Madhava

(2) (14th c.) Author of the Sarvadarshanasangraha, a philosophical encyclopedia composed in the late fourteenth
century. In this text, Madhava compiles the views of all existing philosophical schools, placing them in
hierarchical order, based on his judgment of their value. According to the
text, the materialist school is ranked
the lowest and least reliable, since its
proponents completely deny the
virtue of any religious life. The Advaita
Vedanta school, Madhava’s own, is
judged as the highest and most perfect
expression of the truth. Although the
Sarvadarshanasangraha is biased, it is
one of the few extant sources which
considers the perspectives of all the
existing schools.