The Essentials of Indian Philosophy

A good introductory work on philosophy must be authoritative, concise and readable. The best examples are Will Durant's "Story of Philosophy" and Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy". Unfortunately there are no such books on Indian philosophy (Radhakrishnan is too long-winded). The closest that we have is M Hiriyanna's "Essentials of Indian Philosophy". It is not as readable as Durant or Russell. There is no humour. It reads like a text book for university students. There is no effort to make the subject interesting for the layman. However, on the plus side, the book is authoritative and concise. There is no other work that gives a bird's eye view of 2000 years of Hindu philosophical tradition in just 200 pages. This is the best book to start one's study of the subject.