Systems of Indian Philosophy

Philosophy is known as darśana or vision of truth in India.^[1] The word darśana is derived from the root √dṛś which means ‘vision’ and also the ‘instrument of vision’. It stands for the direct immediate and intuitive vision of truth.^[2] That from which we find real knowledge is known as darśana. The philosophical purpose in India is to observe the nature of the reality as a whole.

The origin of Indian Philosophy is found in the Vedas. Among the Vedas mainly the Ṛgveda is the fountain head of it. We find that, from the earliest time of the Ṛgveda, Indian seers became involved in philosophical speculations and the result of their attempts are found embodied in the Puruṣasūkta^[3], the Devīsūkta^[4], the Nāsadīyasūkta^[5] etc. “The Puruṣasūkta and Devīsūkta contain the germ of Monistic Idealism while the Śūktas ascribed to Dirghatamas contain the germ of Dualistic Realism”.^[6] Thus, six well-known systems of Indian philosophy namely—Sāṃkhya, Āstika and nāstika are the two broad divisions of Indian philosophy. The terms āstika and nāstika are used in different senses.

In the words of Kuppuswami,

“Pāṇini’s sūtra 4.4.60 (asti nāsti diṣṭaṃ matiḥ) gives the derivation of the words āstika, nāstika and daiṣṭika and according to Pāṇini, āstika is ‘one who believes in the other world’, nāstika is ‘one who does not believe in the other world’ and daiṣṭika is a predestinarian’ or ‘fatalist’. This is the oldest recorded explanation of these words.”^[7]

Generally āstika means one who believes in the existence of God and nāstika means one who does not believe in the existence of God. However, according to the philosophers, those schools are called āstika, which accept the Vedic authority and those schools are named nāstika, which do not accept the Vedic authority. The Mīmāṃsā and the Sāṃkhya do not believe in God as the creator of the world, yet they are called āstika, as they believe Vedic authority. The above mentioned six systems are the main orthodox systems. There are again some other systems which did not attain much prominence compared to the above mentioned six systems, but they are also termed as āstikas. For example we can mention the name of Grammarian system, the Medical system etc. which are found in the Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha of Mādhavācārya.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Chatterjee, S.C. and Datta, D.M., An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, p.2

[2]:

dṛśyate yathārthatattvamanena iti darśanam, Śabdakalpadruma, p.414

[3]:

Ṛgveda,, 10.90

[4]:

Ibid., 10.125

[5]:

Ibid., 10.129

[6]:

Tarkatirtha, A.M. and Vedantatirtha, N.C. (ed), Saptapadārthi, Introduction, p. iii Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta flourished. The root of some systems is Monistic Idealism others is Dualistic Realism. All these six systems are known as the āstika or the orthodox systems as they accept the authority of the Vedas. Some other systems of Indian Philosophy do not accept the Vedic authority. These systems are called nāstika or heterodox systems, viz. the Bauddha, the Jaina and the Cārvāka.

[7]:

. Kuppuswami, S., A Primer of Indian Logic, Introduction, p.vii