A Comparative Study of the Concepts of Space and Time in Indian Thought (An Old and Rare Book)

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The present work is the outcome of hard labour and intensive study of original texts carried on for several years. The subject of my study constitutes the perennial problem of philosophy of ancient, medieval and modern periods. The results of my researches again reveal the perennial truth that entire agreement of philosophical problems is out of the question. No two doctors agree is a well known adage. Sathkaracharya in his Sarirakabhalya observes in one place that the interests of persons are bound to vary and their findings on any topic will be as human beings are found to be in their physical features. The doctrine of Liebnitz, namely the identity of indiscernibles, holds good in the intellectual field as much as it does in the physical world. It is the greatest wonder of Nature that there has been no repetition of two facts exactly analogous in all respects. Even the Siamese twins have exhibited features of difference not only physically but also in their judgements, tastes, emotions, and reactions. This law is found to operate with unabating force in the field of philosophy also. It is said in the Malta-bharata ; Nasau muniryasya matath na bhinnam. Time and space are the fundamental data of science and philosophy. The realists have their shades of difference but are agreed that these two entities are real facts. They are the Ockground and the medium of creation. The idealists only accord a provisional status to them. The sceptics and particularly the Sanyavadins, the paragons of destructive dialectics, lire voted space and time out of existence. There are inter-mediate degrees of difference even in the camps of the realists and also of the idealists. I have endeavoured to be faithful and Loyal to the schools and their representative exponents. I have en a survey of their arguments and conclusions. But I have not been contented with the role of a faithful expositor and so have expressed my difficulties and doubts in my criticisms of the individual theories.

The problems of time and space have been treated by almost all philosophers and various works have been written by modern scholars. The speciality of my present attempt in the fact that it gives a survey of the views and the opinions of different philosophers beginning from the dawn of the first speculation in the Vedic period down to the recentest theories of scientific philosophers in the compass of a monograph. Fidelity has been my motto. I have had to tread a thorny and tortuous path in my explorations through the veritable forest of speculations and I am not sure whether the results achieved are commensurate with the labour undertaken by me It has, however, been a labour of love. It is extremely difficult to resist being puzzled by the journey through the labyrinth of arguments and counter-arguments which have been put forward by each philosopher in support of his position and in refutation of rival arguments. I have come to the conclusion that notwithstanding the bewildering divergences of opinions among philosophers that time and space cannot be conjured away by waving the magician's wand. We have to reckon with them. Perhaps the instincts and the intuitions of the Vedic seers, unsophisticated by the logical devices evolved after thousands of years of thought, are correct.

**Contents and Sample Pages**