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Astika (Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
: , IAST
IAST

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a popular transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Brahmic family....
:; "orthodox") and Nastika (; "heterodox") are technical terms in Hinduism
Hinduism

'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
 used to classify philosophical schools
Hindu philosophy

Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit nastika schools of thought, or darshanas :#Sankhya, a strongly dualist theoretical exposition of mind and matter....
 and persons, according to whether they accept the authority of the Vedas
Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in History of India. They form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest Hindu scripture of Hinduism....
 as supreme revealed scriptures, or not. By this definition, Nyaya
Nyaya

is the name given to one of the six orthodox or astika schools of Hindu philosophy—specifically the school of logic. The Nyaya school of philosophical speculation is based on texts known as the Nyaya Sutras, which were written by Aksapada Gautama from around the 2nd century AD....
, Vaisheshika
Vaisheshika

'Vaisheshika', or , is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy of India. Historically, it has been closely associated with the Hindu school of logic, Nyaya....
, Samkhya
Samkhya

Sankhya, also Samkhya, is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible....
, Yoga
Yoga

Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in both Buddhism and Hinduism....
, Purva Mimamsa
Mimamsa

, a Sanskrit word meaning "investigation" , is the name of an astika school of Hindu philosophy whose primary enquiry is into the nature of dharma based on close hermeneutics of the Vedas....
 and Vedanta
Vedanta

Vedanta is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality and teaches the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman....
  are classified as astika schools; while Charvaka, Jainism
Jainism

Jainism is one of the oldest Indian religions that originated in India. Jains believe that every soul is divine and has the potential to achieve God-consciousness....
 and Buddhism
Buddhism

Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
 are considered nastika schools.

In non-technical usage, the term astika is sometimes loosely translated as "theist" while nastika is translated as "atheist".






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Astika (Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
: , IAST
IAST

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a popular transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Brahmic family....
:; "orthodox") and Nastika (; "heterodox") are technical terms in Hinduism
Hinduism

'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
 used to classify philosophical schools
Hindu philosophy

Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit nastika schools of thought, or darshanas :#Sankhya, a strongly dualist theoretical exposition of mind and matter....
 and persons, according to whether they accept the authority of the Vedas
Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in History of India. They form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest Hindu scripture of Hinduism....
 as supreme revealed scriptures, or not. By this definition, Nyaya
Nyaya

is the name given to one of the six orthodox or astika schools of Hindu philosophy—specifically the school of logic. The Nyaya school of philosophical speculation is based on texts known as the Nyaya Sutras, which were written by Aksapada Gautama from around the 2nd century AD....
, Vaisheshika
Vaisheshika

'Vaisheshika', or , is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy of India. Historically, it has been closely associated with the Hindu school of logic, Nyaya....
, Samkhya
Samkhya

Sankhya, also Samkhya, is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible....
, Yoga
Yoga

Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in both Buddhism and Hinduism....
, Purva Mimamsa
Mimamsa

, a Sanskrit word meaning "investigation" , is the name of an astika school of Hindu philosophy whose primary enquiry is into the nature of dharma based on close hermeneutics of the Vedas....
 and Vedanta
Vedanta

Vedanta is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality and teaches the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman....
  are classified as astika schools; while Charvaka, Jainism
Jainism

Jainism is one of the oldest Indian religions that originated in India. Jains believe that every soul is divine and has the potential to achieve God-consciousness....
 and Buddhism
Buddhism

Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
 are considered nastika schools.

In non-technical usage, the term astika is sometimes loosely translated as "theist" while nastika is translated as "atheist". However this interpretation is distinct from the use of the term in Hindu philosophy. Notably even among the astika schools, samkhyaand the early mimamsa school do not accept a God
Ishvara

Ishvara is a philosophical concept in Hinduism, meaning controller or the Supreme controller in a monotheism sense or as an Ishta-deva of monistic thought....
 (see Atheism in Hinduism
Atheism in Hinduism

Atheism or disbelief in Deity has been a historically propounded viewpoint in many of the ?heterodoxy? and astika streams of Hindu philosophy. ...
) while accepting the authority of the Vedas; they thus are "atheistic astika schools".

The different usages of these terms are explained by Chatterjee and Datta as follows:

In modern Indian languages, 'astika' and 'nastika' generally mean 'theist' and 'atheist', respectively. But in Sanskrit philosophical literature, 'astika' means 'one who believes in the authority of the Vedas' or 'one who believes in life after death'. ('nastika' means the opposite of these). The word is used here in the first sense. In the second sense, even the Jaina and Buddha schools are 'astika', as they believe in life after death. The six orthodox schools are 'astika', and the Carvaka is 'nastika' in both the senses.


Etymology

Astika (IAST
IAST

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a popular transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Brahmic family....
:) is a Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 adjective (and noun) that is derived from asti ("it is or exists") meaning "believing" or "pious"; or "one who believes in the existence (of God, of another world, etc.)." Nastika (na (not) + ) is its negative, literally meaning "not believing" or "not pious". As used in Hindu philosophy the differentiation between astika and nastika refers to belief in Vedic authority, not belief or lack of belief in theism
Theism

Theism, in its most inclusive usage, is the belief in at least one deity. Less inclusive usages specify that the deity believed in be a distinct identifiable entity, thereby contrasted with pantheism....
. As N. N. Bhattacharyya writes:

The followers of Tantra are often branded as Nastika by the upholders of the Vedic tradition. The term Nastika does not denote an atheist. It is applied only to those who do not believe in the Vedas. The and do not believe in God, but they believe in the Vedas and hence they are not Nastikas. The Buddhists, Jains, and Carvakas do not believe in the Vedas; hence they are Nastikas.


Classification of schools


Many Indian intellectual traditions were codified during the medieval period into a standard list of six orthodox systems, the shaddarshanas (), all of which cite Vedic
Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in History of India. They form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest Hindu scripture of Hinduism....
 authority as their source:

  • Nyaya
    Nyaya

    is the name given to one of the six orthodox or astika schools of Hindu philosophy—specifically the school of logic. The Nyaya school of philosophical speculation is based on texts known as the Nyaya Sutras, which were written by Aksapada Gautama from around the 2nd century AD....
    , the school of logic
  • Vaisheshika
    Vaisheshika

    'Vaisheshika', or , is one of the six Hindu schools of philosophy of India. Historically, it has been closely associated with the Hindu school of logic, Nyaya....
    , the atomist school
  • Samkhya
    Samkhya

    Sankhya, also Samkhya, is one of the six schools of classical Indian philosophy. Sage Kapila is traditionally considered to be the founder of the Sankhya school, although no historical verification is possible....
    , the enumeration school
  • Yoga
    Yoga

    Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. The word is associated with meditative practices in both Buddhism and Hinduism....
    , the school of Patanjali (which assumes the metaphysics of Samkhya)
  • Purva Mimamsa (or simply Mimamsa), the tradition of Vedic exegesis, and
  • Vedanta
    Vedanta

    Vedanta is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality and teaches the believer's goal is to transcend the limitations of self-identity and realize one's unity with Brahman....
     (also called Uttara Mimamsa), the Upanishad
    Upanishad

    The Upanishads are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings of Vedanta. They do not belong to any particular period of Sanskrit literature: the oldest, such as the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, date to the late Brahmana period , while the latest were composed in the medieval and early modern period....
    ic tradition.


These are often coupled into three groups for both historical and conceptual reasons: Nyaya-Vaishesika, Samkhya-Yoga, and Mimamsa-Vedanta.

The three main schools of Indian philosophy that do not base their beliefs on the Vedas
Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in History of India. They form the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest Hindu scripture of Hinduism....
 were regarded as heterodox by Brahmans:

  • Buddhism
    Buddhism

    Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
  • Jainism
    Jainism

    Jainism is one of the oldest Indian religions that originated in India. Jains believe that every soul is divine and has the potential to achieve God-consciousness....
  • Carvaka
    Carvaka

    ' is a system of Indian philosophy that assumes various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. It is also known as '....


The use of the term nastika to describe Buddhism and Jainism in India is explained by Gavin Flood as follows:
At an early period, during the formation of the Upanisads
Upanishad

The Upanishads are Hindu scriptures that constitute the core teachings of Vedanta. They do not belong to any particular period of Sanskrit literature: the oldest, such as the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads, date to the late Brahmana period , while the latest were composed in the medieval and early modern period....
 and the rise of Buddhism and Jainism, we must envisage a common heritage of meditation and mental discipline practiced by renouncers with varying affiliations to non-orthodox (Veda-rejecting) and orthodox (Veda-accepting) traditions.... These schools [such as Buddhism and Jainism] are understandably regarded as heterodox (nastika) by orthodox (astika) Brahmanism.


The Tantric traditions
Tantra

Tantra , or tantram is a religious philosophy according to which Shakti is usually the main deity worshipped, and the universe is regarded as the divine play of shakti and shiva....
 in Hinduism, have both astika and nastika lines; as Banerji writes in "Tantra in Bengal":

Tantras are ... also divided as astika or Vedic and nastika or non-Vedic. In accordance with the predominance of the deity the astika works are again divided as .


See also

  • Hinduism
    Hinduism

    'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
  • Hindu philosophy
    Hindu philosophy

    Hindu philosophy is divided into six Sanskrit nastika schools of thought, or darshanas :#Sankhya, a strongly dualist theoretical exposition of mind and matter....
  • Atheism in Hinduism
    Atheism in Hinduism

    Atheism or disbelief in Deity has been a historically propounded viewpoint in many of the ?heterodoxy? and astika streams of Hindu philosophy. ...