The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s6.63

c13.s6.63

The Hindu culture that was assimilated by Alberuni was presented by him to his readers in the perspective of Greek thought. It is very noteworthy that the manner in which we moderns try to institute parallels or identities between the Hindu and the Hellenic ideologies can be traced back to this Afghan-Moslem scientist and philosopher of the eleventh century. In his work on India the Moslems found Plato, Proclus, Aristotle, Grammaticus, 'Alexander of Aphrodosias, Apollonius of Tyana, Porphyry, Ammonius, Aratus, Galenus, Ptolemy, Pseudo-Kallisthenes rubbing shoulders with the authors of the *Sāmkhya*, the *Yoga*, the *Gītā* and other systems (Vol. I. pp. xlii, xxlii). Nor is this all. His comparative method served to bring in the Hindu ideas into the milieu of Zoroastrian, Christian, Jewish, Manichaean, and Sufi sources.