TRÜBNER'S

ORIENTAL SERIES.

THE

SARVA-DARŚANA-SAṂGRAHA

OR

REVIEW OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF HINDU PHILOSOPHY.

BY

MÁDHAVA ÁCHÁRYA.

TRANSLATED BY

E. B. COWELL, M.A.

PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT AND FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE,
AND HONORARY LL.D. OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

AND

A. E. GOUGH, M.A.

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE PRESIDENCY COLLEGE, AND
PRINCIPAL OF THE MADRASA, CALCUTTA.

LONDON:

TRÜBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.

1882.

[v]

PREFACE.

I well remember the interest excited among the learned Hindus ofCalcutta by the publication of the Sarva-darśana-saṃgraha of MádhavaÁchárya in the Bibliotheca Indica in 1858. It was originally edited byPaṇḍit Íśvarachandra Vidyáságara, but a subsequent edition, with noimportant alterations, was published in 1872 by Paṇḍit TáránáthaTarkaváchaspati. The work had been used by Wilson in his "Sketch ofthe Religious Sects of the Hindus" (first published in the AsiaticResearches, vol. xvi., Calcutta, 1828); but it does not appear to havebeen ever much known in India. MS. copies of it are very scarce; andthose found in the North of India, as far as I have had an opportunityof examining them, seem to be all derived from one copy, broughtoriginally from the South, and therefore written in the Telugucharacter. Certain mistakes are found in all alike, and probably arosefrom some illegible readings in the old Telugu original. I havenoticed the same thing in the Nágarí copies of Mádhava's Commentary onthe Black Yajur Veda, which are current in the North of India.

As I was at that time the Oriental Secretary of the Bengal[vi] AsiaticSociety, I was naturally attracted to the book; and I subsequentlyread it with my friend Paṇḍit Maheśachandra Nyáyaratna, the presentPrincipal of the Sanskrit College at Calcutta. I always hoped totranslate it into English; but I was continually prevented by otherengagements while I remained in India. Soon after my return toEngland, I tried to carry out my intention; but I found that severalchapters, to which I had not paid the same attention as to the rest,were too difficult to be translated in England, where I could nolonger enjoy the advantage of reference to my old friends the Paṇḍitsof the Sanskrit College. In despair I laid my translation aside foryears, until I happened to learn that my friend, Mr. A. E. Gough, atthat time a Professor in the Sanskrit College at Benares, was thinkingof translating the book. I at once proposed to him that we should doit together, and he kindly consented to my proposal; and weaccordingly each undertook certain chapters of the work. He had theadvantage of the help of some of the Paṇḍits of Benares, especially ofPaṇḍit Ráma Miśra, the assistant Professor of Sáṅkhya, who was himselfa Rámánuja; and I trust that, though we have doubtless left somethings unexplained or explained wrongly, we may have been able tothrow light on many of the dark sayings with which the originalabounds. Our translations were originally published at intervals inthe Benares Paṇḍit between 1874 and 1878; but they have been carefullyrevised for their present republication.

The work itself is an interesting specimen of Hindu critical ability.The author successively passes in review...