Overview
Hindu philosophy
Hindu philosophy is the longest surviving philosophical tradition in India. We can recognize several historical stages. The earliest, from around 700 bc, was the proto-philosophical period, when ...
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Overview
Jaina philosophy
The issues in Jaina philosophy developed concurrently with those that emerged in Buddhist and Hindu philosophy. The period from the second century bc to about the tenth ...
Thematic
Arya Samaj
The Arya Samaj (ārya-samāj, ‘The Association of Nobles’) is a Hindu reform movement founded in 1875 by Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1824–83). Based on the supposition that the true ...
Thematic
Asceticism
The term ‘asceticism’ is derived from the Greek word, askēsis, which referred originally to the sort of exercise, practice or training in which athletes engage. Asceticism may ...
Thematic
Awareness in Indian thought
Classical Indian schools all stake out positions on awareness, its intrinsic nature, its place in the causal processes crucial to human accomplishment, its relations to objects in the ...
Thematic
Brahman
The Sanskrit word brahman (neuter) emerged in late Vedic literature and Upaniṣads (900–300 bc) as the name (never pluralized) of the divine reality pervading the universe, ...
Thematic
Brahmo Samaj
The Brahmo (or Brahma) Samaj (‘Society of Brahma’) is the name of a theistic society founded by Raja Rammohun Roy in Calcutta in 1828. It advocated reform, and ...
Thematic
Causation, Indian theories of
Causation was acknowledged as one of the central problems in Indian philosophy. The classical Indian philosophers’ concern with the problem basically arose from two sources: first, the cosmogonic ...
Thematic
Cosmology and cosmogony, Indian theories of
Theories of the origin of the universe have been told as stories, riddles and instruction in India since early times. The three prominent religious movements, Hinduism, Buddhism and ...
Thematic
Definition, Indian concepts of
Definitions in Indian philosophy are conceived very differently from definitions in Western philosophy. In Western philosophy and logic, it is usual to define a term or a linguistic ...
Thematic
Duty and virtue, Indian conceptions of
Two principal strains of ethical thought are evident in Indian religious and philosophical literature: one, central to Hinduism, emphasizes adherence to the established norms of ancient Indian culture, ...
Thematic
Epistemology, Indian schools of
Each classical Indian philosophical school classifies and defines itself with reference to a foundational text or figure, through elaboration of inherited positions, and by disputing the views of ...
Thematic
Error and illusion, Indian conceptions of
From the earliest Indian speculation, illusion has been key in the exposition of Indian mysticism. In classical philosophy proper, all schools take positions concerning illusion (sometimes called error) ...
Thematic
Fatalism, Indian
Indian speculation about the vicissitudes of human life has a long and complex history. Life in the early Vedic period was considered to be largely hostage to the ...
Thematic
Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism
The philosophical school encompassing the Bengali devotees of the god Viṣṇu is traditionally known as the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava school. Caitanya is considered to be the founder of this ...
Thematic
God, Indian conceptions of
In the Ṛg Veda, the oldest text in India, many gods and goddesses are mentioned by name; most of them appear to be deifications of natural powers, such ...
Thematic
Heaven, Indian conceptions of
Heaven is an important part of Indian religious cosmology and also figures strongly in Indian philosophical discourse. In the cosmologies of the early period of Indian thought, from ...
Thematic
Inference, Indian theories of
The use of argument in rational inquiry in India reaches almost as far back in time as its oldest extant literature. Even in very early texts, one finds ...
Thematic
Interpretation, Indian theories of
Need for interpretation of texts was felt already during the ancient period of Vedic texts in India. Vedic texts were orally transmitted for over a thousand years. During ...
Thematic
Karma and rebirth, Indian conceptions of
The combined beliefs in karma and rebirth, that is, the retributive power of actions and decisions and a beginningless, though not necessarily endless, succession of births and deaths ...
Thematic
Knowledge, Indian views of
Classical Indian epistemology centres on a complex of terms for knowledge, knower and the known or knowable, including pramāṇa, ‘means to knowledge’ or ‘source of knowledge’. Views ...
Thematic
Language, Indian theories of
Language is a much debated topic in Indian philosophy. There is a clear concern with it in the Vedic texts, where efforts are made to describe links between ...
Thematic
Manifoldness, Jaina theory of
The Sanskrit term anekāntavāda literally means ‘not-one-sided doctrine’, and refers to the Jaina epistemological theory of manifold standpoints from which an object may be considered and the ...
Thematic
Matter, Indian conceptions of
During the long and complex history of Indian philosophy, a number of divergent conceptions of matter have been developed and explored. These conceptions diverge both with respect to ...
Thematic
Meaning, Indian theories of
The term artha in Sanskrit is used for the notion of meaning, in the widest sense of the word ‘meaning’; it can be the meaning of words, ...