Dates of the Philosophical Sūtras—The Question of Priority.
As regards the dates of the philosophical sūtras, nothing definite is known; here, as in the subsequent portions of our history, we have to depend largely upon constructive chronology.
We quote below two short extracts from Professor Max Müller's "Indian Philosophy" which summarise all the information available at present on the subject:
"If we consider the state of philosophical thought in India such as it is represented to us in the Brāhmanas and Upanishads, and afterwards in the canonical books of the Buddhists, we cannot wonder that all attempts at fixing the dates of the six recognised systems of philosophy, nay even their mutual relationship, should hitherto have failed. It is true that Buddhism and Jainism were likewise but two philosophical systems out of many, and that it has been possible to fix their dates. But if in their case we know something about their dates and their historical development, this is chiefly due to the social and political importance which they acquired during the fifth, the
