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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Erich Frauwallner's History of Indian Philosophy is regarded, particularly in the West, as an authentic and authoritative work on the subject. No doubt it deserves high praise for the method employed by the learned author (though his political philosophy was, to say the least, reprehensible) and his thorough grip over the whole matter. In the last chapter of the work he deals with materialism in India. The situation, he says,
became more difficult at the end of the classical period of Indian philosophy, when logical and epistemological questions moved to the forefront of interest and when every system was compelled to take into consideration, on which their systems were founded […] Partly one tried to hold fast to the old line, as, for instance, when one explained: “The aphorisms of Bṛhaspati have only this aim, viz. to refute the opponent”. But in the majority of cases one decided to discuss the doctrine of inference and to take it over at least in parts. This desertion of the original attitude led, in no way, to the consequence of the decline of the system. The taking up of foreign thoughts and occupation with them led, on the contrary, to a regular activity and to a blossoming up of a literature richer than hitherto.
Unfortunately Frauwallner did not have the time or the scope to elaborate the ‘blossoming’ of the later period which is disregarded by other scholars. We may presume that he had Purandara, Aviddhakarṇa and Udbhaṭa in mind.
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