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POST-VEDIC PHILOSOPHY
The Vaiceshikam, giving a classification of existing things under six categories, is interesting enough, but more from a physical than a philosophical point of view. The only systems of metaphysical importance are the Sânkhyam and the Vedânta; but even these are not to be considered as original creations of the philosophical mind, for the common basis of both and with them of Buddhism and Jainism is to be found in the Upanishads; and it is the ideas of the Upanishads which by a kind of degeneration have developed into Buddhism on one side and the Sânkhya system on the other. Contrary to both, the later Vedânta of Bâdarayana and Çarikara goes back to the Upanishads and founds on them that great system of the Vedânta which we have to consider as the ripest fruit of Indian wisdom
The Philosophy of the Epic Period
22. From the Veda to the later systems leads a philosophical development the history of which, for want of special documents, must be supplied from the vast bulk of the Mahâbhâratam. Here we find, in the Bhagavadgitâ (Book vi.), the Sanatsujâtaparvan (Book v. 1566 ff.), the Mokshadharma (Book xii.) and other texts, the materials which, though in an earlier form than that of the Mahâbhâratam, have formed the common base of Buddhism and Sârikhyam. The philosophical system of Mahâbhâratam, whether we call it epic Sârikhyam or realistic Vedanta, is the common mother of both. Some scholars maintain that the religion of Buddha is an off
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