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Thursday, December 10, 2009

"A source book in Indian philosophy" by Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan,Charles Alexander Moore

Indian philosopher, statesman, and president (1962–7), born in Tiruttani, Chennai (formerly Madras), SE India. He studied at Madras, taught at Mysore and Calcutta universities, and became professor of Eastern religions and ethics at Oxford (1936–52). In 1946 he was chief Indian delegate to UNESCO, becoming its chairman in 1949. A member of the Indian Assembly in 1947, he was Indian ambassador to the Soviet Union (1949), vice-president of India (1952–62), then president. In 1975 he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. He was knighted in 1931.
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This book covers all the major philosophical-religious systems in India covering The Vedas, The Upanishads, The Bhavagavd Gita, Hinduism, Vedenta, Jainism, Buddhism, etc. as well as more contemporary Indian philosophers such as Radhakrishnan and Sri Aurobindo. The book has some highlighting in it

From An Amazon Review:

1) The best feature of this book is: it has the actual texts of so many great works like Vedas, Upanishads, Gita etc. For this one reason itself, it is a must have book, where else will you get such a concise and precise translations of all the major Indian texts all in one place.

2) It deals extensively not only with Upanishads and other six Darshanas but also includes Arth Shastra by Kautilya(Chanakya), the famous Indian economist/politician (contemporary to Alexander). It also included Bhagvat Gita and the famous Karma Yoga, as one would expect in any Indian philosophy book!

3) It summarizes the key-features of all the seemingly different Indian philosophies Buddhism/Jainism/Charvaka/Hinduism very succintly in the first chapter. I particularly liked the seven key similarities of Indian thought on page xxiii from the general introduction.

4) Another interesting part is on page xxx where the authors argue why one should undertake the study of Indian philosophy and how should it be taken. It takes historical, political and philosophical stand-points. Again, a must read!

4) One flaw of the book is that they have kind of assumed whole-heartedly with the Aryan Invasion Theory stating that Aryans came from outside India and settled in India around 2000 bc. However, this theory is seriously debated by many contemporary scholars like Prof Edwin Bryant (PhD from Columbia, now teaching at Rutgers), Prof Klaus Klostermaier (author of many Hinduism books, retired from Univ of Manitoba, Canada, now teaching at Oxford, UK), Prof Subhash Kak etc. Some of these scholars maintain that Aryans were native inhabitants of India who went to other parts of the world, starting from India. But, it is still a big controvery until solid evidences are found.

5) Other problem is: on page xxix, it is mentioned that the people from the varna, Shudra (sudra), are not religiously initiated Hindus and they dont have to undergo the four Aashrams (stages) of the human-life. This is also not agreeable statement as the same Manu-Smriti which has stated this has also stated elsewhere, that one becomes Dvija(twice born) of the first there varnas, ONLY by character and not just by birth alone. It prescribes the mobility between different varnas.

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