mimānsã was philosophy of the interpretation of dharma from the Vedas. Vedānta and Sankhya are more of pure philosophy. All these schools accepted the work of other schools in so far as it agreed with their own concepts.
All these different philosophies evolved greatly from the Vedic literature and Upanishads. Their history by periods cannot be written, the dates of three of the different promulgators are entirely unknown, and the original work of these promulgators is not extant in all cases.
Still it would not be a very bad presumption to say that these different systems were in the process of formation during these five hundred years under consideration. The relation of these systems to Mänava dharma-shāstra will be dealt with at the proper occasion.
The intellectual activity of the period was not confined to philosophical discussion. Patanjali's famous work on Grammar appeared during this period. Garga's work on astronomy from which Varālia-mihira has so largely borrowed also appeared during this period.
We have reasons to conjecture that the epic of Mahabharata was in the process of development during this period. Perhaps several of the Puranas also may have been compiled in some form of another. A considerable Jain, and Buddhistic literature carne into existence during this period.[1]
- ↑ Materials for the history of the period. The political history of the period has been well worked out by Vincent Smith in his "Early History of India, including Alexander's Campaigns," Oxford, 1904. He has written a very good monograph 011 the Andhras. Some different phases of the history have been touched by Rhys Davids in his "Buddhist India." G. P.
