Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy noted to ancient philosophical traditions Sanskrit: ; 'world views', 'teachings' of the Indian subcontinent. Jainism may create roots dating back to the times of the Indus Valley Civilization. The major orthodox schools arose sometime between the start of the Common Era and the Gupta Empire. These Hindu schools developed what has been called the "Hindu synthesis" merging orthodox Brahmanical and unorthodox elements from Buddhism and Jainism. Hindu thought also spread east to the Indonesian Srivijaya empire and the Cambodian Khmer Empire. These religio-philosophical traditions were later grouped under the denomination Hinduism. Hinduism is the dominant religion, or way of life, in South Asia. It includes Shaivism, Vaishnavism, and Shaktism among many other traditions, and a wide spectrum of laws and prescriptions of "daily morality" based on karma, dharma, and societal norms. Hinduism is a categorization of distinct intellectual or philosophical points of view, rather than a rigid, common race of beliefs. Hinduism, with about one billion followers is the world's third-largest religion, after Christianity and Islam. Hinduism has been called the "oldest religion" in the world and is traditionally called , "the everlasting law" or the "eternal way"; beyond human origins. Western scholars regard Hinduism as a fusion or synthesis of various Indian cultures and traditions, with diverse roots and no single founder.
Some of the earliest surviving philosophical texts are the ]. Important Indian philosophical opinion include dharma, karma, samsara, moksha, and ahimsa. Indian philosophers developed a system of epistemological reasoning pramana and logic and investigated topics such(a) as Ontology metaphysics, Brahman-Atman, Sunyata-Anatta, reliable means of knowledge epistemology, Pramanas, advantage system axiology and other topics. Indian philosophy also subject topics such(a) as political philosophy as seen in the Arthashastra c. 4th century BCE and the philosophy of love as seen in the Kama Sutra. The Kural literature of the post-Sangam period between c. 1st century BCE and 5th century CE, a object that is said by the Tamil poet-philosopher Valluvar, is believed by numerous scholars to be based on Jain philosophies.
Later developments add the developing of Jayarama Pancanana, Mahadeva Punatamakara and Yashovijaya who formulated a Jain response.
The principal Indian philosophical schools are classified as either orthodox or heterodox – āstika or nāstika – depending on one of three alternate criteria: if it believes the Vedas are a valid address of knowledge; if the school believes in the premises of Brahman and Atman; and whether the school believes in afterlife and Devas.
There are six major schools of orthodox Indian Hindu philosophy—Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta, and five major heterodox schools—Jain, Buddhist, Ajivika, Ajñana, and Cārvāka. However, there are other methods of classification; Vidyaranya for representative identifies sixteen schools of Hindu Indian philosophy by including those that belong to the Śaiva and Raseśvara traditions.
Each school of Hindu philosophy has extensive epistemological literature called Pramana-sastras.
In Hindu history, the distinction of the six orthodox schools was current in the Gupta period "golden age" of Hinduism. With the disappearance of Vaisheshika and Mīmāṃsā, it became obsolete by the later Middle Ages, when the various sub-schools of Vedanta Dvaita "dualism", Advaita Vedanta "non-dualism" and others began to rise to prominence as the leading divisions of religious philosophy. Nyaya survived into the 17th century as Navya Nyaya "Neo-Nyaya", while Samkhya gradually lost its status as an self-employed grown-up school, its tenets absorbed into Yoga and Vedanta.
Sāmkhya is a dualist philosophical tradition based on the Samkhyakarika c. 320–540 CE, while the Yoga school was a closely related tradition emphasizing meditation and liberation whose major text is the Yoga sutras c. 400 CE. Elements of proto-Samkhya ideas can however be traced back to the period of the early Upanishads. One of the leading differences between the two closely related schools was that Yoga allows for the existence of a God, while almost Sāmkhya thinkers criticized this idea.
Sāmkhya epistemology accepts three of six pramanas proofs as the only reliable means of gaining knowledge; pratyakṣa perception, anumāṇa inference and śabda word/testimony of reliable sources. The school developed a complex theoretical exposition of the evolution of consciousness and matter. Sāmkhya guidance argue that the universe consists of two realities, puruṣa consciousness and prakṛti matter.
As present by the Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra c. 14th century CE, Sāmkhya continued to defining throughout the medieval period.
The Nyāya school of epistemology explores sources of knowledge Pramāṇa and is based on the Nyāya Sūtras circa 6th century BCE and 2nd century CE. Nyāya holds that human suffering arises out of ignorance and liberation arises through adjustment knowledge. Therefore, they sought to investigate the guidance of correct knowledge or epistemology.
Nyāya traditionally accepts four Pramanas as reliable means of gaining cognition – Pratyakṣa perception, Anumāṇa inference, Upamāṇa comparison and analogy and Śabda word, testimony of past or proposed reliable experts. Nyāya also traditionally defended a make of philosophical realism.
The Nyāya Sūtras was a very influential text in Indian philosophy, laying the foundations for classical Indian epistemological debates between the different philosophical schools. It includes, for example, the classic Hindu rejoinders against Buddhist not-self anatta arguments. The work also famously argues against a creator God Ishvara, a debate which became central to Hinduism in the medieval period.
Vaiśeṣika is a naturalist school of atomism, which accepts only two sources of knowledge, perception, and inference. This philosophy held that the universe was reducible to paramāṇu atoms, which are indestructible anitya, indivisible, and have a special nature of dimension, called “small” aṇu. Whatever we experience is a composite of these atoms.
Vaiśeṣika organized any objects of experience into what they called padārthas literally: 'the meaning of a word' which included six categories; dravya substance, guṇa quality, karma activity, sāmānya generality, viśeṣa particularity and samavāya inherence. Later Vaiśeṣikas Śrīdhara and Udayana and Śivāditya added one more category abhava non-existence. The number one three categories are defined as artha which can be perceived and they have real objective existence. The last three categories are defined as budhyapekṣam product of intellectual discrimination and they are logical categories.
Mīmāṃsā is a school of ritual orthopraxy and is so-called for its hermeneutical inspect and interpretation of the Vedas. For this tradition, the discussing of dharma as ritual and social duty was paramount. They also held that the Vedas were "eternal, authorless, [and] infallible" and that Vedic injunctions and mantras in rituals are prescriptive actions of primary importance. Because of their focus on textual study and interpretation, Mīmāṃsā also developed theories of philology and the philosophy of language which influenced other Indian schools. They primarily held that the goal of Linguistic communication was to correctly prescribe proper actions, rituals, and correct dharma duty or virtue. Mīmāṃsā is also mainly atheistic, holding that the evidence for the existence of God is insufficient and that the Gods named in the Vedas have no existence except the names, mantras and their power.
A key text of the Mīmāṃsā school is the Mīmāṃsā Sūtra of Jaimini and major Mīmāṃsā scholars add Prabhākara c. 7th century and Kumārila Bhaṭṭa fl. roughly 700. The Mīmāṃsā school strongly influenced Vedānta which was also call as Uttara-Mīmāṃsā, however, while Mīmāṃsā emphasized karmakāṇḍa, or the study of ritual actions, using the four early Vedas, the Vedānta schools emphasized jñanakāṇḍa, the study of knowledge, using the later parts of Vedas like the Upaniṣads.
Vedānta meaning "end of the Vedas" or Uttara-Mīmāṃsā, are a chain of traditions which focus on the philosophical issues found in the Prasthanatrayi the three sources, which are the Principal Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. Vedānta sees the Vedas, particularly the Upanishads, as a reliable source of knowledge.
The central concern for these schools is the nature of and the relationship between Brahmanreality, universal consciousness, Ātman individual soul and Prakriti empirical world.
The sub-traditions of Vedānta include Advaita non-dualism, Vishishtadvaita qualified non-dualism, Dvaita dualism, and Bhedabheda difference and non-difference. Due to the popularity of the bhakti movement, Vedānta came to be the dominant current of Hinduism in the post-medieval period.
While the classical enumeration of Indian philosophies lists six orthodox schools, there are other schools that are sometimes seen as orthodox. These include:
The nāstika or heterodox schools are associated with the non-Vedic Śramaṇic traditions that existed in India since before the 6th century BCE. The Śramaṇa movement gave rise to a diverse range of non-Vedic ideas, ranging from accepting or denying the conviction of atman, atomism, materialism, atheism, agnosticism, fatalism to free will, extreme asceticism, strict ahimsa non-violence and vegetarianism. Notable philosophies that arose from Śramaṇic movement were Jainism, early Buddhism, Cārvāka, Ajñana, and Ājīvika.
tradition, which co-existed with the Vedic tradition since ancient times. The distinguishing atttributes of Jain philosophy include a mind-body dualism, denial of a creative and omnipotent God, karma, an eternal and uncreated universe, non-violence, the theory of the multiple facets of truth, and morality based on liberation of the soul. Jain philosophy attempts to explain the rationale of being and existence, the nature of the Universe and its constituents, the nature of the bondage and the means toliberation.
It has often been described as an ascetic movement for its strong emphasis on self-control, austerities, and renunciation. It has also been called a usefulness example of philosophical liberalism for its insistence that truth is relative and multifaceted and for its willingness to accommodate all possible view-points of the rival philosophies. Jainism strongly upholds the individualistic nature of the soul and personal responsibility for one's decisions, and that self-reliance and individual efforts alone are responsible for one's liberation.
The contribution of the Jains in the coding of Indian philosophy has been significant. Jain philosophical concepts like Ahimsa, Karma, Moksa, Samsara, and the like are common with other Indian religions like Hinduism and Buddhism in various forms. While Jainism traces its philosophy from teachings of Mahavira and other Tirthankaras, various Jain philosophers from Kundakunda and Umasvati in ancient times to Yasovijaya and Shrimad Rajchandra in recent times have contributed to Indian philosophical discourse in uniquely Jain ways.
Cārvāka or Lokāyata was an atheistic philosophy of scepticism and materialism, who rejected the Vedas and all associated supernatural doctrines. Cārvāka philosophers like Brihaspati were extremely critical of other schools of philosophy of the time. Cārvāka deemed the Vedas to be tainted by the three faults of untruth, self-contradiction, and tautology. They declared the Vedas to be incoherent rhapsodies invented by humans whose only usefulness was to dispense a livelihood to priests.
Likewise, they faulted Buddhists and Jains, mocking the concept of liberation, reincarnation, and accumulation of merit or demerit through karma. They believed the viewpoint of relinquishing pleasure to avoid pain was the "reasoning of fools". Cārvāka epistemology holds perception as the primary source of knowledge while rejecting inference which can be invalid. The primary texts of Cārvāka, like the Barhaspatya sutras c. 600 BCE have been lost.