Six founders of prominent Vedic schools of thought

Six founders of prominent Vedic schools of thought

Introduction

Vedic tradition is pluralistic in its true sense. Because, there is an infinite room for any thought process.

Countless schools of thoughts emerged in the past and new schools continue to evolve even today. Though there are always fierce debates between them, there is no institutionalised oppression of one over the other.

For example, there has been fierce debates between nyaya & vaisheshika schools, but over time they fused together. Similarly, once debating mimamsakas & vedantis today have blur lines dividing them. Though, so called dvaita-advaita arguments are still hot and happening, both sides largely respect each other. Though few followers of Sadguru & Ravishankar engage in verbal skirmish, there are no violent clashes.

However, sectarianism & in-fights between different schools are very common & mostly violent in Semitic religions. For example, the infamous sunni-shia conflict, eastern orthodox vs Roman catholic…etc have claimed millions of lives and continue their violent attitude even today.

Peaceful coexistence of different Vedic schools is due to the influence of plurality inherent in Vedic tradition. The founders of every Vedic school of thought have upheld this core principle and have ensured this peaceful coexistence. Any founder who advocates totalitarian approach or exclusivism is systematically rejected. 

Vedic Tribe is happy to bring you six such founders of prominent Vedic schools of thought: Kapila of Sankhya school, Patanjali of Yoga school, Gautama of nyaya school, Kanada of Vaisheshika school, Jaimini of Mimamsa school & Krishna Dwayapayana of Vedanta school. Instead of their life story, we will share influence of their work in classical & modern academe.

Our intention is to create enough curiosity in you to study Vedic tradition and adopt them in your day to day life.

All the best

Madhwesh K

Vedic Tribe

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1. Kapila of Sankhya school

In Brahmanda Purana, Lord Vishnu incarnates as the son of sage Kardama & Devahuti and is called Kapila. Vishnusahasranama also mentions him as “Kapilacharya” (57th verse).

Bhagavatha Purana (Book-3) records the teaching of Kapila which is considered the most ancient form of Sankhya school. However, the original version of this school is no longer available except to the extent captured in Bhagavatha.

In 6th century BCE, a sage named Kapila founded the classical Sankhya school as we know today and his aphorisms are widely studied in both classical & modern academe. In this classical samkhya school, reality is made of two fundamentals: “prakruti” (the material world which is observed) and “purusha” (the conscious observer). The interaction between prakriti and purusha is the core of the study in this school of thought.

Gautama Buddha extensively studied the classical samkhya school and many of his teachings show direct influence of this school. For example, the rejection of the existence of God (niriswara-vada) and emancipation by the cessation of pain (Nirvana) are the direct influences of this school.

Overtime, parts of classical samkhya school metamorphosed into Patanjala-Yoga school of thought. For example Patanji calls almighty "vishesha-purusha".

Many ideas of classical samkhya are accepted even in Vedanta, such as development of the apparent world (jada-prakriti) from primordial matter (moola-prakriti).

Even in western philosophy, many forms of dualisms are directly influenced by classical samkhya. 

Though there are no Samkhya followers now, ideas developed by sage Kapila continue to influence the intellectual world even today and due to this he deserves our respect.

If you are interested to know more, you may read the book "Samkhya Karika with Gaudapadacarya Bhasya" by Brahmrishi Vishvatma Bawra.

In the next write-up we will discuss Patanjali of Yoga school.

Madhwesh K

Vedic Tribe

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2. Patanjali of Yoga school

The now famous Yoga-sutras were once lost for many centuries and in the 1800s they were accidentally discovered by the British orientalists. "Ashtanga-yoga" is the most studied segment of this yoga-sutra.

Due to Swami Vivekananda's propagation of ashtanga-yoga (which he called raja-yoga), Patanjali's work attracted international attention.

Scholars hold that there have been many sages by the name Patanjali and the author of the Yoga-sutra lived approximately 2500 years ago. Patanjala-yoga became the prominent yoga school of thought overtime.

Gautama Buddha also lived in the same time period ie 2500 years ago. The Buddhism that developed after Gautama Buddha is heavily influenced by the Patanjala Yoga school. The post- Gautama Buddhism heavily focused on "meditation" and shows huge similarities with this school of thought.

Overtime, parts of Patanjala Yoga school branched into different sub-schools. The most prominent sub-school being the "hatha yoga" as propagated by Matsyendranath and his disciple Gorakshanath. Today hatha-yoga is the most prevalent sub school of Patanjala Yoga.

Many ideas of Patanjala Yoga are accepted even in Vedanta, such as dhyana (concentration of mind), dharana (retention of concentration), samadhi (dissolution of mind)...etc

In western philosophy, the study of "mind" invariably contains study of Yoga-sutras.

Though there are no Yoga-school's followers in its original sense, ideas developed by sage Patanjali continue to influence the intellectual world even today and due to this he deserves our respect.

If you are interested to know more, you may read the book "Light on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali" by BKS Iyengar.

In the next write-up we will discuss Gautama of Nyaya school.

Madhwesh K

Vedic Tribe

3. Akshapada Gautama of Nyaya school

Study of Vedic literature in the traditional method essentially involves study of grammar & logic (vyakarana & nyaya). 

The “nyaya-shastra” can be divided into three phases of development: (i) the ancient Nyaya system which Sage Akshapada Gautama compiled into “nyaya-sutra”; (ii) classical nyaya-school of thought that developed based on this “nyaya-sutra”; and (iii) navya-nyaya which refined this classical school.

There is no consensus among scholars regarding the life of Akshapada Gautama but most of them agree that he was contemporary to Gautama Buddha & Mahaveera.

Akshapada Gautama's "Nyaya-sutra" played a great role in compiling the ancient system of logic & reasoning and became the classical foundation of the intellectual discussion within the Vedic tradition. Overtime, with the works of Udayanacharya, Vachaspati Mishra, Bhasarvajna…etc, it went through continuous refinement and finally with the work of Gangesha Upadhyaya it re-emerged as “neo-logic” (navya-nyaya).

Contemporary arguments between different sub-schools of Vedanta heavily depend on the system of logic, methodology & epistemology developed under the Nyaya school of thought. For example, the epistemology which every sub-school of Vedanta accepts is that there are three valid source of knowledge: pratyaksha (direct perception), anumana (inference) and sabda (words of the experienced / Vedas). Study of this epistemology was rigorously developed by the Nyaya-school.

In western philosophy, many theories including theory of inference, theory of causation…etc invariably involve study of Nyaya-shastras. For instance, the theory of inference is derived from "anumana" for which Nyaya school provides a systematic method of induction and deduction.

Though there are no Nyaya-school's followers in its original sense, ideas developed by Akshapada Gautama continue to influence the intellectual world even today and due to this he deserves our respect.

If you are interested to know more, you may read the book "Nyayasara of Bhasarvajna" by Subramanya Shastri.

In the next write-up we will discuss "Kanada" of Vaisheshika school.

Madhwesh K

Vedic Tribe

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4. Kanada Kashyapa of Vaisheshika school

In Vedic tradition, a sage named Kashyapa theorized that fundamentally reality is made of physical atoms and different combinations of atoms give rise to different substances. Sometime between 6th and 2nd century BCE, he composed his ideas into "Vaisheshika Sutra" and founded the Vaisheshika school of thought. Because there are numerous sages by name Kashyapa, the classical scholars identify him as Kanada Kashyapa (Kashyapa who theorized the world of atoms). 

During his time, a non-vedic shramana movement was in traction called "ajivika" (alongside early buddhism and Jainism). Kanada Kashyapa heavily borrowed ajivika-propositions and developed his theories. Whereas ajivikas rejected the authority of Veda, Kanada Kashyapa upheld its authority.

Many propositions of Vaisheshika school fail in the face of scientific discoveries. For instance, the school holds that an atom is indivisible but today we know that it is not true.

Though Vaisheshika school failed as a "physical science", its metaphysical arguments immensely contributed to the development of Nyaya-school. For instance, the epistemology of Nyaya school heavily relies on Vaisheshika school. Over time it fused with Nyaya school and became instrumental in the emergence of navya-nyaya (neo-logic) as we know today.

Though there are no Vaisheshika followers in its original sense, ideas developed by Kanada Kashyapa continue to influence the intellectual world even today and due to this he deserves our respect.

If you are interested to know more, you may read the book "Vaisheshika Sutras of Kanada" translated by Nandalal Sinha.

In the next write-up we will discuss "Jaimini" of Mimamsa school.

Madhwesh K

Vedic Tribe

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5. Jaimini of Mimamsa school

Vedavyasa (Krishna Dwaipayana) had four prominent disciples: Paila, Jaimini, Vaishampayana & Sumanthu.

Jaimini was assigned the task to spread the knowledge of Samaveda and other three were assigned to the rest. Jaimini also composed his version of Mahabharata but only Ashvamedha Parva survives today. Apart from this, his major contribution was the composition of "Purva Mimamsa Sutra" by which he founded the Mimamsa school of thought.

In his Mimamsa Sutra, he compiled the ritualistic aspects of Veda, more than 5000 years ago.

Overtime Mimamsakas became prominent in Vedic tradition and developed a rigid ritual centric orthodoxy (orthopraxy). For instance, in Mimamsa school, "Dharma" has a narrow definition as "ritual". Due to this they were heavily criticised by other Vedic schools and also non-vedic schools especially Buddhism.

Nonetheless, Mimamsakas played a critical role in preserving the original version of Vedas for more than 5000 years. For instance, Rigveda has approximately 10600 verses and they have been preserved in their original version even today - via oral tradition. Even today, we find "ghana-pati" scholars who can recite all four Vedas by memory. This is due to the rigid systems devloped by Mimamsakas.

Sayanacharya wrote commentary to Rigveda in Jaimini's tradition and became the reference material for Max Muller in translation of Vedas. Max Muller 's work is heavily criticised for promoting colonial agenda. Nonetheless, Jaimini's tradition is still the first reference point to start studying Veda as a whole.

Though there are very few Mimamsa followers in its original sense, ideas developed by Jaimini continue to influence the intellectual world even today and due to this he deserves our respect.

If you are interested to know more, you may read the book "Mimamsa Sutras of Jaimini" translated by Mohan Lal Sandal.

In the next write-up we will discuss "Krishna Dwaipayana" of Vedanta school.

Madhwesh K

Vedic Tribe

— 

6. Krishna Dwaipayana of Vedanta school

Vishnu Purana gives the account of cyclical time and repetition of certain cosmic events including avatars of Lord Vishnu. It provides that Vedic knowledge dissipates throughout this cyclical time and to ensure the Vedic knowledge is accessible to the world, a prominent person compiles it and distributes it to the world. Every such person will be called "Veda-vyasa" I.e. compiler of Vedas. During the current time cycle, Lord Vishnu himself did this task by incarnating as Krishna Dwaipayana and hence is called Veda-vyasa of our time cycle.

Scholars disagree on whether Krisna Dwayapayana is the same as "Badarayana" who composed "Brahma Sutra". However, Sri Madhwacharya established that both are same. 

In Brahma Sutra it is declared that all the Vedas are for discerning and attaining the ultimate truth i.e. parabrahman. It also lays down the rules for interpretation of Veda. It became the foundation for Vedanta school and more than twenty sub-school of vedantha devloped overtime. Sri Shankaracharya's Advaita, Sri Ramanujacharya's Vishishtadvaita & Sri Madhwacharya's Tattvavada are the prominent sub-schools.

Even today, contemporary schools invariably subscribe to these three major sub-schools. For instance, Ramakrishna mutt subscribes to Advaita school, Iskcon subscribes to Tattvavada and so on. 

Super majority of people in Vedic tradition follow Vedanta school as a whole. Hence Krishna Dwayapayana commands our respect. 

If you are interested to know more you may read the book "Brahma Sutra for the Beginners" by Dr. Ramananda Prasad.

Vedic Tribe is happy to have brought you this introductory series on six founders of prominent Vedic schools.

Our intention is to create enough curiosity in you so that you can study Vedic literature and implement them in your day to day life.

All the best

Madhwesh K

Vedic Tribe