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GENERAL TENDENCIES
107 can be described as neither quite orthodox nor as quite heterodox. The old heterodoxy, like the old orthodoxy, continued to develop on its own lines. That may be represented as the 'extreme left,' while the new became a middling doctrine with leanings more towards orthodoxy than towards heterodoxy. Accordingly orthodox belief itself henceforward may be said to run in two channels, the distinction between which often leads to important controversies. There is indirect reference to this extension of the sphere of orthodoxy in the literature of the early classical period as, for example, in the Vedānta-sūtra of Bādarāyaṇa.
II So much about the theoretical teaching of the period. It will be useful to bring together in the same way the various modes of discipline commended then for reaching the goal of life. Broadly speaking, this disciplinary teaching is threefold, viz. (I) karma, (2) yoga and (3) bhakti, which are respectively to be associated, though only predominantly, with the first three of the four schools of thought briefly sketched above:
(1) Karma.-By the term karma, as used here, is to be understood the sacrificial rites and acts allied to them as first taught in the Brāhmaṇas and later systematized in the Kalpa-sūtras, as well as certain duties and practices which, though not explicitly set forth in the Veda, had become sanctified by tradition. But it must not be thought that ordinary virtues-whether social or self-regarding-were ignored,3 for ethical purity was made the necessary condition
Such, for example, as the one relating to the question whether the Veda is pauruşeya or not, See Ch. X. * See e.g. II. i. 1, where two classes of smstis are distinguished-one like that of Manu based upon the Veda and therefore fully authoritative, and the other like that of Kapila, which, though recognized by some sistas, are not so, because they do not go back to the Veda. 3 The emphasis on moral merit which the word dharma in its popular, as distinguished from its technical, use often signifies is to be traced to this insistence on the initial condition of purity of character.
