The six established schools of traditional Hindu philosophy
are known as the Six Schools.
The Vedas, which are religious books, are considered by all
six schools to be the most authoritative pramana, or ways by which human beings
may receive real and correct knowledge.
All six schools also believe that philosophical reflection
must serve religious aims in order to free the embodied soul (atman) from an
otherwise endless cycle of transmigration.
Apart from these commonalities, each of these schools
evolved its own unique and characteristic viewpoints.
Despite their differences, the schools were connected in pairs during the early centuries of the common era:
- Nyaya
- Vaisheshika,
- Samkhya-Yoga,
- Purva Mimamsa
- Uttara Mimamsa,
- with the last school being known as Vedanta.
The Nyaya school examined and cataloged the pramanas, or
techniques by which human beings may receive real and correct knowledge, and
their findings were approved by all six schools.
The Vaisheshika school was a descriptive ontology that
classified the universe in an atomistic manner, with everything being thought to
be made up of smaller components.
This school had philosophical issues from the start, which
contributed to its demise.
Samkhya is an atheistic dualism based on the distinction
between an unconscious but active prakrti ("nature") and a conscious
but inert purusha ("person," or spirit).
Failure to distinguish between the two, according to Samkhya
proponents, leads to the development of the world and the particular person,
but right comprehension reverses this process.
The Yoga school's theoretical foundation is Samkhya, which
basically describes strategies to assist one obtain a proper comprehension of
these two things.
Purva Mimamsa emphasizes the study of the Vedas as a source
of human education, a focus that has led to the development of complex linguistic
theories and methodologies of textual interpretation.
The Vedanta school employed these methods in their quest to
discover the Vedas' ultimate meaning.
During the com mon period, the first millennium was a time
of intense dispute between various schools, each of which had opposing
viewpoints on fundamental issues like as the truth of the world.
By the end of the millennium, Vedanta had entirely eclipsed
the other philosophical perspectives, albeit it had absorbed some of their
impacts.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore (eds. ), A
Source Book in Indian Philosophy, 1957, for further information.
