Indian culture is very diverse and many philosophers have played significant roles in Indian philosophy throughout history. The philosophical development in any state helps in shaping the religious and political traditions as well. The Indian philosophical field is mainly divided into two schools; Orthodox School and Heterodox School.
The Indian heterodox school included Jainism, Buddhism, Charvaka School (Lokayata philosophy), etc. On the other hand, the orthodox school of Indian philosophy have six major sub-schools; Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, and Vedanta schools.
Also Read: Literature in Modern India
Dravidian (South India) Literature of India
Sikh and Zoroastrian Literature
Samkhya School
Kapil Muni who supposed to wrote Samkhya Sutra, mainly propounded the Samkhya school and the word ‘Samkhya’ means ‘count’. This school argued that salvation could be attained through the acquisition of knowledge while lack of knowledge is also supposed to be the root cause for misery of man. This school also believed in Dvaitavada (dualism; those who believes that soul and matters are separate entities). This school is famous for scientific system of inquiry.
Nyaya School
The Nyaya school, a part of orthodox school, was supposed to be founded by Gautama who also authored the Nyaya Sutra. This school believes in the technique of logical thinking for the achievement of salvation and they further argued that only ‘real knowledge’ could lead to salvation. Using logical tools like inference, hearing, and analogy; a human can verify the truth of a proposition or statement. For example, there is fire in the jungle because there is emission of smoke and everything that emits smoke has a component of fire in it.
Vaisheshika School
Kanada who wrote the basic governing philosophical text of the Vaisheshika school, is considered the founder of this school. The believe in the physicality of the universe and focus on realistic and objective philosophy that governs the universe. The emphasis is that the universe is created by five main elements; fire, air, water, earth, and ether (sky), and all these elements are called Dravya. This school also developed the atomic theory, i.e., all material objects are made of atoms. They also believed in God and the laws of Karma which are guiding the universe.
Mimamsa School
The Mimamsa philosophy is described by the Jaimini in his Sutras which were supposed to be written in 3rd century BCE. And later Sabar Swami and Kumarila Bhatta also contributes in this school’s philosophy. The word ‘Mimamsa’ means the art of reasoning, interpretation and application. They argued that Vedas contains the eternal truth and the salvation is possible only through performing rituals. This philosophy inherently legitimized the social distance between the various classes.
Vedanta School
The word Vedanta itself made of two words- ‘Veda’ and ‘ant’, i.e., end of the Vedas. This school uphold the philosophies of Upanishads. Brahmasutra of Badrayana is considered as oldest texts contains the philosophy of this school. According to the theory of this school, Brahma is the reality of life and everything else in unreal or Maya. But later the thoughts of Shankaracharya (who wrote Advaita Vedanta) and Ramanujan led to change in the philosophical thoughts of this school. They considered Brahma without any attributes and knowledge is the main source of attainment of salvation.
Yoga School
The origin of this school is associated with Yogasutra of Patanjali which is written around the 2nd century BCE. The yoga means the union of two attributes. They argued that humans can achieve the salvation by combining meditation and physical application of yogic techniques. They argue that this process led to release of the Purusha from the Prakriti (nature). The physical aspect of this school deals primarily with exercises in various postures that are called Asanas.
Thus, Orthodox philosophy significantly helped in reforming the religious and political fields in India.
Pingback: Martial Arts as A Part of Indian Culture - historylover.in