The six orthodox schools that accept the Veda's authority and argue, school against school, over knowledge, atoms, spirit, practice, rite, and the absolute.
The darshanas are Hinduism's philosophical systems, paired by the doxographers into a single curriculum of debate. Each school kept its own sutras and commentaries, and together they set the terms on which Indian philosophy argued for a thousand years.
Major divisions
The divisions most visitors need first, in the order the tradition itself presents them.
Sub-branch / Family
Sub-branch / Family
Mimamsa
The school of the rite: the Veda as eternal and authorless, dharma known from its injunctions alone.
Sub-branch / Family
Nyaya
The school of logic: the means of knowledge, the categories of debate, and the refutation of the Buddhist and skeptic opponents.
Sub-branch / Family
Samkhya
The school of enumeration: purusha and prakriti, the twenty-five principles, and release by discriminating knowledge.
Sub-branch / Family
Vaisheshika
The school of atoms and categories: the world's furniture counted into kinds, and the soul known by inference.
Sub-branch / Family
Yoga Darshana
The school of practice: Patanjali's eight limbs, the stilling of the mind, and isolation of the seer from the seen.
Sources
Primary
- Sarva-Darshana-Sangraha of Madhavacharya (14th century).
Secondary
- Karl H. Potter, ed., Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies.