School · 45 thinkers
South Asian & Tibetan Philosophy
45 thinkers of South Asian & Tibetan Philosophy on the Agora star map, from Uddalaka Aruni to Ashis Nandy, in chronological order.
- traditionally c. 830–760 BCEUddalaka Aruni
All things are transformations of one underlying Being, and your own self is that Being – as salt dissolved in water is everywhere in it.
- traditionally c. 800–720 BCEYajnavalkya
Your innermost self is one with the ground of all reality – and this self cannot be described, only pointed to by saying what it is not.
- traditionally c. 780–700 BCEGargi Vachaknavi
In the Upanishad she presses the question of what the whole world is woven on – and the answer is an imperishable reality beyond all things.
- traditionally c. 780–700 BCEMaitreyi
In the Upanishad she asks what use wealth is if it cannot make her immortal – and learns that the true self is what one should seek.
- legendary figureKapila
The teaching attributed to him separates pure consciousness from active nature: suffering ends when we see that the self is not the body or mind.
- legendary figureBrihaspati (Carvaka)
The teaching attributed to him trusts only what the senses show: there is no soul apart from the body, no afterlife and no karma.
- c. 500–425 BCE · traditionally 599–527 BCEMahavira
Every living thing has a soul, so harming none is the highest duty – and strict self-discipline frees the soul from what binds it.
- c. 480–400 BCE · conventionally dated 563–483 BCESiddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
Life is full of suffering because we crave and cling; by seeing this clearly and following a middle path of right living, we can be free.
- c. 250–180 BCEJaimini
What is right can be known only from the commands of the Veda, which has no author and has always existed.
- c. 200–130 BCEKanada
Everything real can be sorted into a few basic categories, and material things are built from tiny, eternal, indivisible atoms.
- c. 120–190Akshapada Gautama
The text attributed to him lays out how we gain knowledge – by perception, inference, comparison and testimony – and how to argue fairly.
- c. 150–250Nagarjuna
Nothing has a fixed, independent nature of its own – everything exists only in relation to other things, and even this emptiness is not a thing.
- c. 310–390Asanga
The world we experience arises from a deep layer of consciousness that stores the traces of past actions, and meditation can transform it.
- c. 325–400Patanjali
Yoga means calming the restless activity of the mind until consciousness recognises itself as something distinct from body and thoughts.
- c. 350–430Vasubandhu
What we take to be an outer world is experience appearing within the mind, shaped by the traces of past actions.
- c. 450–510Bhartrhari
There is no thought without language, and meaning is grasped all at once as a whole rather than built up word by word.
- c. 480–540Dignaga
Only perception and inference give real knowledge – and words do not name things directly but work by excluding what a thing is not.
- c. 590–650Kumarila Bhatta
Every perception or belief counts as true until something proves it wrong – which is why the Veda can be trusted.
- c. 600–650Chandrakirti
Nothing has a fixed nature of its own, not even the everyday things we deal with – and the way to see this is to follow every opposing view to its absurd conclusions.
- c. 600–660Dharmakirti
Real is only what has effects, everything real lasts just a moment, and only perception and inference are reliable ways to know it.
- c. 685–763Shantideva
The path of compassion means patience with those who anger us and learning to put ourselves in others’ place – together with insight into emptiness.
- c. 700–750 · conventionally dated 788–820Adi Shankara
Only one reality, Brahman, truly exists; the world of many separate things is appearance (maya), not ultimately real, and your true self is identical with that one reality.
- c. 725–788Shantarakshita
Nothing is truly one thing or many things, so nothing has a fixed nature – a view he defended after examining every rival school.
- c. 950–1016Abhinavagupta
The self is the consciousness of Shiva recognising itself – and art lets us taste feelings freed from self-interest.
- c. 950–1020Udayana
The order of the world proves a creator God, and a lasting self exists – both against the Buddhists who denied them.
- c. 982–1054Atisha
The Buddhist path should be climbed in ordered stages, from seeking a better rebirth to freeing all beings through compassion and insight.
- c. 1077–1157 · traditionally 1017–1137Ramanuja
The world and individual souls are real, but they belong to God as a body belongs to its soul – and loving devotion leads to him.
- c. 1130–1160Akka Mahadevi
Her poems reject marriage, possessions and social rank for a life devoted entirely to Shiva.
- c. 1238–1317Madhvacharya
God, souls and the world are truly and forever different from one another – against the view that everything is ultimately one.
- c. 1300–1360Gangesha
Philosophical arguments need a precise technical language, and he built one so exact that Indian thinkers argued in it for centuries.
- c. 1320–1392Lal Ded
Her verses teach that God is found within yourself, not in temples, images, caste or ritual.
- 1357–1419Tsongkhapa
Because nothing has a fixed nature of its own, cause and effect can work – emptiness does not cancel the everyday world but makes it possible.
- c. 1440–1518Kabir
God has no form and belongs to no religion or caste; rituals and scriptures of Hindus and Muslims alike miss what is found within.
- 1827–1890Jyotirao Phule
Phule held that caste is not a divine order but a historical system of slavery, imposed by conquest and upheld by Brahmanical scriptures and the monopoly of learning; liberation for Shudras, Ati-Shudras and women comes through education and through a religion of truth without priests.
- 1861–1941Rabindranath Tagore
Humanity grows through creative freedom and an inner bond with all life – and nationalism is a dangerous idol that stunts it.
- 1863–1902Swami Vivekananda
The divine is in every person, so serving others is serving God – and all religions are paths to the same truth.
- 1869–1948Mohandas K. Gandhi
For Gandhi, injustice should be fought without violence, through truth, self-discipline and the willingness to suffer rather than to harm others.
- 1872–1950Sri Aurobindo
The spirit is evolving through matter and life toward a higher consciousness, and yoga is the way to take part in that evolution.
- 1875–1949K. C. Bhattacharya
The self is freedom that steps back from every object it can think about – and Indian thought must free itself from borrowed Western ideas.
- 1888–1975Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
At the heart of all religions lies direct spiritual experience, and the Indian view that all reality is one spirit makes best sense of it.
- 1891–1956B. R. Ambedkar
Caste must be abolished, not softened, because democracy means living together as equals – and he found that ethics in the Buddha’s teaching.
- 1924–2007Daya Krishna
Indian philosophy is not a museum of fixed spiritual doctrines but a body of living arguments that can be questioned, continued and brought into dialogue with other traditions.
- 1928–2023J. N. Mohanty
Classical Indian thinkers argued as rigorously about knowledge, truth and meaning as Western philosophers, and phenomenology and Nyaya can learn from each other.
- 1935–1991Bimal Krishna Matilal
Classical Indian logic and theories of knowledge are real philosophy that can hold its own in today’s debates, not just religious tradition.
- b. 1937Ashis Nandy
Colonialism conquers minds as well as lands – on both sides – and resistance can draw on everyday traditions instead of copying the coloniser’s ideas of progress and the nation-state.