Roy W. Perrett, 2016
A book that I had high hopes for that were somewhat dashed. I should not have expected anything more from a textbook than what I recieved: each chapter deals with a central theme, drawing from across traditions and periods in order to assemble the various takes we might call “Indian” philosophy into some kind of narrative on the topic. Perrett calls his approach innovative because, unlike many other writers on the theme, he attempts to bridge chronology and amalgamate rather than separate distinct traditions. I certainly appreciated this approach and he writes with a fantastic brevity given the sheer amount of material he is undoubtedly covering. Yet the novel-lover in me is a bit lost for words when asked why you should read this book. It makes a fantastic course book – this is the main text for the Oxford Indian Philosophy paper which I regrettably did not take. But as a casual read I encourage you to look elsewhere.