Top 9 Schools of Indian Philosophy: A Short Overview

Top 9 Schools of Indian Philosophy: An Short Overview

The Indian Schools of Philosophy

The nine systems of Indian Philosophical thought have been conventionally classified into two broad divisions of the orthodox (astika) and the heterodox (nastika). This classification has been made on the basis of whether or not a system believes in the infallibility of Vedas. The Schools that neither consider the Vedas to neither be infallible nor derive their own validity from the authority of the Vedas are classified as heterodox, or nastika. The schools of materialism, Buddhism, and Jainism, fall in this category as they repudiated the authority of the Vedas. The Buddhists and the Jainas subscribed to their own respective scriptures. The remaining six Schools are all orthodox because, directly or indirectly, they accept the authority of the Vedas. Of these, Mimamsa and Vedanta depend entirely on the Vedas and exist in continuation of the Vedic tradition. Mimamsa emphasizes the importance of the rituals prescribed in the Vedas, but Vedanta considers the parts of Vedas which contain philosophical issues more important. While Samkhya, Yoga, Nyaya, and Vaisesika are not based on the Vedas, but they accept the authority of the Vedas. They nevertheless are careful to maintain a consonance between their theories and the Vedas.

Schools of Philosophy	Focus	Founder	Source Book
1.        Nyaya	Logic & Analytic	Gautama	Nyaya Sutra
2.        Vaisesika	Atomic building blocks & Consciousness	Kanada	Vaisesika Sutra
3.        Mimansa	Critical interpretation of the Vedas	Jamini	Mimansa Sutra
4.        Samkhya	Consciousness & Matter	Kapila	Samkhya Sutra
5.        Yoga	Meditation, Contemplation	Patanjali	Yoga Sutra
6.        Vedanta	Essence of the Vedas	Badarayana	Vedanta Sutra
7.        Charvaka	Self & Present	Brhaspati	Brhaspatya Sutra
8.        Buddhism	Nirvana & Moksha	Goutam Buddha	Tripitaka
9.        Jainism	Non-Violence	Tirthankars & Mahabir	Agama Sahitya

1) Materialism or Charvaka : This School is also called the Chrvaka System, so named after its chief exponent, or Lokayata, i.e., Philosophy of the people. As the name itself suggests, this school believes matter to be the only reality. The materialists accept the existence of only four eternal elements - earth, water, fire and air. They reduce everything to matter and explain even metaphysical concepts like consciousness as a property, which is produced in the body from a combination of these four elements in a certain proportion. Their whole philosophy rests on their theory of knowledge, which admits perception as the only source of valid knowledge. Consequently, they do not entertain the ideas of God, Soul, akasa, and the like, as these cannot be ascertained by perception The Charvaka ethics leave a lot to be desired. Since they take this world to be the only reality, never to be experienced again once we die, they believe in maximum indulgence of senses. Out of the four human values - Dharma, artha, kama, and moksha - they advocate pursuit of kama only and artha merely as a facilitating means for the purpose. No original work of the system has survived.

2) Jainism: This schools can be qualified by adjectives like realistic, relativistic, pluralistic, and atheistic, Jaina believe in the validity of perception, inference, and testimony as means of knowledge. They camp up with a unique position of Syadavada, or the theory of relativity of knowledge. They believe that reality has innumerable aspects. Human knowledge is finite and cannot comprehend them all. Therefore, our judgements can never be absolutely affirmative or negative but only relative, i.e., as viewed from a particular viewpoint out of the infinite possible ones. Related to this doctrine is their theory of Anekantavada, i.e., the theory of manyness of reality, which asserted that reality is neither absolutely permanent nor constantly changing. It is permanent with respect to substance since matter exists forever, but qualities are its accidental features, which come into being and perish. The Jaina metaphysics is pluralistic and divides all substances into souls (Jiva) and non - soul (ajiva), and both are separately and independently real.

3) Buddhism : This School came into being as a result of the enlightenment attained by Buddha, consequent to which he took to preaching Although he preached orally, his three central doctrines have been preserved well. The first of these The four Noble Truths, Which are that there is misery, that there is a cause of misery, that there is cessation of misery, and that there is a path leading to the cessation of misery. The second doctrine is that of Pratityasamutpada or dependent origination, which is contained in the second and third noble truths. It says that everything in this world arises depending on the cause and is, therefore, impermanent. Buddha believed that suffering, which resulted due to ignorance, led to the endless cycles of birth and death. Only knowledge can break this cycle and liberate us. The theory contained in the fourth noble truth is called the Eight -fold Noble Path and prescribes the following eight steps, which lead to enlightenment. Buddhism believes in perception and inference as the means of valid knowledge. It also believes in testimony, but reduces it to inference. Buddha recommended avoiding extremes and following the middle path, which leads to knowledge, enlightenment, and, consequently, nirvana or liberation.

4) Nyaya : This School, which is said to have been founded by Gotama, is an allied system of Vaishesika. The two share many of their views while differing on a few. Vaishesika, which is devoted primarily to metaphysics and ontology, found its epistemological and logical counterpart in Nyaya. Nyaya subscribes to atomistic pluralism and logical realism. It asserts that there is suffering because the soul is in bondage due to ignorance of reality. The only way to end this suffering is by attaining liberation through knowledge. Therefore, Nyaya undertakes to establish the right ways of knowing.

5) Vaishesika: Said to have been founded by Kanada, this school shares most of its ideas with Nyaya. Considering how important the right knowledge of reality is for liberation, Vaishesika devotes itself to the exposition of reality. It classifies all realms under the seven categories of substance. Vaishesika accepts only perception and inference as valid independent pramanas, and reduces comparison and verbal testimony to inference. Its views on causation, God, and liberation concur with that of Nyaya.

6) Samkhya: This School of dualistic realism was founded by Kapila. It believes in the existence of two mutually independent ultimate realities, viz. Prakrti and Purusa. The essentially conscious purusa is intelligent. It is the self, which is other than the body, the senses, and the mind. It is a witness to the change going on in the world, but is itself eternal and not subject to change. Purusa is that who enjoys the products of prakrti, Samkhya advocates the multiplicity of Purusa. Prakrti, on the other hand, is unconscious and eternal, It is the first principle of the world. It is always changing and is meant to be enjoyed by the Purusa. It is constituted of the three gunas of sattva, rajas, and tamas, which are held in perfect equilibrium at the beginning of evolution. They consider earthly life as painful and liberation as cessation of all pain. Knowledge of distinction between the self and the not-self does not itself liberate us, but sends us on the path of liberation, which is achieved through the spiritual training gained by the practice of Yoga.

7) Yoga: This School, which was founded by Patanjali, was closely allied with Samkhya, and accepts its epistemology and metaphysics, While Samkhya is theoretical, Yoga is practical, and they are both considered as two sides of the same system. Discriminative knowledge, or vevekajnan, is necessary for liberation and it can be attained through the practice of Yoga. The Practice of Yoga as a discipline had been done since ancient times. However, since its alliance with the Samkhya, it tried to develop a specific philosophy of its own, which would be in harmony with the Sankhya Philosophy. Though the popular understanding of Yoga equates it with just the asanas, there are eight steps prescribed for its practice, which emphasize internal and external cleansing, self - discipline physical fitness, and meditation, which result in alertness and mental strength.

8) Mimamsa: The main aim of this School, which was founded by Jaimini, was to provide reasons in defence and favour of the ritualism prescribed by the Vedas, Their entire epistemology and metaphysics is formed to support this aim. In keeping with this objective, they contend that the Vedas are self - existing and eternal. They have not been written by any human. Therefore, they are free of error and we should submit to their authority without questions. The authority of Vedas prevails over everything else. They claim that the rituals mentioned in the Vedas when performed in a disinterested way destroy the karmas and lead to liberation after death. They assert that the world has always been like this. Apart from the reality of the physical world, they also insist on the reality of the souls. The soul is considered to be immortal because how else would they explain the performance of certain rituals, which are supposed to help attain heaven. The Prabhakara School accepts the validity of perception, inference, comparison, testimony, and postulation. The Kumarila school addsnon - cognition to this list of pramanas. There is no place for God in the Mimamsika philosophy. There is a shift from their idea of liberation as attainment of bliss to liberation as cessation of suffering.

9) Vedanta : This School tool its name from the fact that philosophically it was a continuation of the Vedas. The word 'Vedanta' is a composite of two words 'Veda' and 'anta', or end, and literally mens 'the end of Vedas.' The philosophy of this school arose from where the Vedas ended, i.e., from the Upanishads. The other important sources on which the Vedantins depend are the Geta and the Brahma-sutra, which was the first work to successfully capture the essence of the Upanishada in entirety of Sri Sankara's interpretation of is considered to be the most powerful one, and his philosophy of Advaitavada is considered to be the representative of the Vedanta Philosophy. Vedanta believes in monism and its metaphysics is in accordance with this principle. They do not consider the world to be ultimately real. They believe, like Prabhakara Mimansikas, in six means of valid knowlege, viz. Perception, inference, comparison, testimony, presumption, and non - cognition.

All the Schools of Indian Philosophy developed not in isolation from one another, but as interrelated to each other, Each had to defend its theory from the criticisms it faced from the other Schools and also develop its own theory to challenge the others. The development of a particular school cannot, therefore, be understood properly without constant reference to other Schools in which it finds a mention.