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ix
Preface
though, of course, he has always tried to utilize whatever articles and papers appeared on the subject. The subjects treated are vast and it is for the scholarly reader to judge whether any success has been attained in spite of the imperfections which may have crept in.
Though the monotheistic speculations and the importance of the doctrine of devotion can be traced even to some of the Ṛg-veda hymns and the earlier religious literature such as the Gitā and the Mahabharata and the Visnupuraṇa, yet it is in the traditional songs of the Arvārs and the later South Indian philosophical writers, beginning from Yamuna and Rāmānuja, that we find a special emphasis on our emotional relation with God. This emotional relation of devotion or bhakti differentiated itself in many forms in the experiences and the writings of various Vaiṣṇava authors and saints. It is mainly to the study of these forms as associated with their philosophical perspectives that the present and the succeeding volumes have been devoted. From this point of view, the present and the fourth volumes may be regarded as the philosophy of theism in India, and this will be partly continued in the treatment of Saiva and Sākta theism of various forms. The fourth volume will deal with the philosophy of Madhva and his followers in their bitter relation with the monistic thought of Sankara and his followers. It will also deal with the theistic philosophy of the Bhāgavatapuraṇa and the theistic philosophy of Vallabha and the followers of Śri Caitanya. Among the theistic philosophers the followers of Madhva, Jayatirtha and Vyasatīrtha occupied a great place as subtle thinkers and dialecticians. In the fifth volume, apart from the different schools of Saiva and Sakta thinkers, the Tantras, the philosophy, of grammar, of Hindu Aesthetics, and of Hindu Law will be dealt with. It is thus expected that with the completion of the fifth volume the writer will have completed his survey of Hindu thought so far as it appeared in the Sanskrit language and thus finish what was begun more than twenty years ago.
A chapter on the Cārvāka materialists has been added as an appendix, since their treatment in the first volume was practically neglected.
The writer has a deep debt of gratitude to discharge to Dr F. W. Thomas-the late Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, and a highly esteemed friend of his who, in spite of his various activities,
