Indian philosophy - Summary

Philosophical inquiry in India goes back to the late Vedic age when, with a shift in focus from ritual to knowledge, two directions emerged. One was the ritually based Mimamsa, incorporating the injunctions of the Veda and concerned with its exegesis as a system of ritual and with its language; the other was the gnostic Vedanta, with its ontology of unity. Buddhism reacted to this unity by postulating a completely pluralistic ontology, replacing the idea of any stable entity such as ‘self’ by the idea of a flux of momentary cognitions, and thereby laid the foundation for a philosophical controversy which stimulated Indian thought for 1500 years. The study of the Veda also triggered a remarkable eminence in linguistics and the philosophy of language, firmly anchored in the grammar of Panini (c.500 BC) and alive to this day. Eminent also were the philosophical schools of Shaivism, which reached a high point with Abhinavagupta (flourished c.975–1025). In addition to Mimamsa and Vedanta, four other ‘systems’ (darshana, ‘seeing; point of view’) are found. The dualistic Samkhya (the theoretical basis for the system of Yoga) was the earliest attempt at a systematic philosophy. Nyaya and Vaisheshika were primarily concerned with logic and with the question of being and what there is, and also with epistemology and language. The schools then merged, and gave rise to the extremely sophisticated Navyanyaya or ‘Neo-logic’. Consolidated by Gangesha in the 14th-c, this flourished for several centuries, particularly in Mithila and Bengal.

The term Indian philosophy may refer to any of several traditions of philosophical thought, including:

Hindu philosophy Buddhist philosophy Jain philosophy Sikh philosophy Carvaka atheist philosophy Lokayata materialist philosophy Tantric religious philosophy Bhakti religious philosophy Sufi religious philosophy Ahmadi religious philosophy Political and military philosophy such as that of Chanakya Non-violent Gandhism that inspired Martin Luther King Nehruvian socialism that was applied in the developing world Political non-alignment Indian logic Yogic philosophy Indian martial arts Indian nationalism Hindu nationalism Other religious systems Other atheist philosophy Other secular philosophy

Summary

Brief sketch of Indian Philosophy