The history of philosophy in Pakistan is the philosophical activity or the philosophical academic output both within Pakistan and abroad. It encompasses the history of philosophy in the state of Pakistan, and its relations with nature, science, logic, culture, religion, and politics from antiquity in continuity after its establishment in August 1947. Historically, the promulgation of Philosophy in what is now Pakistan has been in relation to Indian Philosophy as well as Persianate philosophy.
In an editorial written by critic Bina Shah in Express Tribune in 2012, "the philosophical activities in Pakistan can nevertheless both reflects and shapes the collected Pakistani identity over the history of the nation."
History Ancient Era The region that makes up Pakistan lies on the core of the Indus Basin, and has been inhabited in continuity for millennia, the earliest known works of Philosophy done in Ancient India involved the Vedas and the Upanishads.
The Rigveda, the first of the four Vedas, was composed in the Punjab region present in Modern Pakistan and Northwestern India, where early Vedic schools also existed. During the Vedic era, metaphysical concepts such as the ones on existence in the Nasadiya Sukta and on creation in the Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta were prominent. The Vedic concept of cosmic order developed firstly among priest-philosophers dwelling along the Indus Basin, which provided the metaphysical foundation for later developments in the Dharmic traditions.
The renowned Institute of Ancient Taxila was established around the 6th century BC in the city of Taxila in Northern Punjab as an Achaemenid Satrapal capital, and a seat of Vedic philosophy., "In the early centuries the centre of Buddhist scholarship was the University of Taxila. Currently it became an archaeological site and UNESCO declared taxila as "World Heritage Site" in 1980." It later evolved into a center of Jain philosophy, and most prominently, of Buddhist teachings as well as a hub of education in religious and secular topics in South Asia and beyond for centuries to come. Gandhara in Northern Pakistan itself would continue to serve as a prominent center of philosophy in the Asian continent for many centuries.
Pāṇini, an ancient Sanskrit Grammarian was born in the region of Modern Pakistan roughly around the 7th, 6th or the 4th century BC. Considered the greatest linguist of antiquity, his primary work, the Aṣṭādhyāyī, brought forth an algorithmic approach to grammar and a formal model of language. Since the exposure of European scholars to his works in the 19th century, Pāṇini has largely been considered the "first descriptive linguist" in history, and even labelled as "the father of linguistics".François & Ponsonnet (2013: 184). His approach to grammar influenced such foundational linguists as Ferdinand de Saussure and Leonard Bloomfield. The rigorous formal system developed by Pāṇini far predates the 19th century innovations of Gottlob Frege and the subsequent development of mathematical logic. He is sometimes also believed to have anticipated formal-systems thinking 2,300 years in advance.
Piṅgala, an ancient Indian mathematician known for his works on Combinatorics and an early, explicit use of Zero, is often considered by some to be Pāṇini's brother., pp. 54–56: "In the Chandah-sutra of Pingala, dating perhaps the third or second century BC, [...] Pingala's use of a zero symbol [śūnya] as a marker seems to be the first known explicit reference to zero. ... In the Chandah-sutra of Pingala, dating perhaps the third or second century BC, there are five questions concerning the possible meters for any value "n". [...] The answer is (2)7 = 128, as expected, but instead of seven doublings, the process (explained by the sutra) required only three doublings and two squarings – a handy time saver where "n" is large. Pingala's use of a zero symbol as a marker seems to be the first known explicit reference to zero." The combinatorial rules for metres developed by Pingala that were based on moraic time units (mātrās) were the mathematical foundation for the sequence known as Fibonacci numbers in the West. This sequence of numbers was later formalized by Indian mathematicians Virahānka (c. 6th–8th century CE) and Hemachandra (c. 1150 CE), centuries prior to Fibonacci.
During Alexander the Great's invasion of the Indus Valley, he encountered the Gymnosophists on the banks of the Indus River in Modern Pakistan. Mentioned several times in Ancient Greek records, they were known for their extreme ascetic philosophy. Dandamis, a gymnosophist, and the guru of Kalanos were among the two philosophers specifically mentioned by the Greek records. Alexander had invited Dandamis to his court, and had told him of Socrates, Pythagoras and Diogenes, who, after learning of them, considered them "of good natural parts but to have passed their lives in too much awe of the laws." Dandamis also rejected Alexander's invitation, whereas Kalanos had accepted it, traveling west with his army, and engaging Greek philosophers in debate along the way, eventually dying of self-immolation at Susa.
It was believed by Diogenes Laërtius (fl. 3rd century AD) that Pyrrho of Ellis, the founder of Pyrrhonism was deeply influenced by the gymnosophists while in India with Alexander the Great, and on his return to Ellis, developed his philosophy based on these gymnosophists.(ix. 61 and 63)
In the field of Mathematical philosophy, the invention of Zero holds major significance. The earliest known use of the numeral for Zero occurred in the Bakhshali manuscript, discovered in the Mardan district in Pakistan. It is often considered "the oldest extant manuscript in Indian mathematics.
Cāṇakya, the purported author of the political treatise, the Arthashastra, and one of the earliest thinkers of Political Philosophy was believed to have been born in Gandhara. Acting as the Prime Minister to Chandragupta, the founder of the Mauryan Empire, his text is considered among the oldest works on statecraft, economic policy, and law, acting as a guide to administering a kingdom.
Greater Gandharan Philosophy With the rise of Buddhism and the subsequent synthesis of Hellenistic culture in Pakistan, a new type of philosophy emerged in what is now Pakistan, Afghanistan and Northwestern India, called the Greco-Buddhist or the Gandharan Buddhist philosophy. As philosophy flourished, it was spread to various corners of Asia via the Silk Road connection. Taxila became an attractive seat of learning for people from various different nations.
The first wave of Buddhist missionary work is associated with the Gāndhārī language and the Kharoṣṭhī script according to a growing consensus in scholarship.: 97 However, there is also evidence that almost all the Buddhist schools used Gāndhārī:It is true that most manuscripts in Gāndhārī belong to the Dharmaguptakas, but virtually all schools — inclusive Mahāyāna — used some Gāndhārī. Von Hinüber (1982b and 1983) has pointed out incompletely Sanskritised Gāndhārī words in works heretofore ascribed to the Sarvāstivādins and drew the conclusion that either the sectarian attribution had to be revised, or the tacit dogma "Gāndhārī equals Dharmaguptaka" is wrong. Conversely, Dharmaguptakas also resorted to Sanskrit.:99The Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (or monastic rules), flourishing through Gandhara, are still followed today in China, Vietnam and Korea.Williams, Jane, and Williams, Paul. Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies, Volume 3. 2004. p. 209.
The Milindapañha, composed in Sialkot (then known as Sagala) was a widely prominent philosophical text detailing a debate between the Indo-Greek king Menander I (Milinda) and a Buddhist sage Nagasena. Thomas Rhys Davids considered it the greatest work of classical Indian prose, he says:
The background depiction given by the records of the text show that the region of Gandhara and Punjab were at that time, prominent centers of learning for all forms of philosophy, with Buddhist philosophy being the dominant form among them.
Vasubandhu and Asanga, two half-brothers likely born around Peshawar, remain some of the most influential Buddhist philosophers to date.. "Asaṅga, (flourished 5th century AD, b. Puruṣapura, India), influential Buddhist philosopher who established the Yogācāra (“Practice of Yogā”) school of idealism."Engle, Artemus (translator), Asanga, The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed Enlightenment: A Complete Translation of the Bodhisattvabhumi, Shambhala Publications, 2016, Translator's introduction. Vasubandhu's works set forth the standard for the Yogacara metaphysics of "appearance only" (vijñapti-mātra), which has been described as a form of "epistemological idealism", phenomenology and close to Immanuel Kant's transcendental idealism. In Jōdo Shinshū (the largest branch of Japanese Buddhism), he is considered the Second Patriarch; in Chan Buddhism (the originating tradition of Zen), he is the 21st Patriarch. Similarly, Asanga's works were also influential in the Abhidharma tradition, and his Maitreya Corpus in turned influenced Buddhism in China, Korea and Japan.Ruegg, D.S. La Theorie du Tathagatagarbha et du Gotra. Paris: Ecole d'Extreme Orient, 1969, p. 35.Lugli, Ligeia, Asaṅga, oxfordbibliographies.com, LAST MODIFIED: 25 NOVEMBER 2014, DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195393521-0205. Together, these half-brothers were considered as some of the foremost figures in Mahayana philosophy.Rahula, Walpola; Boin-Webb, Sara (translators); Asanga, Abhidharmasamuccaya: The Compendium of the Higher Teaching, Jain Publishing Company, 2015, p. xiii.
Philosophies like hetuvidyā (logic and epistemology), vyākaraṇa (linguistics), śīla (ethics), and tattvavidyā (metaphysics) remained influential during the Gandharan period.
Role in Buddhist Esoteric Philosophy and the Natha Tradition
The region of Northern Pakistan, especially the Swat Valley, has played a vital and foundational role in the development of early Vajrayāna. Guru Padmasambhava, revered as the founder of the Nyingma School and as the Second Buddha, is largely considered to have been born in Oddiyana (Swat). He established Tantric teachings in Tibet and is thought to be responsible for the eventual Buddhist religious domination in Tibet, being venerated to a great degree by the local Tibetans to this day. Similarly, Garab Dorje, the human founder of the Dzogchen (Great Perfection) linaege is also thought to have been born in Oddiyana.
Out of the many Mahasiddhas shared by both Vajrayana and Natha Sampradaya, several are considered to have been born in the lands of what is now modern Pakistan. Most famously, Guru Gorakhnath, the founder of the Nath Sampradaya itself is believed to have been born in Peshawar or West Punjab. Gorakhnath and his teacher, Matsyendranatha, developed Hatha Yoga, a highly philosophical branch of Yoga utilising intense physical activities to attain esoteric goals.
The Natha Yogis used esoteric and symbolic philosophy for their goals. According to Mikel Burley, some of the siddhis mentioned are symbolic references to well-desired soteriological goals. For instance, the Vayu Siddhi (conquest of the air) literally implies rising into the air as in levitation, but it likely has a symbolic meaning of "a state of consciousness into a vast ocean of space" or "voidness" ideas found respectively in Hinduism and Buddhism. The Natha Yogi also wrote the earliest known works in Old Punjabi, enabling the language to be able to express higher and subtle ideas, paving the way for Punjabi philosophy.
Early Islamic Era