ABSTRACT
It is not necessary to know these dates for the purpose of understanding and appreciating the argument of the book, which is written in response to suggestions from many who often found it difficult to disentangle the philosophical ideas from the historical and philological material in the works of the orientalists. In India philosophical schools and systems did not develop generally out of one another, but simultaneously through mutual criticism. The only exception is Buddhism, in which we find a discernible historical growth of ideas and schools, the old schools continuing to exist along with the old ones. An attempt was made by Madhavacarya, in his Sarvadarianasangraha, to show that his own philosophy, namely, the Advaita, was a development out of the rest. But the development he showed is only a logical development, not chronological. Haribhadrasuri's Sarvadarsanasamucchaya is a somewhat similar attempt. However, the following table may be of interest. The dates of ancient Indian philosophers cannot be exact; and scholars are not unanimous. Sometimes the results of their historical research differ by one or more centuries.
