," these attributes[11] abide in the same subject, And since fatness, &c., reside only in the body,[12] it alone is the soul and no other, And such phrases as "my body" are only significant metaphorically.

"Be it so," says the opponent; "your wish would be gained if inference, &c., had no force of proof; but then they have this force; else, if they had not, then how, on perceiving smoke, should the thoughts of the intelligent immediately proceed to fire; or why, on hearing another say, 'There are fruits on the bank of the river,' do those who desire fruit proceed at once to the sh.o.r.e?"

All this, however, is only the inflation of the world of fancy.