10 schools · 6 orthodox darshanas + 4 Vedanta sub-schools
हिन्दू दर्शन
Hindu Philosophies — Shad Darshana & Vedanta Sub-Schools
The six orthodox (astika) schools of classical Hindu philosophy — Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, and Vedanta — each present a complete system with its own founder, root texts, accepted means of valid knowledge (pramana), and characteristic understanding of liberation. Within Vedanta, multiple sub-schools developed rigorous, mutually distinct interpretations of the same Upanishadic source texts. The pages below present each tradition on its own terms in scholarly neutrality.
The Six Orthodox Darshanas (Shad Darshana)
6 schoolsन्याय
Nyaya
Maharshi Gautama (Akshapada) · c. 2nd century BCE
Liberation arises only from correct knowledge of reality, and correct knowledge requires a tested method of valid reasoning. Nyaya supplies the formal toolkit — definitions of inference, fallacy, perception, and debate — that all other Hindu schools borrow. Suffering is rooted in mithyajnana (false cognition), and is dispelled by tattva-jnana arrived at through disciplined logic.
वैशेषिक
Vaisheshika
Maharshi Kanada (Uluka) · c. 2nd century BCE
Reality is exhaustively classified into a finite set of ontological categories (padarthas), and all composite objects reduce ultimately to indivisible atoms (paramanu). Liberation follows from accurate knowledge of these categories and of the distinctness of the soul from the body. Vaisheshika is the metaphysical and atomistic complement to the logic of Nyaya.
सांख्य
Samkhya
Maharshi Kapila · c. 6th–4th century BCE (sutras codified later)
Reality consists of two eternal, irreducible principles: purusha (pure conscious witness) and prakriti (unconscious primordial nature composed of three gunas — sattva, rajas, tamas). All evolution of mind, intellect, ego, and the material world unfolds from prakriti; suffering arises from the mistaken identification of purusha with prakriti. Discriminative knowledge of their distinctness liberates.
योग
Yoga
Maharshi Patanjali · c. 2nd century BCE – 4th century CE
Yoga accepts the metaphysics of Samkhya but adds a practical, eight-limbed psycho-physical discipline (ashtanga-yoga) for stilling the modifications of the mind (citta-vritti-nirodha). Through ethical observance, posture, breath regulation, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and absorption, the practitioner directly realises the distinction of purusha from prakriti. Yoga also accepts Ishvara as a special purusha and meditation focus.
मीमांसा
Mimamsa (Purva Mimamsa)
Maharshi Jaimini · c. 3rd century BCE
The Veda is the self-authoritative, beginningless source of dharma, and its core meaning lies in its injunctions (vidhi) regarding ritual action. Right performance of Vedic rites produces apurva, an unseen potency that yields its result at the appropriate time. Mimamsa develops a sophisticated hermeneutics for interpreting scripture and an epistemology in which valid cognition is intrinsically self-validating.
वेदान्त
Vedanta (Uttara Mimamsa)
Maharshi Badarayana (Vyasa) · c. 1st century BCE – 2nd century CE (sutras)
Vedanta — literally "the end (anta) of the Veda" — takes the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita (the prasthana-trayi) as its authoritative basis and inquires into the nature of Brahman, the ultimate ground of being, and its relation to the individual self (atman) and the world. Multiple sub-schools — Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, Achintya-Bheda-Abheda, and others — offer distinct, internally rigorous interpretations of the same source texts.
Major Vedanta Sub-Schools
4 traditionsVedanta is a family of traditions that share the Upanishads, Brahma Sutras, and Bhagavad Gita (the prasthana-trayi) as authoritative, while differing rigorously on the nature of Brahman, the self, the world, and liberation. Each sub-school below is presented on its own terms.
अद्वैत वेदान्त
Advaita Vedanta
Adi Shankaracharya · 8th century CE
Brahman alone is real, non-dual, and identical with the innermost self (atman); the phenomenal world of multiplicity is a superimposition (adhyasa) on Brahman, real at the empirical (vyavaharika) level but ultimately (paramarthika) sublatable. Bondage is rooted in avidya (beginningless ignorance), and liberation arises from direct knowledge — "Tat tvam asi" ("That thou art") — that the apparent jiva is in essence Brahman itself.
विशिष्टाद्वैत वेदान्त
Vishishtadvaita Vedanta
Sri Ramanujacharya · 11th–12th century CE
Brahman — identified with Sriman Narayana — is the one ultimate reality, but is qualified (vishishta) by the inseparable modes of conscious selves (cit) and unconscious matter (acit), which form his body. The relation of self and world to Brahman is that of body to embodied self: distinct in attribute, inseparable in being. Liberation is not the dissolution of individuality but the eternal, blissful service of the Lord, attained through bhakti and prapatti (self-surrender).
द्वैत वेदान्त
Dvaita Vedanta
Sri Madhvacharya (Ananda Tirtha) · 13th century CE
Reality consists of five eternal, irreducible differences (pancha-bheda): between God and souls, God and matter, soul and soul, soul and matter, and matter and matter. Vishnu (Narayana) is the supreme independent reality (svatantra); all souls and matter are real but dependent (paratantra). Liberation comes through unwavering bhakti to Vishnu, conferred by his grace, and culminates in eternal blissful service in which each liberated soul enjoys a graded share of bliss according to its intrinsic nature (svarupa).
अचिन्त्यभेदाभेद वेदान्त
Achintya-Bheda-Abheda Vedanta
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (systematised by the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan) · 15th–16th century CE
The relation between the supreme Lord (identified as Sri Krishna, the svayam bhagavan) and his energies — the individual souls and the world — is one of simultaneous, inconceivable (achintya) difference and non-difference. The Lord is qualitatively one with his energies yet quantitatively and personally distinct from them. The highest aim of life is the cultivation of prema-bhakti — selfless loving devotion — culminating in eternal participation in Krishna’s pastimes (lila).
A note on neutrality
Each school summarised here has been a living, internally rigorous tradition for many centuries, with a vast commentarial literature and contemporary teachers. The intent of these pages is descriptive and historical, not adjudicatory; no claim is made that any one school is the uniquely correct interpretation of the Veda or Vedanta.