Great introduction to Indian philosophy. It is short, but very dense book. It is intended for people familiar with modern Western philosophy terms, so I wouldn’t recommend for complete beginners in philosophy. But it is not work of comparative philosophy and rather basic familiarity could be enough. The book is divided by disciplines of philosophy, rather than chronology or philosophical systems (in this context called darśana). It’s rather unusual presentation, but it gives specific point of view that highlights shared topics and contrasting ideas. In contrast, it was difficult to get general idea what given systems were about. It was necessary to scavenge dispersed pieces, hold them in mind carefully and arrange them together on our own.
That way of exposition history of philosophy is not worse than chronological or system-wise, but rather dual to it. I want to read at some point another book with another approach and I think they will be complementary to each other. I imagined reading this book like watching landscape from a distance. I can have good overview of space of ideas, I rest my eyes on most significant landmarks of ideas and what type of topics ecosystem is this. Human settlements are there visible too, blended with environment, but from this perspective it is hard to discern where particular villages end and start another ones. How invisible borders of cultural tension or conflict go. In this metaphor human villages are philosophical systems (darśana). With certain efforts those invisible lines of culture can be inferred too though.
Overall, this book gave me fascinating overview of sophistication and depths of classical Indian philosophy. During reading it, new directions that I wanted to follow popped up constantly and I found new jumping points for future exploration of ancient India intellectual heritage.