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CHAPTER 1X CRITICAL REVIEW
In the foregoing pages we have attempted to take a brief survey of the doctrine of karma as it existed in Indian thought from time immemorial. We have seen that almost all the different shades of Indian thought are coloured by this doctrine. It is well-known that in India there have been different streams of culture which sometimes are widely separated from each other. Philosophically we know of diametrically opposite currents of thought like Advaita and Dvaita, opposite systems of sectarian worship like Vaişpavism and saivism or sāktism or opposite systems of social thoughts like Brāhmaṇical and non-Brāhmapical. In all these mutually opposite streams of thought worship and culture, the cult of karma holds a very prominent position. Leaving out the rank materialists who are very few and far between, the entire structure of Indian culture from one end of the country to the other is dominated by the ideology associated with the doctrine of karma. Like recondite philosophers, most illiterate woinen and peasants of rural India have a strong belief in karma as well as in transmigration which is a necessary corollary of the doctrine of karma. Even different systems of spiritual philosophy like the Vedic and the Āgamic school of thought have a robust faith in this doctrine. From a broad point of view, we differentiate the Āgamas from the Nigamas or the Tantrika from the Vedic ways of thought.
Scholars who have specialized in Indian Vernaculers as well as in old Dravidian languages like Tamil, Telegu etc. are clearly aware of the fact that the doctrine of Karma is found accepted in all its implications in the entire range of Indian Literature.
The doctrine of Karma has a number of philosophical and social implications. Almost in every Indian system we find it cleary recognized that. Karma as understood by the Indians from
