ORIENTAL SERIES.

82 DARSANA.
world" At the consummation of all things all are resolved into
him. He is " the sole-existent and universal soul," and "besides
him there is no second principle ; he is adwaita, '
without a
second '
$ankaracharya was the great apostle of this school
The period of the rise of these schools of philosophy is uncer-
tain, and is entirely a matter of inference, but they are probahly
later than the fifth century B.C. The Yedanta (Uttara-mlmansa)
is apparently the latest, and is supposed to have been evoked by
the teachings of the Buddhists. This would bring it to within
three or four centuries B.O. The other schools are to all appearance
older than the Yedanta, but it is considered by some that
all the schools show traces of Buddhist influences, and if so, the
dates of all must be later. It is a question whether Hindu
philosophy is or is not indebted to Greek teaching, and the later
the date of the origin of these schools the greater is the possi-
bility of Greek influence. Mr, Colebrooke, the highest authority
on the subject, is of opinion that "the Hindus were in this
instance the teachers, not the learners."
Besides the six schools, there is yet a later system known as
the Paurawik and the Eclectic school The doctrines of this
school are expounded in the Bhagavad-gita (q.v.).
The merits of the various schools have been thus summed up ;
" When we consider the six Darsanas, we shall find that one of
them, the Uttara-mlmansa, bears no title to be ranked by the
side of the others, and is really little more than a mystical
explanation of the practical injunctions of the Vedas. We shall
also admit that the earlier Yedanta, very different from the
school of Nihilists now existing under that name, was chiefly a
controversial essay, seeking to support the theology of sacred writ,
but borrowing all its philosophical portions from the Yoga school,
the most popular at the time of its composition. Lastly, the
$Tyaya is little more than a treatise on logic, introducing the doctrines
of the theistic Sankhya; while the Yaiseshika is an essay on
physics, with, it is true, the theory of atoms as its distinguishing
mark, though even to this we feel inclined to refuse the imputa-
tion of novelty, since we find some idea of it lurking obscurely
in the theory of subtile elements which is brought forward in
Kapila's Sankhya. In short, the basis of all Indian philosophy,
if indeed we may not say the only system of philosophy really
discovered in India, is the Sankhya^ and this forms the baais