It is stated by an eminent scholar that India has been a nation of philosophers having produced a galaxy of wise thinkers and geniuses from the earliest times beginning with the Vedas of hoary antiquity down to the modern period. Thus we find in the list of philosophers the names of Apantaratamas, Vasistha, Viswamitra, Vamadeva, Yagnavalkya, Sanatkumara, Sandilya and others as Vedic seers; Jaimini and Vyasa as the founders of the Purva-mimamsa and Uttara-mimamsa or Vedanta schools of philosophy respectively; Kumarila Bhatta and Sankaracharya the well known commentators on the Miamamsa and Vedanta Sutras respectively. Kapila, Asuri and Panchashikhi as the founders and propagators of the Sankhya Philosophy; Patanjali as the author of the Yoga Sutras; Gotama and Kanada as the founders of the Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools of philosophy and Vatsyayana and Prasastapada the well known commentators of the Nyaya and Vaisheshikha Sutras of Gotama and Kanada. The promoters of Bhakti Movement like Caitanya, Jnaneswar and Eknath. The scientist-sages with the likes of Bhaskaracharya, Varahmihara, Aryabhatta and others who gave the scientific theories to the ancient Indians. The above philosophers and several others have made themselves famous by their valuable and incomparable publications and treatises on philosophy.
On taking a historic survey and following the trend of thought of the Indian philosophers, one finds a regular evolution and development of thought that gave rise to different schools of philosophy in different periods. It culminated ultimately in the doctrine of Indian monism in the school of the Vedanta as the very essence of Indian philosophy as exposed by that eminent and world-renowned scholist and philosopher Sankaracharya in his commentaries on the Upanisads, Gita and the Vedanta. The churning process of philosophical outpouring continues to the present time with philosophical thinkers and religious leaders still leading the way for man to realize the ultimate truth of the supreme reality and Cosmic truths.
This pioneering work of reference brings together the fundamental doctrines of almost all the lading philosophers, seer saints, rishis, sages, Acharyas, great religious leaders and thinkers from the ancient times to the modern era. This is a work that is unprecedented in its scope and coverage of these great men. |
