A History of Sanskrit Literature c3.88

c3.88

On the interesting issue of the effect of Indian philosophy on Schopenhauer and of the present importance of that philosophy for western thought reference may be made to the *Fünfzehntes Jahrbuch der Schopenhauer-Gesellschaft*, 1928. An energetic polemic against the view of early influence of Indian on Greek philosophy has been delivered by Th. Hopfner,⁸ which at least has the merit of showing the precariousness of the assumptions of such influence. Part of the argument for Indian influence rests on the belief in early dates for the Indian schools of thought, and it is clear that there is great difficulty in arriving at definite conclusions on this issue. Thus Professor Das Gupta¹ places the *Laṅkāvatāra* before Açvaghoṣa, but the text we have seems to know the Vijñānavāda school and the barbarian inroads of *c.* A. D. 500.. Much stress has of late been laid on the Sāṁkhya philosophy,² as it is presented in the Saṁhitā of Caraka, but it seems to be overlooked that we have not the slightest proof that this or any special part of the text is really Caraka's.³