Page:The history of caste in India.pdf/61

 sixty-two different doctrines mentioned in Brahminical and Buddhistic literature. Of these about eight systems are well known. Of these eight systems six are called orthodox systems as they all recognized the Vedas as infallible. The two remaining systems were those of Charvakas and Buddha. The system of Chārvakas held that there is no god, no soul, and the writers of Vedas are liars, and sacrifice is a big folly, man should avoid pain, try to enjoy the world's pleasures and should not bother about future life. The Buddhists denied the infallibility of Veda, though their denial was not quite as honest as that of Chārvakas. They developed an independent line of thought which is well known. The six other philosophical systems better known as the six schools of philosophy were: i, Pūrva mīmānsā; ii, Uttra mimānsā; iii, Sānkhya; iv, Yoga; v, Nyāya, and vi, Vaishęshika. All these systems believed in the infallibility of the Vedas. They differed from each other on the view of origin of the world. Some regarded that the world is a product of atomic agglomeration through activity. Some held that all the world is nothing else but Brahma. The fact it looks different to us is an illusion, yet illusion itself is a product of Brahma. The rest of them believed that matter, consisting of threefold essences (Gunas), good, moderate, and bad, was converted into this subjective and objective world through the stages of perceiving and self-consciousness. These systems again differed from each other on the sources of true knowledge, like perception, inference, authority, etc. They had worked on different lines of thought; for example, Nyāya philosophy was mainly logic, Vaisheshika was metaphysics, Pūrva