Systems of Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

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THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
was typical. "While in the systems hitherto examined," he says, "particularly in the Vedānta, Sankhya and Yoga, there runs a strong religious and even poetical vein, we now come to two systems, Nyāya and Vaiseṣika, which are very dry and unimaginative, businesslike exposition of what can be known, either of the world which surrounds us or of the world within. . . ." (The Six Systems, p. 362). Gandhi, who was himself a man of deeply religious temperament and who must have been alive to the fact that the Nyaya-Vaiśeșika system pays scant heed to the problems of ethics and religion, could not ditto Max Müller's sweeping condemnation of the system, not only because the condemnation was so sweeping but also because Gandhi's own general philosophical standpoint was realistic rather than idealistic. But as things stood Gandhi did not think it worthwhile to say much (maybe he had not much to say) about the philosophical teachings of the Nyaya-Vaiśeşika system, and what we have from his pen is a barest outline of the sixteen topics (technically called padartha) whose consideration exhausts what may be called the Nyaya philosophy and of the seven categories (again, technically called padartha) whose consideration exhausts what may be called a Vaiseṣika philosophy.
4. MIMĀMSĀ
Gandhi did not consider Mīmāmsã to be a system of philosophy but a system of ritualism, and that is why he just takes note of it and then passes on to the system to be taken up next. As a matter of fact, Mīmāmsā is both a system of philosophy and a system of ritualism. But the philosophical literature emanating from the Mīmāṁsā school belongs to the same broad category (and broadly presents the same type of difficulties before a student) as does that emanating from the Nyāya-Vaiseṣika school. Nay, a serious study of the Nyaya-Vaiseṣika philosophy is impossible without serious study of the Mimamsā philosophy (just as it is
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