Indian Philosophy: Schools and Key Concepts
Indian Philosophy surveys the astika and nastika schools and their key concepts. The exam tests school classification, pramanas, metaphysical positions and terms such as karma, maya and anekantavada.
Core rules and concepts
- Astika schools accept Vedic authority: Nyaya (logic), Vaisheshika (atomism and categories), Samkhya (purusha-prakriti dualism), Yoga (discipline), Mimamsa (ritual and interpretation), Vedanta (Upanishadic).
- Nastika schools reject Vedic authority: Charvaka (materialism, perception only), Buddhism (four noble truths, anatta, pratityasamutpada), Jainism (anekantavada, syadvada, ahimsa).
- Shared ideas: karma, samsara, moksha or nirvana, dharma; debates over atman, Ishvara and the status of the world.
- Advaita Vedanta: Brahman alone is real, the world is maya, and the jiva is non-different from Brahman.
Worked example
The blind men and the elephant illustrates anekantavada: each report is partially true from its standpoint (naya), but no single report exhausts the object. Syadvada expresses this with 'syat' (in some respect). The reasoning avoids both dogmatic absolutism and the claim that all views are equally false.
Traps
Do not call Buddhism atheistic in the sense of crude materialism; it denies a creator God but has ethical discipline. Do not confuse Samkhya's purusha with the Advaitic atman. Do not treat maya as nothingness. Do not list schools without their defining claim.