Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/79

 CH. IV] Schools of Philosophy 63 offer, these were reconciled with the doctrines of one or other of the existing systems, and put down as faithful interpretations of the system In the form of commentaries. Such was the hold of these systems upon scholars that all the orthodox teachers since the foundation of the systems of philosophy belonged to one or other of these schools. Their pupils were thus naturally brought up in accordance with the views of their teachers. All the in- dependence of their thinking was limited and enchained by the faith of the. school to which they were attached. Instead of producing a succession of free-lance thinkers having their own systems to propound and establish, India had brought forth schools of pupils who carried the traditionary views of particular systems from generation to generation, who eXplained and ex- pounded them, and defended them against the attacks of other rival schools which they constantly attacked in order to establish the superiority of the system to which they adhered. To take an example, the N yaya system of philosophy consisting of a number of half-sentences or sutras is attributed to Gautama, also called Akapada. The earliest commentary on these sutras, called the Vtitsytiyalla bhtiya, was written by Vatsyayana. This work was sharply criticized by the Buddhist Diti.naga, and to answer these criticisms Udyotakara wrote a commentary on this commentary called the B/uiV'avtitti'ka l. As time went on the original force of this work was lost, and it failed to maintain the old dignity of the school. At this Vacaspati Misra wrote a commentary called Vtirtti'ka-ttitparya{ikti on this second commentary, where he tried to refute all objections against the N yaya system made by other rival schools and particularly by the Buddhists. This commentary, called Nytiya-ttitparya!ikti, had another commentary called Nytiya- ttitparya{ikti-parisuddhi' written by the great U dayana. This commentary had another commentary called Nytiya-ni'bandka- praktisa written by Varddhamana the son of the illustrious Gati.gesa. This again had another commentary called Varddka- mtinendu upon it by Padmanabha Misra, and this again had another named Nyiiya-tiitparyamaujalla by Sai1kara Misra. The naes of Vatsyayana, Vacaspati, and Udayana are indeed very great, but even they contented themselves by writing com- mentaries on commentaries, and did not try to formulate any 1 I have preferred to spell Diimaga after Vacaspati's Tatparyatika (p. I) and not Dignaga as it is generally spelt.