History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.148

v7.c95.148

In the present chapter the author proposes to examine the Vedic literature for tracing the origin and the growth of this doctrine and the vicissitudes and modifications of it and the objections raised against it in modern times. It is a remarkable circumstance that, though the several *darśanas* (such as Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Pūrvamīmāṁsā and Vedānta) severely criticize some doctrines of each other, the doctrine of Karma and transmigration received almost unanimous support except among materialists (like Cārvāka). Prof. Wilson in 'Religion of the Hindus' (London, ed. of 1862) vol. II. p. 112 remarks 'metempsychosis is not only the one point on which all are agreed, it is the one point which none have ever disputed'. The Buddhists and Jains, though they differed on many matters from Vedic and Smṛti literature, adopted this doctrine in their own way. There are some suppositions antecedent to all beliefs in Karma and transmigration viz. (1) man has a soul, eternal and separate from the physical body, (2) that other organisms, animals, plants and probably inanimate objects possess souls, (3) that the souls of men and lower animals can pass from one kind of physical organism to another, (4) that the soul is both doer and sufferer.