Darśana, Philosophy and Religion in Pre-modern India

Abstract

The Sanskrit word, darśana, is generally translated into English as philosophy, but it is admittedly inadequate. The so-called six (āstika, affirmativist or orthodox) systems of philosophy have been described by Louis Renou as ‘philosophico-religious,’ since religion and philosophy cannot be separated in their tradition. On the other hand, Maurice Winternitz brands some of the six (such as Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta) as religion and some others (such as, Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika) as philosophy. A.K. Warder claims that, despite everything, religion and philosophy can be separated quite adequately, and the darśanas are all philosophies. All this however leaves the so-called six (nāstika, negativist or heterodox) systems, particularly the materialist systems out of consideration. While the Jain and the Buddhist systems do have religious associations, the pre-Cārvāka and the Cārvāka materialist systems remained thoroughly philosophical, untouched by any religion. The orthodox systems, mostly in their syncretic forms, became religio-philosophical (although some of them might have originated as philosophy) while the materialist systems retained their original secular character.