Religion & philosophy

Story hook

In the 8th century CE, a young Brahmin from Kerala named Adi Shankara walked from Kalady to Varanasi, Badrinath, and the four corners of the subcontinent, debating philosophers in the open hall of every monastery he passed. By the time he died at 32 years old, he had systematised Advaita Vedanta — the doctrine that Atman (individual soul) and Brahman (cosmic absolute) are identical. He had founded four mathas (monasteries) at the cardinal points: Sringeri (south), Dwarka (west), Puri (east), and Joshimath (north). He had written commentaries on the Brahmasutras, the principal Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita — the Prasthana-Trayi (three foundational texts of Vedanta).

What Shankara consolidated was the culmination of the "shad-darshan" (six orthodox systems) — the great philosophical inheritance of Hindu thought. Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa, Vedanta. Each of these systems addressed a different layer of the same question: what is the nature of reality, of the soul, of liberation, and of the path to it? They emerged across roughly 600 BCE - 600 CE, flowered through compilation of foundational sutras (Nyaya Sutras of Gautama, Vaisheshika Sutras of Kanada, Samkhya Karikas of Ishvarakrishna, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Mimamsa Sutras of Jaimini, Brahma Sutras of Badarayana), and continued to be elaborated in commentary literature into the modern era.

Alongside these six "astika" (orthodox, Veda-accepting) systems run three "nastika" (heterodox, Veda-rejecting) systems: Buddhism, Jainism, and Charvaka (Lokayata). Together the nine — six orthodox plus three heterodox — constitute what UPSC means by "Indian philosophy." Mastering them gives you the conceptual vocabulary for any Mains question on Hindu thought, the Bhakti and Sufi movements, or the modern revival under Vivekananda and Aurobindo.

Why this matters for UPSC

The six orthodox systems appear in Prelims most years — typically as founder-sutra pairing, or doctrinal classification (dualist / non-dualist / qualified-non-dualist). Mains uses it for "philosophical syncretism," "Vedanta and modern Hindu revival," or "Yoga as global cultural product" questions. Interview boards probe it for International Yoga Day, philosophical pluralism, and the question of what constitutes "Hinduism."