Sarvadarsana Samgraha (An Epitome of the Different Systems of Indian Philosophy)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The Asiatic Society has planned to observe the bicentenary celebration of Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar as part of its sustained yearlong academic programmes. On this occasion the Society already has initiated discussions on Vidyasagar through seminar, workshop, lecture, publication and exhibition. It may not be out of place here to mention that the Asiatic Society has also decided to institute two Research Fellowships in the name of Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar on this important occasion of his bicentenary. The Society intends to engage itself with serious research on Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar in future.

The name of Pt. Iswarchandra Vidyasagar is associated with the task of text-construction and editing of several Sanskrit works from the source of handwritten manuscripts. Credit goes to him in publishing books like Raghuvamsam (1853), Kirätarjuniyam (1853), Sisupälabadham (1857), Sarvadarsanasamgrahah (1853-1858), Kumarasambhavam (1861), Kadambari (1862), Meghadutam (1869), Uttararamacaritam (1870). Abhijñanasakuntalam (1871), and Harṣacaritam (1873). Some of those books are improved versions of previously published works prepared with the help of newly found manuscripts and commentarial works attached to them. The mother copy of Harṣacaritam and Sarvadarsanasamgrahaḥ was absolutely his own preperation from manuscripts. Harşacaritam is a text of paramount importance in Sanskrit prose-literature. Working on a single manuscript available to him from Jammu, Vidyasagar had to face great trouble in preparing the press-copy of Harṣacaritam. Later on, he could collect two more manuscripts from the Kashmir region and with the help of those three manuscripts he could manage to prepare the faultless copy of the full text. This is one of the tremendous academic achievements of Vidyasagar. Sarvadarsanasathgrahah is a project-work submitted by him to the Asiatic Society for publication. Initially for this attempt he had to depend on two manuscripts available to him at that time, one belonging to the Sanskrit College library and the other in the Museum-collection of the Asiatic Society. This scarcity of adequate number of manuscripts posed great difficulty in preparing a faultless copy of the text. Afterwards with the assistance of F. W. Hall three manuscripts from Benaras Sanskrit College came to his hand and with the help of those new materials he became confident and ultimately successful to give a complete shape of the proposed work. It took time from 1853 to 1858 to see the finished product of the avowed scheme in printed form.