It seems possible, then, that there are two, and only two, independent traditions of rational debate and

inquiry (in the sense indicated above) in the history of mankind. These two are, in their oldest accessible forms, linked to Greece and India respectively. Such a tradition, once properly established, attains an impetus of its own, which may ensure its continuation, also in less than ideal circumstances. Greek thinking subsequently influenced the Hellenistic world and its inheritors, primarily Western Europe and the world of Islam, and its tradition of rational inquiry came along, usually in a watered down form. 15 Indian thought, especially in its Buddhist forms, spread eastward, and its tradition of rational inquiry, though not able to acquire a lasting foothold in China, left its traces in the Tibetan tradition of debate. The possibility that there are two and only two independent traditions of rational inquiry gives the question why is there philosophy in India?' (granted that Indian philosophy, or part of it, is an expression of a tradition of rational inquiry) an interest that extends far beyond Indology. If this kind of philosophy is such an exceptional thing, something that does not automatically come about wherever human beings have enough leisure to think of more than their daily concerns, how and why did it arise in India, and not in any other civilizations except ancient Greece? The question becomes even more interesting if we consider the probable proposition that rational debate (including criticism), and the need to develop rational and coherent systems of thought that went hand in hand with it, was (and still is) an essential element (though only one out of several) in the development of modern science, and therefore a precondition for the immense and sudden developments that have changed life on earth virtually beyond recognition within a period of barely two centuries