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 expounded 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 Nyaya system of philosophy consisting of a number
of half-sentences or sutras is attributed to Gautama, also called
Ak@sapada. The earliest commentary on these sutras, called the
_Vatsyayana bha@sya_, was written by Vatsyayana. This work was
sharply criticized by the Buddhist Di@nnaga, and to answer these
criticisms Udyotakara wrote a commentary on this commentary
called the _Bha@syavattika_ [Footnote ref 1]. 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 Mis'ra wrote a commentary called
_Varttika-tatparya@tika_ on this second commentary, where he tried
to refute all objections against the Nyaya system made by other
rival schools and particularly by the Buddhists. This commentary,
called _Nyaya-tatparya@tika_, had another commentary called
_Nyaya-tatparya@tika-paris'uddhi_ written by the great Udayana. This
commentary had another commentary called _Nyaya-nibandha-prakas'a_
written by Varddhamana the son of the illustrious Ga@nges'a. This
again had another commentary called _Varddha-manendu_ upon it by
Padmanabha Mis'ra, and this again had another named
_Nyaya-tatparyama@n@dana_ by S'a@nkara Mis'ra. The names of
Vatsyayana, Vacaspati, and Udayana are indeed very great,
but even they contented themselves by writing commentaries
on commentaries, and did not try to formulate any

_______________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: I have preferred to spell Di@nnaga after Vacaspati's
_Tatparyatika_ (p. I) and not Dignnaga as it is generally spelt.]

64

original system. Even S'a@nkara, probably the greatest man of
India after Buddha, spent his life in writing commentaries on the
_Brahma-sutras_, the Upani@sads, and the _Bhagavadgita_.

As a system passed on it had to meet unexpected opponents
and troublesome criticisms for which it was