offer, these were reconciled with the doctrines of one or other of the existing systems, and put down as faithful interpretations of the system in the form of commentaries. Such was the hold of these systems upon scholars that all the orthodox teachers since the foundation of the systems of philosophy belonged to one or other of these schools. Their pupils were thus naturally brought up in accordance with the views of their teachers. All the independence of their thinking was limited and enchained by the faith of the school to which they were attached. Instead of producing a succession of free-lance thinkers having their own systems to propound and establish, India had brought forth schools of pupils who carried the traditionary views of particular systems from generation to generation, who explained and expounded them, and defended them against the attacks of other rival schools which they constantly attacked in order to establish the superiority of the system to which they adhered. To take an example, the Nyâya system of philosophy consisting of a number of half-sentences or sûtras is attributed to Gautama, also called Ak@sapâda. The earliest commentary on these sûtras, called the _Vâtsyâyana bhâ@sya_, was written by Vâtsyâyana. This work was sharply criticized by the Buddhist Di@nnâga, and to answer these criticisms Udyotakara wrote a commentary on this commentary called the _Bhâ@syavâttika_ [Footnote ref 1]. As time went on the original force of this work was lost, and it failed to maintain the old dignity of the school. At this Vâcaspati Mis'ra wrote a commentary called _Vârttika-tâtparya@tîkâ_ on this second commentary, where he tried to refute all objections against the Nyâya system made by other rival schools and particularly by the Buddhists. This commentary, called _Nyâya-tâtparya@tîkâ_, had another commentary called _Nyâya-tâtparya@tîkâ-paris'uddhi_ written by the great Udayana. This commentary had another commentary called _Nyâya-nibandha-prakâs'a_ written by Varddhamâna the son of the illustrious Ga@nges'a. This again had another commentary called _Varddha-mânendu_ upon it by Padmanâbha Mis'ra, and this again had another named _Nyâya-tâtparyama@n@dana_ by S'a@nkara Mis'ra. The names of Vâtsyâyana, Vâcaspati, and Udayana are indeed very great, but even they contented themselves by writing commentaries on commentaries, and did not try to formulate any _______________________________________________________________________ [Footnote 1: I have preferred to spell Di@nnâga after Vâcaspati's _Tâtparyatîkâ_ (p. I) and not Dignnâga as it is generally spelt.] 64 original system. Even S'a@nkara, probably the greatest man of India after Buddha, spent his life in writing commentaries on the _Brahma-sûtras_, the Upani@sads, and the _Bhagavadgîtâ_.