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A Harmonious World Order Through Interfaith Dialogue
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relationship of European languages with old Iranian language as well as Sanskrit. This introduction of Sanskrit was responsible for the rise of a new phase of two disciplines-namely Comparative and Historical philology and Comparative Studies of Religions and Philosophies. Increasingly sophisticated dialogue between Western philosophies and non Western philosophies - for example, those of India, China, Islam and so on developed over the course of time, this resulted in the beginning of a new era of the West's effort to take other cultures seriously. However, objective and comparative studies of the religions and philosophies, especially done from the view-point of the superiority of Western culture, could offer only limited results. Now the time has come when we may move from the comparative sutdy of Religions and Philosophies to the path of inter-religious dialogue in order to evolve a greater degree of understanding of one another. We have to understand the integral features of all religions. But at the same time, we have to take into account the powerful dimension of cultural differences.
India may offer something valuable in this direction. Constant dialogue between different schools of Indian philosophy continued from the early centuries of the Christian era to medieval times. We are aware of the continued dialogue between the Buddhists and Sāṁkhya school of Indian philosophy on the one hand, and Buddhists and Vedantins on the other. Illuminating discussions occurring in the early Buddhists, Sārkhya and Vedantic Sanskrit texts give testimony to this process. Such a dialogue between Buddhists and Mīmārsakas, Mimāṁsakas and Vedantins, Jainas and the different Vedic schools of Indian philosophy are known to the scholars of Indian religions and philosophical traditions. The culmination of such dialogue in pre-medieval and medieval India took place when Buddhists and Logicians on the one hand, and Buddhists and the Kaśmīra Saivites on the other, were engaged in a vigorous debate over their respective epistemological and metaphysical positions. Sometimes, the entire debate has been a polemic
