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An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Perspectives on Reality, Knowledge, and

Article  in  The Journal of Hindu Studies · July 2014

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Kenneth Valpey
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An Introduction to Indian Philosophy: Perspectives on Reality, Knowledge, and

In recent years we have seen a small number of attempts to fill a perceived gap
between, on the one side, a rather unwieldly and often bewildering variety of books in
English on Indian philosophy, and on the other side, short entries on the various
darśaṇas in reference works that may be largely unhelpful for those whom the entries
are presumably intended. Of course, in recent years we have seen a few works on
Vedānta appearing amidst bookstore sections labeled “Hinduism” and more than one
exposition of Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras are also currently available. The challenge that the
present work tries to address is one of integration, to provide a cohesive account of the
essentials that have made up the wide-ranging discourse we conveniently, if somewhat
too generally, call “Indian Philosophy.”
With this book Bina Gupta wants to highlight that Indian philosophy is “truly
philosophy, not merely spiritual, religious, and esoteric, while at the same time having
its own distinctively unique approaches to things” (ix). She sees herself as serving the
spirit of S. Radhakrishnan, B. K. Matilal, and J. N. Mohanty (especially the latter two),
who sought to bring Indian philosophy into the wider arena of Philosophy, by bringing
together the several Indian philosophical traditions as she has taught them in upper
division undergraduate and graduate seminars. As one would expect, the book includes
chapters on the “classical” six darśaṇas (Mīmāṁsā, Sāṁkhya, Yoga, Vaiśeṣika, Nyāya,
and Vedānta). An initial section on “The Foundations” (Vedas and Upaniṣads) serves to
contextualize these classical darśanas, followed by overviews of “Non-Vedic Systems”
(Cārvāka, Jaina, and Bauddha). In addition, a later section (Part VI) is dedicated to the
Bhagavad Gītā as a work of philosophy, and the final section (Part VII) introduces two
representatives of “Modern Indian Thought” – that of K. C. Bhattacharyya and of Śrī
Aurobindo. Four appendices (each at the end of related Parts) provide translations of
selected primary texts (mainly of the sūtra genre) from the relevant traditions. Thus, in
terms of overall content (usefully organized, with navigationally helpful subtitles), the
book comprehends what might be the expected range of material.
The challenge with producing such a book, of course, is to give it the appropriate
level of depth and detail and to do so with consistency. And whether or not the depth is
appropriate is sure to be a matter of individual requirements, both of students and
teachers. Three levels of depth are recognizable in this work: First, in the Introduction is
 an interesting and useful quick-start listing (in less than three pages), consisting of
twelve “important features” of the darśanas (13-15) briefly explained. Next is the main
body of the book, with individual chapters elaborating (and occasionally showing
interconnections among) the individual darśanas. The translated primary text excerpts
may be seen as a third level of depth. Potentially useful to plumb greater depth of
understanding is a reasonably useful index (which lists both English and Sanskrit terms)
inviting, for example, cross-comparison on given themes, such as “pramāṇas,”
“perception,” or “knowledge.” The book also includes a glossary, with minimal definitions
of terms.
In a Western classroom setting, Indian philosophy demands much of both
students and teachers, and this book, with all that it offers, nevertheless would need
students to brace themselves and, I suspect, teachers of the subject to work hard to
take full advantage of it. Undoubtedly the author was constrained by the publisher’s
word-limit (which may explain why the book ends somewhat abruptly with “Concluding
Reflections” on Aurobindo, with no Conclusion to the book as a whole—one that could
draw explicit attention to ways the book has served its declared purposes).
Nevertheless, particularly as an introduction to Indian philosophy, I would have liked to
see a more generous variety of diagramatic and schematic representations of specific
concepts and of summary lists that provide easy viewing of parallels and divergences.
(The book does include three simple diagrams).
Sadly, this first edition of the book is marred by a veritable profusion of
typographic errors, such as misplaced or unnecessary commas, misspelled Sanskrit
terms (or misplaced diacritics), and awkward sentences, (not infrequently three or even
more editing issues on a single page). Occasionally the poor editing results in
philosophical points losing clarity. This problem alone makes it difficult to recommend
the book, especially for classroom use, though as a reference book it is surely useful
and insightful (in particular I found the explicit East-West connections interesting: there
are references, albeit necessarily cursory, to Aristotle, Descartes, Dante, T. S. Eliot,
Empedocles, Hartshorne, Hegel, Kant, and Husserl, among others).
The articulation of Indian philosophy, especially for Western audiences, is
certainly a work in progress with a long way to go to become truly comprehensible and
appreciable by most audiences, and this book certainly participates positively in that
work. With a more polished text and more graphic representation of its content this book
could still better serve this purpose.

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