Theories Of Parinama

Author(s): Indukala H Jhaveri
Publisher: Gujarat University

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Seeds of Parinama in the Earliest Literature
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evolved out of Brahman as real, foreshadows the development of the theory of Pariņāma.
YĀSKA (about 600 B.C.)30, PĀŅINI (500 B.C.): 1, PATANJALI: 2
It has been customary with historians of Indian Philosophy like Das Gupta, Radhakrishnan and others, to pass from the Upanişads to the epics, early Buddhism, Jainism, Sāmkhya and other Vedic darśanas. This is quite a justifiable process in the ordinary course of things. But it should be noted that in our culture, as early as the Upanişadic period, the first thing upon which scientific reason was exercised was language, so much so that it was pursued as an independent discipline and various systematic treatises were also written on it. What is important for us to note is that scientific or philosophic outlook - for in the earlier stages it is difficult to distinguish clearly between science and philosophy - often got
Māyā is not to be derived in any reasonable way from a system which was pantheistic or cosmogonic and in which, therefore, the assumption that the world was illusory would have been ridiculous. A pantheism and still more a cosmogonism are under the danger of falling to the level of materialism but not of evoking an illusionism'. Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanişads' by Keith, Vol. II, p.531. - 'Is there anything in the early Upanişads to show that the author. believed in the objective world being an illusion ? Nothing at all.' Hopkins, J. A. O. S. xxii, p. 385. "The opinion expressed by some eminent scholars that the burden of the Upanisad teaching is the illusive character of the world and the reality of one soul only is manifestly wropg and I may even say is indicative of an uncritical judgement. R. G. Bhandarkar - Vaişnavism and Saivism. p. 2. foot-note. According to Prof. Belvalkar, Yaska is not later than 700 B. C... 'History of Indian Philosophy', Vol. II, p. 37. Macdonell (History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 22) places him in the 5th cent. B.C. Goldstucker, R.G. Bhandarkar, place him in the 7th cent. B. C. Macdonell assigns him to the 4th cent. B.C. - Middle of the 2ad cent. B. C. cf. Keith's Samkhya System, p. and Das Gupta, History of Indian Philosop'y, 'Vol. I, p. 212. 2 -
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