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The complex of Vishnuite sects presents at first rather a confused appearance, but we think that we can make the whole body separate itself clearly enough into its component parts, if the reader will pause at the threshold and before entering the edifice look at the foundation and the outer plan of Vedantic philosophy.
At the beginning of Colebrooke's essays on Hindu philosophy he thus describes four of the recognized systems: "The two M[=i]m[=a]ms[=a]s... are emphatically orthodox. The prior one,p[=u]rva[56] which has J[=a]imini for its founder, teaches the art of reasoning, with the express view of aiding the interpretation of the Vedas. The latter, uttara[57] commonly called Ved[=a]nta, and attributed to Vy[=a]sa (or B[=a]dar[=a]yana), deduces from the text of the Indian scriptures a refined psychology, which goes to a denial of a material world. A different philosophical system, partly heterodox, and partly conformable to the established Hindu creed, is the S[=a]nkhya, of which also, as of the preceding, there are two schools; one usually known by that name,[58] the other commonly termed Yoga."[59]
The eldest of these systems, as we have already had occasion to state, is the dualistic S[=a]nkhya. It was still highly esteemed in the ninth century, the time of the great Vedantist, Çankara.[60] Atheistic form of this atheistic philosophy is called the Puranic S[=a]nkhya, and Pata[.nljali's Yoga is thoroughly theistic. Radically opposed to the dualistic S[Fa]nkhya stands the Ved[ra]nta,[61] based on the Upanishads that teach the identity of spirit and matter.
As representative of the metaphysics of the S[=a]nkhya and Ved[ra]nta systems respectively stand in general the two great religions of India. The former, as we have shown, is still potent in the great Song of the epic, and its principles are essentially those of early Çivaism. The latter, especially in its sectarian interpretation, with which we have now to deal, has become the great religion o£ India. But there are two sectarian interpretations of Vishnu, and two philosophical interpretations of the All-spirit in its relation to the individual soul or spirit. [62] Again the individual spirit of man either enjoys after death immortal happiness, as a being distinct from the All-spirit; or the jiva,
