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Preliminary Considerations
dium of Six Philosophies) to his work and set a precedent to the idea of referring to systems of philosophy as darśana. Though only six systems of philosophy are summarised in this work, the title was a forerunner of the tradition of denoting a system of philosophy by the term darśana. Eight centuries later, a renowned Vedantin, Madhava summarised fifteen schools of philosophy in a work, Sarvadarśanasamgraha" ("A Summary of All Philosophic Systems”), making the term darśana even more popular as referring to a 'school of philosophy'.
The term darśana as standing for the various aspects of philosophical analysis was used, however, even prior to the 5th-6th centuries. The earlier usage of the term as standing for true philosophic knowledge, is found in the Vaiseșika-Sutra of Kanada which belonged perhaps to the pre-Buddhistic period. The Buddhist piļakas (400 B.C.) called the heretical opinions ditthi (drsti in Sanskrit from the same root dss from which darśana is formed). 12 But, judging from the fact that the very title of a work in which philosophic schools were reviewed was used for the first time by a Jaina thinker, it may be surmised that it definitively fixed the meaning of darśana as a system of philosophic thought.
As various systems of philosophy put forth their points of view, as they represent different perspectives, it is futile lo state categorically that one view as against all the others is the right one. This idea implicit in the idea of darśanal4 is explicated by the Jaina philosophers as will emerge in the sequel.
Darśana As Incorporating An In-built Logic From the well-known fact that schools of philosophy in India, both orthodox (astika-darsanas) and heterodox (năstika-darsanas) have had a succession of proponents and defendants, it is easy to surmise that they all have had to rely on the process of methodically presenting their views and cogently arguing out their positions. Since the various schools of philosophy grew side by side in ancient India, extreme rigour was required in the arguments formulated by them against critics. This necessarily meant that a self-critical attitudt, while founding schools and giving currency to a thesis, was required of philosophers as well as their disciples who were keen to continue the line of argument.
It might thus be suggested that the 'schools' recognized quite early in their histories, the need for a logical base for erecting the superstruc
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