Hindu philosophy or Vedic philosophy is the set of philosophical systems that developed in tandem with the first Hindu religious traditions during the iron and classical ages of India. In Indian philosophy, of which Hindu philosophy is a prominent subset, the word used for philosophy is Darshana (Sanskrit: दर्शन, IAST: darśana; meaning: "viewpoint or perspective"), from the Sanskrit root 'दृश' () meaning 'to see, to experience'.
The schools of thought or Darshanas within Hindu philosophy largely equate to the six orthodox schools: the āstika (Sanskrit: आस्तिक) schools, defined by their acceptance of the Vedas, the oldest collection of Sanskrit texts, as an authoritative source of knowledge. Of these six, Samkhya (सांख्य) is the earliest school of dualism; Yoga (योग) combines the metaphysics of Samkhya with meditation and breath techniques; Nyaya (न्याय) is a school of logic emphasising direct realism; Vaisheshika (वैषेशिक) is an offshoot of Nyaya concerned with atomism and naturalism; Mimamsa (मीमांसा) is a school justifying ritual, faith, and religious obligations; and Vedanta (वेदान्त) contains various traditions that mostly embrace nondualism.Klaus K. Klostermaier (1984), Mythologies and Philosophies of Salvation in the Theistic Traditions of India, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, , pages 124–134, 164–173, 242–265Teun Goudriaan and Sanjukta Gupta (1981), Hindu Tantric and Śākta Literature, A History of Indian Literature, Volume 2, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, , pages 7–14
The Indian philosophical landscape during the ancient and medieval periods also produced philosophical systems that share many concepts with the āstika traditions, yet at the same time reject or oppose several central Vedic concepts, such as Ātman, or interpret them in their own way.Analayo (2004), Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization, , pp. 207-208 These have been called (heterodox or non-orthodox) philosophies, and they include: Buddhism, Jainism, Charvaka, Ajivika, and others.P Bilimoria (2000), Indian Philosophy (Editor: Roy Perrett), Routledge, , page 88 These nāstika schools of thought are thus regarded as Indian but almost never as Hindu. Western scholars have debated the relationship and differences within āstika philosophies and with the nāstika philosophies, starting with the writings of Indologists and Orientalists of the 18th and 19th centuries, based on limited availability of Indian literature and medieval doxographies. The various sibling traditions included in Indian philosophies are diverse and are united by: shared history and concepts, textual resources, ontological and soteriological focus, and cosmology.Carl Olson (2007), The Many Colors of Hinduism: A Thematic-historical Introduction, Rutgers University Press, , pages 101-119 Some ambiguity arises from the word Hindu being an exonym historically used as a geographical and cultural identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent, sometimes regardless of their beliefs.R Thomas (2014), Hindu Perspectives on Evolution: Darwin, Dharma, and Design. Sociology of Religion, Vol. 75, No. 1, pages 164–165, Quote: "some of the ancient Hindu traditions like Carvaka have a rich tradition of materialism, in general, other schools..."KN Tiwari (1998), Classical Indian Ethical Thought, Motilal Banarsidass, , page 67; Quote: "Of the three heterodox systems, the remaining one, the Cārvāka system, is a Hindu system.";V.V. Raman (2012), Hinduism and Science: Some Reflections, Zygon – Journal of Religion and Science, 47(3): 549–574, Quote (page 557): "Aside from nontheistic schools like the Samkhya, there have also been explicitly atheistic schools in the Hindu tradition. One virulently anti-supernatural system is/was the so-called Carvaka school.", Bill Cooke (2005), Dictionary of Atheism, Skepticism, and Humanism, , page 84;For a general discussion of Cārvāka and other atheistic traditions within Hindu philosophy, see Jessica Frazier (2014), Hinduism in The Oxford Handbook of Atheism (Editors: Stephen Bullivant, Michael Ruse), Oxford University Press, , pages 367–378
Hindu philosophy also includes several sub-schools of theistic philosophies that integrate ideas from two or more of the six orthodox philosophies. Examples of such schools include: Pāśupata Śaiva, Śaiva siddhānta, Pratyabhijña, Raseśvara and Vaiṣṇava. Some sub-schools share Tantric ideas with those found in some Buddhist traditions,Klaus K. Klostermaier (1984), Mythologies and Philosophies of Salvation in the Theistic Traditions of India, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, , pages 219–223 which are nevertheless found in the Puranas and the Āgamas.Klaus K. Klostermaier (1984), Mythologies and Philosophies of Salvation in the Theistic Traditions of India, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, , pages 28–35Jayandra Soni (1990), Philosophical Anthropology in Śaiva Siddhānta, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, , pages vii–xiiHilko Schomerus and Humphrey Palme (2000), Śaiva Siddhānta: An Indian School of Mystical Thought, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, , pages 13–19 Each school of Hindu philosophy has extensive epistemological literature called Pramana, as well as theories on metaphysics, axiology, and other topics.Karl H. Potter (1961), A Fresh Classification of India's Philosophical Systems , The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1, pages 25–32
Classifications
In the history of India, the six orthodox schools had emerged before the start of the Common Era, and some schools emerged possibly even before the Buddha.Students' Britannica India (2000), Volume 4, Encyclopædia Britannica, , page 316 Some scholars have questioned whether the orthodox and heterodox schools classification is sufficient or accurate, given the diversity and evolution of views within each major school of Indian philosophy, with some sub-schools combining heterodox and orthodox views.
Indian philosophy has been categorised into and schools of thought, though this distinction was not clearly defined until the late medieval period. The orthodox schools of Indian philosophy have been called ('six systems'). This schema was created between the 12th and 16th centuries by Vedantins. It was then adopted by the early Western Indologists, and pervades modern understandings of Indian philosophy. Satoshi Ogura notes that scholars should keep in mind the tendency of classification of Indic knowledge in Persianate discourses and its legacies in modern writings in both India and the Western world.Satoshi Ogura (2024), The Ā’īn-i Akbarī and Western Indology: with Special Reference to the Category of the Six Systems of Philosophy, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Supplement, No. 3, 2024: https://tufs.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/2000328/files/jaas-supp003008.pdf
Āstika There are six (orthodox) schools of thought. Each is called a darśana, and each darśana accepts the Vedas as authority. Each also accepts the premise that Atman (eternal Self) exists.Klaus Klostermaier (2007), Hinduism: A Beginner's Guide, , Chapter 2, page 26John Plott, James Dolin and Russell Hatton (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Axial Age, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 60–62 The schools of philosophy are: Samkhya – A strongly dualist theoretical exposition of consciousness (purusha) and matter (prakriti). Agnostic with respect to God or the gods. Yoga – A monotheistic school which emerged from Samkhya and emphasises practical use of Samkhya theory: meditation, contemplation and liberation. Nyaya or logic – The school of epistemology which explores sources of knowledge. Vaisheshika – An empiricist school of atomism. Mīmāṃsā – An anti-ascetic and anti-mysticist school of orthopraxy. This tradition is also known as Pūrva-Mīmāṁsā because of its focus on the earlier (pūrva) Vedic texts dealing with ritual actions, and similarly also known as Karma-Mīmāṁsā due to its focus on ritual action (karma). Vedanta – They focus on the last segment of knowledge in the Vedas, or ('section of knowledge'). Vedanta is also referred to as Uttara-Mimamsa. Vedānta came to be the dominant current of Hinduism in the post-medieval period. This school considers the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras, and the Bhagvad Gita as authoritative texts.
Nāstika
Schools that do not accept the authority of the Vedas are nāstika philosophies, of which four (heterodox) schools are prominent: Charvaka, a materialism school that accepted the existence of free will. Ājīvika, a materialism school that denied the existence of free will.James Lochtefeld, "Ajivika", The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A–M, Rosen Publishing. , page 22AL Basham (2009), History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas – a Vanished Indian Religion, Motilal Banarsidass, , Chapter 1 Buddhism, a philosophy that denies existence of ātman (Self)Steven Collins (1994), Religion and Practical Reason (Editors: Frank Reynolds, David Tracy), State Univ of New York Press, , page 64; Quote: "Central to Buddhist soteriology is the doctrine of not-self (Pali: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman, the opposed doctrine of ātman is central to Brahmanical thought). Put very briefly, this is the [Buddhist] doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no unchanging essence.";John C. Plott et al. (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Axial Age, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, , page 63, Quote: "The Buddhist schools reject any Ātman concept. As we have already observed, this is the basic and ineradicable distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism"KN Jayatilleke (2010), Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge, , pages 246–249, from note 385 onwards;Katie Javanaud (2013), Is The Buddhist 'No-Self' Doctrine Compatible With Pursuing Nirvana? , Philosophy Now (2013, Subscription Required); and is based on the teachings and enlightenment of Gautama Buddha. Jainism, a philosophy that accepts the existence of the ātman (Self), and is based on the teachings and enlightenment of twenty-four teachers known as tirthankaras, with Rishabha as the first and Mahavira as the twenty-fourth.Paul Dundas (2002), The Jains, 2nd Edition, Routledge, , pages 1–19, 40–44
Other schools Besides the major orthodox and non-orthodox schools, there have existed syncretic sub-schools that have combined ideas and introduced new ones of their own. The medieval scholar Madhavacharya, identified by some as Vidyaranya, in his book 'Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha', includes 16 philosophical systems current as of 14th century. Along with some of the major orthodox and non-orthodox schools and sub-schools, it includes the following sub-schools: Pashupata Shaivism, developed by Nakulisa Shaiva Siddhanta, the theistic Sankhya school Pratyabhijña, the recognitive school of Kashmir Shaivism, TrikaCarl Olson, The Many Colors of Hinduism , Rutgers University Press, 2007, page 237 Raseśvara, a Shaiva school that advocated the use of mercury to reach immortality The Pāṇinīya
The above sub-schools introduced their own ideas while adopting concepts from orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy such as realism of the Nyāya, naturalism of Vaiśeṣika, monism and knowledge of Self (Atman) as essential to liberation of Advaita, self-discipline of Yoga, asceticism and elements of theistic ideas. Some sub-schools share Tantric ideas with those found in some Buddhist traditions.
Characteristics