A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy - Part One

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From the Jacket:

The history of the Vedanta school is well known since the time of Sankaracarya on, and its prehistory before Sankara is quite obscure. However, from the time of compilation of major Upanisads to Sankara there is a period of thousand years, and the tradition of Upanisads was not lost; there appeared many philosophers and dogmaticians, although their thoughts are not clearly known.

The author has made clear the details of the pre-Sankara Vedanta philosophy, utilizing not only Sanskrit materials, but also Pali, Prakrit (Jain), as well as Tibetan and Chinese sources.

In this respect this is quite a unique work. For this work the author was awarded the Imperial Prize by the Academy of Japan.

Some sections of this work were already published in Indian as well as European and American journals in English. This work is a complete English translation of the entire book. The English translation was done with the financial aid by the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and the final touch was given by Mr. Trevor Leggett, the British writer, who is well-versed in Sanskrit as well as in Japanese.

About the Author:

Professor Hajime Nakamura, D.Litt. (University of Tokyo), Honorary D.Litt. (Government of India and Nehru University) is a distinguished scholar of international repute. As a Chairman of the Department of Indian Philosophy and Literature, Director of the Eastern Institute, Tokyo and a member of several Research Institutes in India and other countries he has a brilliant career. He was awarded the honorary degree of Vidya-vacaspati by the President of the Republic of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. He was awarded the honorary doctorate by the University of Delhi and Kuppu-Swami Research Institute, Madras. He was also awarded the honorary degree of Deshikottama by Visvabharati University, Shantiniketana. He was Visiting Professor at Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Hawaii, State University of New York.

He was Professor of Indian and Buddhist Philosophy a the University of Tokyo for thirty years. Since his retirement he has been conducting the Eastern Institute, Inc., as the Founder-Director. He is now Professor Emeritus of University of Tokyo. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and a Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Science, Vienna.

He is a versatile and striking genius. He has splendid achievement in the literary field too. Among his greatest production may be ranked History of Vedanta, 4 Volumes (in Japanese), Early Buddhism, 5 Volumes (in Japanese), Japan and Indian Asia (in English) and History of the Development of Japanese Thoughts, 2 Volumes.