The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus

Abstract

ACHARACTERISTIC feature of the presentday literary activity of the philosophically -minded men of science in India is seen in the com-anentaries they are publishing from time to time on their ancient systems of scientific doctrine, partly, no doubt, with the object of enlightening Western nations concerning the existence in these systems of certain root-ideas which are usually held by us to be the product of Western thought alone. The more our knowledge grows the more certainly will it be seen that many of these fundamental concepts are common to all systems of philosophy, and that, in the absence of an accurate chronology, it becomes increasingly difficult to “determine where or with whom their germs originated. It is possible, of course, that some of these fundamental ideas were independently conceived, but it is equally probable that they may have had a common origin or have been radiated from a common source. In such case there is ground for the supposition that this common source was India. But in reality it is impossible to say with any approach to accuracy how Eastern knowledge travelled in the far—off times to which we are referring. We can only surmise that these ancient philosophies found their way along trade routes through Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, to the Greeks and Egyptians, and thence along the Mediterranean littoral into Spain and western Europe.

The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus.

By Dr. B. Seal. Pp. viii + 295. (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1915.) Price 12s. 6d. net.