Sarvadarshanasangraha

(“Collection of all [philosophical]
views”) A philosophical encyclopedia
composed by Madhava in the late fourteenth century. In this text, Madhava
compiled the views of all the existing
philosophical schools, which he placed
in hierarchical order, based on his judgment of their truth value. The materialist schools were ranked the lowest and
least reliable since their proponents
completely denied the virtue of any religious life. After this came various
Buddhist schools, whose low standing
can be attributed to the widespread perception that they were nihilists (nastikas). Madhava then moves through
the various Hindu philosophical
schools, finishing with the Advaita
Vedanta school—his own—which was
judged the highest and most perfect
expression of the truth. Although the
Sarvadarshanasangraha is a polemical
text with a clear bias, it is one of the few
extant sources that considers the perspectives of all the existing schools.