Orthodox schools: Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta

In short

The six *astika* (orthodox) schools - Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa and Vedanta - are the systems that accept the Veda as a valid source of knowledge and build their metaphysics, logic and path to liberation around it. They are traditionally studied in three pairs: Nyaya-Vaisheshika (logic and ontology), Samkhya-Yoga (dualist metaphysics and its practice), Mimamsa-Vedanta (the ritual and the knowledge halves of Vedic exegesis). This topic is the single largest block in BA/MA Indian Philosophy papers, in UGC-NET Philosophy (NTA) and in the UPSC Civil Services Philosophy optional Paper I, and it supplies the Mimamsa canons of interpretation that Indian courts still cite in statutory construction. Working knowledge is used in teaching, Sanskrit and Indic-studies research, the Ministry of Education's Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) programmes, and in Ayush-sector yoga teaching and research.

Explained

What makes a school "orthodox", and how the six are paired

• *Astika* here means acceptance of the Veda's authority (*shabda-pramanya*), not belief in God: Samkhya and Purva Mimamsa are non-theistic, while the heterodox Charvaka, Buddhism and Jainism reject Vedic authority.
• Founders and basic texts: Gautama (Akshapada) - *Nyaya Sutra*; Kanada (Uluka) - *Vaisheshika Sutra*; Kapila - Samkhya, systematised in Ishvarakrishna's *Samkhya Karika*; Patanjali - *Yoga Sutra*; Jaimini - *Mimamsa Sutra* (with Shabara's *Bhashya*); Badarayana - *Brahma Sutra*.
• The pairs are *samana-tantra* (allied systems): each pair shares metaphysics and differs in emphasis - Nyaya supplies method to Vaisheshika's categories, Yoga supplies discipline to Samkhya's analysis, Vedanta takes up the *jnana-kanda* where Mimamsa stops at the *karma-kanda*.
• Shared framework: beginningless karma and rebirth, suffering as the problem, and liberation (*moksha*, *apavarga*, *kaivalya*, *nihshreyasa*) as the goal - achieved by right knowledge in five of the six, and by ritual action in early Mimamsa.
• Two axes divide them: causation - *asatkaryavada* (the effect is a new entity: Nyaya-Vaisheshika) versus *satkaryavada* (the effect pre-exists in the cause: Samkhya-Yoga, Vedanta); and reality - pluralistic realism (Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Mimamsa), dualism (Samkhya-Yoga), non-dualism (Advaita Vedanta).

Nyaya - logic, realism and the sixteen categories

• Nyaya is pluralistic realism with a theory of liberation through right knowledge; its contribution is method, so it is called *tarka-shastra*, *pramana-shastra* and *anvikshiki*.
• Sixteen *padarthas* (objects of right knowledge, *Nyaya Sutra* 1.1.1): pramana (means of knowledge), prameya (object), samshaya (doubt), prayojana (purpose), drshtanta (example), siddhanta (tenet), avayava (member of a syllogism), tarka (hypothetical reasoning), nirnaya (ascertainment), vada (honest debate), jalpa (wrangling), vitanda (cavil), hetvabhasa (fallacy), chala (quibble), jati (futile rejoinder), nigrahasthana (ground of defeat).
• Twelve *prameyas*: self, body, senses, objects of sense, cognition, mind, activity, defects (*dosha*), rebirth, fruits, suffering, liberation.
• Four pramanas: *pratyaksha*, *anumana*, *upamana*, *shabda* - detailed separately; Nyaya holds *paratah-pramanya* (validity is established by something external, e.g. successful action).
• Inference: terms are *paksha* (subject), *sadhya* (what is to be proved) and *hetu*/*linga* (mark); the engine is *vyapti*, invariable concomitance. Classified as *purvavat*, *sheshavat*, *samanyatodrshta*, and (in Navya-Nyaya) *kevalanvayi*, *kevalavyatireki*, *anvaya-vyatireki*.
• Five-membered syllogism (*panchavayava*): pratijna, hetu, udaharana, upanaya, nigamana - deduction and induction in one chain, with a general rule plus a confirming instance.
• Five fallacies (*hetvabhasa*): *savyabhichara/anaikantika* (irregular middle), *viruddha* (contradictory), *satpratipaksha* (counterbalanced), *asiddha/sadhyasama* (unproved), *badhita/kalatita* (stultified).
• Error is *anyatha-khyati* (misplaced apprehension - a real object perceived elsewhere as something else); causation is *arambhavada* (the whole is a new substance inhering in its parts by *samavaya*).
• God: Nyaya argues for *Ishvara* as efficient cause - the classic statement is Udayana's *Nyaya-kusumanjali*; atoms and souls are eternal, so God creates by arranging, not from nothing.
• Navya-Nyaya begins with Gangesha's *Tattvachintamani* (c. 1325, 14th century): extremely precise definitional language, analysis of *vyapti*, *avacchedakata*, absence, and a technical logic of relations later compared with modern formal logic.

Vaisheshika - categories and atomism

• Seven categories (*padartha*): *dravya* (substance), *guna* (quality), *karma* (action), *samanya* (universal), *vishesha* (particularity), *samavaya* (inherence); *abhava* (absence) was added by later writers such as Shridhara and Shivaditya.
• Nine substances: earth, water, fire, air, *akasha*, time, space (*dik*), self (*atman*), mind (*manas*). The first four are atomic; *akasha*, time and space are eternal, one and all-pervading; selves are many and eternal; mind is atomic and internal.
• Twenty-four qualities (colour, taste, smell, touch, number, dimension, separateness, conjunction, disjunction, priority, posteriority, cognition, pleasure, pain, desire, aversion, effort, heaviness, fluidity, viscidity, *samskara*, merit, demerit, sound) and five actions (upward, downward, contraction, expansion, locomotion).
• Paramanuvada: the world is built from eternal, indivisible, partless atoms (*paramanu*). Two atoms form a *dvyanuka*; three *dvyanukas* form a *tryanuka* (*trasarenu*), the smallest perceptible mote; the gross elements follow. Creation and dissolution are cyclic, driven by the unseen moral force *adrshta* under God's will.
• Samavaya is the one eternal, non-reciprocal relation holding whole-part, substance-quality, substance-action, universal-individual, eternal substance-*vishesha*; *samyoga* (conjunction) by contrast is temporary and reciprocal.
• Four kinds of absence: *pragabhava* (prior - pot before making), *pradhvamsabhava* (posterior - after breaking), *anyonyabhava* (mutual, "a pot is not a cloth"), *atyantabhava* (absolute, "there is no colour in air").
• Accepts only two pramanas (perception and inference); verbal testimony is subsumed under inference-like reliance on authority. Liberation is the self's dissociation from qualities of pain and pleasure - a state without consciousness of objects.
• Limitations: atoms are imperceptible yet asserted; *samavaya* risks infinite regress; *vishesha* is postulated only to individuate eternal substances.

Samkhya - dualism, the gunas and the 25 tattvas

• Two ultimate, independent realities: purusha - pure consciousness, inactive witness (*sakshin*), many in number; and prakriti - unconscious, active, one, uncaused root matter.
• Three gunas constituting prakriti: *sattva* (lightness, clarity), *rajas* (activity, pain), *tamas* (inertia, concealment). They are in equilibrium in dissolution and disturbed at evolution; all change is their re-proportioning.
• Satkaryavada (prakriti-parinamavada): the effect pre-exists in the cause and is only made manifest. Five arguments: the non-existent cannot be produced; the effect needs a material cause; everything cannot come from everything; a cause produces only what it is capable of; the effect is of the nature of the cause.
• Arguments for prakriti: the limited implies an unlimited ground; common features of worldly objects point to a common source; the need for an active principle to cause evolution; the distinction of effect from cause requires the cause to be subtle; the world's unity on dissolution.
• Arguments for purusha: the aggregate exists for another's use; there must be a knower of the unconscious; experience needs an enjoyer; a desire for liberation presupposes someone who can be liberated. Plurality is argued from differences in birth, death and faculties.
• Order of evolution (23 evolutes): prakriti → *mahat/buddhi* (intellect) → *ahamkara* (ego) → from its sattvika aspect *manas*, five *jnanendriyas* (ear, skin, eye, tongue, nose) and five *karmendriyas* (speech, hands, feet, excretory, generative); from its tamasa aspect five *tanmatras* (sound, touch, colour, taste, smell), which yield the five *mahabhutas* (akasha, air, fire, water, earth). Rajas supplies the energy for both lines.
• Bondage is *aviveka* - non-discrimination between purusha and prakriti, arising because the inactive purusha appears to act and the unconscious buddhi appears conscious by reflection. Liberation (*kaivalya*) is discriminative knowledge (*viveka-jnana*); *jivanmukti* in life and *videhamukti* at death.
• Three pramanas: perception, inference, verbal testimony. Non-theistic (*nirishvara*) - prakriti plus karma explains the world; God is held to be unprovable and unnecessary.
• Standard analogies: the lame man carried by the blind man (purusha-prakriti cooperation); the dancer who retires after the performance (prakriti ceases for the liberated); a crystal reddened by a hibiscus (purusha appears to suffer by reflection).

Yoga - Patanjali's eight limbs

• Yoga accepts Samkhya metaphysics and adds *Ishvara*, hence *seshvara Samkhya*; Ishvara is a special purusha, untouched by karma, teacher of the Vedas, denoted by *pranava* (Om) - devotion to whom is an aid, not the goal.
• The *Yoga Sutra* has four *padas*: Samadhi, Sadhana, Vibhuti, Kaivalya. Its definition: *yogash chitta-vritti-nirodhah* - yoga is the restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff.
• Five *vrittis*: *pramana* (valid cognition), *viparyaya* (error), *vikalpa* (verbal construct), *nidra* (sleep), *smriti* (memory). Five *kleshas*: *avidya*, *asmita*, *raga*, *dvesha*, *abhinivesha* - avidya being the root.
• Chitta (buddhi + ahamkara + manas) is unconscious but transparent; it takes the form of objects and reflects purusha, which is why consciousness seems to belong to it.
• Ashtanga (eight limbs): 1 *yama* (ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya, aparigraha); 2 *niyama* (shaucha, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya, ishvara-pranidhana); 3 *asana*; 4 *pranayama*; 5 *pratyahara*; 6 *dharana*; 7 *dhyana*; 8 *samadhi*. The first five are external aids (*bahiranga*), the last three internal (*antaranga*) and together constitute *samyama*.
• Samadhi: *samprajnata* (with object - savitarka, savichara, sananda, sasmita) and *asamprajnata* (objectless, seedless/*nirbija*); *samyama* yields *siddhis*, which the text itself calls obstacles to liberation. *Dharma-megha* precedes *kaivalya*.
• Kriya-yoga for the active aspirant: tapas, svadhyaya, ishvara-pranidhana. Nine *antarayas* (disease, languor, doubt, heedlessness, sloth, worldliness, delusion, non-attainment, instability) are countered by one-pointed practice and the four *brahma-viharas*-like attitudes of friendliness, compassion, gladness and equanimity.
• Current Indian institutional context: the Ministry of Ayush, the Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN) and the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga; the Yoga Certification Board's certification of yoga professionals is a voluntary scheme; 21 June is the International Day of Yoga (UN resolution, 2014).

Purva Mimamsa - Vedic exegesis, *apurva* and the rules of interpretation

• Purpose: to establish *dharma* as known only from Vedic injunction - *codana-lakshano 'rtho dharmah*. The Veda is *apaurusheya* (authorless) and eternal, hence free of human defect.
• Svatah-pramanya: every cognition is intrinsically valid, and is set aside only by a defeating condition - directly opposed to Nyaya's extrinsic validation.
• Sentence-meaning: words and their meaning-relation are eternal (*shabda-nityatva*); a Vedic sentence is primarily an injunction (*vidhi*). Prabhakara's *karya*/*niyoga* theory makes the "ought" the core meaning (*anvitabhidhana*); Kumarila holds words carry meanings that are then related (*abhihitanvaya*).
• Apurva: an unseen potency generated by a correctly performed rite, which links the act to its distant result (e.g. *svarga*) - the school's substitute for a dispensing God. Mimamsa is non-theistic and rejects creation and dissolution of the world.
• Pramanas: Kumarila Bhatta accepts six (perception, inference, comparison, testimony, *arthapatti*, *anupalabdhi/abhava*); Prabhakara five (no *abhava*).
• Error: Prabhakara's *akhyati* (non-apprehension - error is only a failure to notice a difference, so all knowledge as knowledge is true) versus Kumarila's *viparita-khyati* (positive misapprehension). Prabhakara's *triputi-samvit* holds every cognition reveals itself, the object and the knower.
• Six means of settling meaning, in descending strength: *shruti* (direct statement), *linga* (indicatory power of a word), *vakya* (syntactical connection), *prakarana* (context), *sthana* (relative position), *samakhya* (etymology/name). With maxims such as *samanjasya* (harmonious construction), *upakrama-upasamhara* (beginning and end must agree), *gunapradhana* (subordinate yields to principal) and *vakya-shesha*, these are the Mimamsa canons of construction; Indian courts, from colonial-era judgments to Supreme Court decisions, have invoked them alongside English rules of statutory interpretation, and they are taught in LLB jurisprudence and interpretation-of-statutes papers.
• Classification of Vedic texts into *vidhi*, *mantra*, *namadheya*, *nishedha*, *arthavada*; of rites into *nitya*, *naimittika*, *kamya*, *prayashchitta*. Liberation is not in Jaimini; Kumarila and Prabhakara admit it as cessation of rebirth through disinterested performance of obligatory duties plus knowledge of the self.

Vedanta - Uttara Mimamsa and its main systems

• Source triad (*prasthanatrayi*): the Upanishads, the *Brahma Sutra* and the *Bhagavad Gita*; the schools differ as commentaries (*bhashya*) on the same three.
• Gaudapada (*Mandukya Karika*) states *ajativada* - nothing is really born; the three states (waking, dream, deep sleep) point to the fourth (*turiya*).
• Advaita (Shankara): Brahman alone is real, *nirguna*, *sat-chit-ananda*; the world is *vivarta* (apparent transformation) through *maya/avidya*; *jiva* and Brahman are identical - the *mahavakyas* "tat tvam asi", "aham brahmasmi", "ayam atma brahma", "prajnanam brahma". Three grades of reality: *paramarthika* (Brahman), *vyavaharika* (the empirical world), *pratibhasika* (illusory, e.g. the rope-snake). *Adhyasa* (superimposition) explains bondage; the method is *shravana, manana, nididhyasana* leading to *jnana* and *jivanmukti*. Error is *anirvachaniya-khyati*.
• Vishishtadvaita (Ramanuja): Brahman (Vishnu) is qualified non-dual - a whole with conscious selves (*cit*) and matter (*acit*) as its inseparable modes, related by *aprithak-siddhi* and the *sharira-shariri* (body-soul) relation. *Satkaryavada* as real transformation; the *sapta-vidha-anupapatti* is his sevenfold refutation of maya; liberation is eternal communion with God (not identity) through *bhakti* and *prapatti* (self-surrender); knowledge is always determinate (*savikalpaka*).
• Dvaita (Madhva): unqualified difference - *pancha-bheda* between God and souls, God and matter, soul and soul, soul and matter, matter and matter; souls are dependent (*paratantra*) and graded; *vishesha* and the *sakshin* (self-validating witness) are distinctive devices; liberation by grace through bhakti.
• Other Vedantas: Bhaskara and Yadava's *bhedabheda*; Nimbarka's *dvaitadvaita*; Vallabha's *shuddhadvaita* with *pushti-marga*; Chaitanya's *achintya-bhedabheda*.

Key points

• Astika - accepts Vedic authority; not the same as theistic (Samkhya and Mimamsa are non-theistic).
• Three pairs - Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Samkhya-Yoga, Mimamsa-Vedanta; each pair shares a metaphysics.
• Nyaya's 16 padarthas - begin with pramana and prameya and end with nigrahasthana (grounds of defeat in debate).
• Panchavayava - pratijna, hetu, udaharana, upanaya, nigamana: the five-membered Nyaya syllogism.
• Vyapti - invariable concomitance of hetu and sadhya; the whole validity of inference rests on it.
• Hetvabhasa - five fallacies: savyabhichara, viruddha, satpratipaksha, asiddha, badhita.
• Vaisheshika's 7 categories and 9 substances - dravya, guna, karma, samanya, vishesha, samavaya, abhava; earth, water, fire, air, akasha, time, space, self, mind.
• Paramanuvada - 2 atoms = dvyanuka, 3 dvyanukas = tryanuka; *adrshta* plus God's will starts a cycle.
• Asatkaryavada vs satkaryavada - Nyaya-Vaisheshika: the effect is new; Samkhya-Vedanta: the effect pre-exists (*parinama* for Samkhya, *vivarta* for Advaita).
• 25 tattvas - purusha + prakriti + 23 evolutes; purushas are many, prakriti is one.
• Three gunas - sattva, rajas, tamas; equilibrium = dissolution, disturbance = evolution.
• Kaivalya - Samkhya-Yoga liberation by *viveka-jnana*, the isolation of purusha from prakriti.
• Chitta-vritti-nirodha - Yoga's definition; five vrittis, five kleshas rooted in avidya.
• Ashtanga - yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi; last three = samyama.
• Apurva and svatah-pramanya - Mimamsa's unseen potency linking rite to result, and intrinsic validity of cognition.
• Six interpretive devices - shruti, linga, vakya, prakarana, sthana, samakhya: Mimamsa's canons, still cited in Indian statutory interpretation.
• Three grades of reality - paramarthika, vyavaharika, pratibhasika (Advaita only).
• Vedanta triad of positions - identity (Shankara), qualified identity (Ramanuja), difference (Madhva); all on the same *prasthanatrayi*.

Examples

• Case 1 - Building and testing a Nyaya syllogism. Claim: "The hill has fire."
  1. *Pratijna*: the hill has fire. 2. *Hetu*: because it has smoke. 3. *Udaharana*: whatever has smoke has fire, as in a kitchen. 4. *Upanaya*: the hill has smoke of that kind. 5. *Nigamana*: therefore the hill has fire. Check: *vyapti* smoke → fire is supported by positive instances (kitchen) and negative instances (a lake has neither), so the inference is *anvaya-vyatireki*. Reverse it - "it has fire, therefore it has smoke" - and the hetu becomes *savyabhichara*, since a red-hot iron ball has fire without smoke. Answer: valid as stated; invalid when reversed.
• Case 2 - Counting the Samkhya tattvas. Evolutes = buddhi (1) + ahamkara (1) + manas (1) + 5 jnanendriyas + 5 karmendriyas + 5 tanmatras + 5 mahabhutas = 1+1+1+5+5+5+5 = 23. Add prakriti (1) and purusha (1) → 25 tattvas. Of these, prakriti is only a cause; the five mahabhutas and the eleven organs are only effects; buddhi, ahamkara and the tanmatras (7) are both cause and effect; purusha is neither.
• Case 3 - Vaisheshika atom arithmetic. A *dvyanuka* = 2 paramanus. A *tryanuka* (*trasarenu*) = 3 dvyanukas = 3 × 2 = 6 paramanus, and it is the smallest particle said to be perceptible (as a mote in a sunbeam). If a visible speck were taken as 4 tryanukas, it would contain 4 × 6 = 24 atoms. Note the point of the scheme: however many you take, an atom itself is partless, so the regress stops - this is Vaisheshika's answer to infinite divisibility.
• Case 4 - Classifying fallacies. (a) "Sound is eternal, because it is audible" - audibility belongs to sound alone, there is no independent example, so it is *savyabhichara/asadharana* (a middle term with no common instance). (b) "Fire is cold, because it is a substance" - substancehood is found in hot things too: *savyabhichara*. (c) "Sound is eternal, because it is produced" - production is incompatible with the eternality claimed: *viruddha*. (d) "The Sun has not risen, because it is not visible" - set aside by direct perception of daylight: *badhita*.
• Case 5 - The rope-snake across the schools. Same datum, six analyses: Nyaya - *anyatha-khyati*: a real snake seen elsewhere is wrongly presented here; Prabhakara Mimamsa - *akhyati*: only non-apprehension of difference, no false content; Kumarila Mimamsa - *viparita-khyati*: a positive wrong identification; Advaita - *anirvachaniya-khyati*: the snake is neither real nor wholly unreal, cancelled by later knowledge, the model for the world's status; Samkhya-Yoga - treated in the manuals as *sad-asat-khyati*, a cognition with both real and unreal elements; Ramanuja - *yathartha-sarva-vijnana*: all cognition is of something real, the error lying in practical mis-taking.

Where it is used

• Teaching and academia: BA/MA Philosophy and Sanskrit syllabi under UGC CBCS; UGC-NET/JRF Philosophy (NTA), and Philosophy as a UPSC and state-PSC optional - these six schools dominate Paper I.
• Law: Mimamsa canons of interpretation in LLB jurisprudence and interpretation-of-statutes courses, and in judgments where Indian courts apply *samanjasya*, *upakrama-upasamhara* and *gunapradhana* alongside the literal and golden rules.
• Ayush and wellness sector: yoga teacher-training curricula under the Ministry of Ayush, CCRYN research posts, Yoga Certification Board (voluntary) qualification levels, and hospital and corporate wellness roles - the *Yoga Sutra*'s eight limbs are the examinable theory component.
• Indian Knowledge Systems work: the IKS Division of the Ministry of Education and AICTE-mandated IKS course content in technical institutions use Nyaya logic, Samkhya cosmology and Vedanta for curriculum and textbook development.
• Logic, linguistics and AI/cognitive-science research: Navya-Nyaya's relational analysis and Mimamsa sentence-meaning theory feature in computational-Sanskrit, knowledge-representation and ontology projects at IITs, IIIT Hyderabad and institutes such as the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute.
• Publishing, editorial and civil-service answer-writing roles: structured comparative exposition of the six schools is the standard asked-for skill in content, museum, archive and cultural-institution interviews.

Interview questions

• Q: Why are Samkhya and Mimamsa called orthodox when neither accepts a creator God? A: Orthodoxy here means accepting the Veda as a valid means of knowledge, not theism; both do, so both are *astika*.
• Q: State the five members of the Nyaya syllogism and say what the Western syllogism lacks. A: Pratijna, hetu, udaharana, upanaya, nigamana; the Aristotelian form has no *udaharana*, so it is purely deductive while Nyaya insists on a confirming empirical instance.
• Q: What is *vyapti* and why is it the weak point of Nyaya? A: It is the invariable concomitance of the middle term with the major; it is established by observation, so it faces the problem of induction - no number of positive instances guarantees invariability.
• Q: Distinguish *samavaya* from *samyoga*. A: *Samavaya* is the eternal, non-reciprocal inherence of quality in substance or part in whole; *samyoga* is a temporary, reciprocal conjunction produced by action.
• Q: How does Samkhya prove prakriti without perceiving it? A: By inference from the effect - limited, composite objects with common guna-features require an unlimited, subtle, unconscious material cause, in line with *satkaryavada*.
• Q: If purusha is inactive and prakriti unconscious, how does evolution start? A: By mere proximity (*samyoga*), likened to the blind man carrying the lame man - the presence of purusha disturbs the gunas' equilibrium without purusha itself acting.
• Q: What role does Ishvara play in Patanjali's Yoga? A: A special, ever-free purusha who is an object of devotion and an aid to concentration, not a creator and not necessary for liberation - hence "theism of practice, not of cosmology".
• Q: What is *apurva* and what problem does it solve? A: An unseen potency created by a correct rite that carries its result to a later time; it lets Mimamsa explain delayed fruits of action without a dispensing God.
• Q: Explain *svatah-pramanya* and contrast it with Nyaya. A: Mimamsa holds cognition is self-validating unless defeated; Nyaya holds validity must be established externally, typically by successful activity - an infinite regress Mimamsa claims to avoid.
• Q: How do *parinamavada* and *vivartavada* differ? A: In *parinamavada* (Samkhya, Ramanuja) the cause really transforms into the effect; in *vivartavada* (Advaita) the change is only apparent, Brahman remaining unchanged.
• Q: What are Ramanuja's main objections to maya? A: The *sapta-vidha-anupapatti* - avidya can have no locus, no intelligible nature, no means of knowing, no removal by mere knowledge, and so on; he argues a featureless Brahman is also unknowable and unstatable.
• Q: Which Mimamsa rule would you use if two sections of an Act conflict, and why? A: *Samanjasya* - harmonious construction - supported by *upakrama-upasamhara* (the opening and closing must agree) and *gunapradhana* (the subordinate provision yields to the principal); Indian courts apply the same logic as harmonious construction.

Common mistakes

• Treating *astika*/*nastika* as theist/atheist - the test is Vedic authority, which is why Samkhya and Mimamsa sit with the orthodox and Jainism, with its rich metaphysics, does not.
• Mixing up the two Mimamsas: Purva Mimamsa (Jaimini, ritual, *karma-kanda*) and Uttara Mimamsa (Badarayana, knowledge, *jnana-kanda*).
• Reciting the 25 tattvas in the wrong order - putting *manas* or the tanmatras before *ahamkara*, or making the mahabhutas evolve from the organs.
• Saying Advaita's world is "unreal". It is *vyavaharika* - real for all practical purposes and only sublated by Brahman-knowledge; only the rope-snake class is *pratibhasika*.
• Attributing atomism to Samkhya, or the gunas to Vaisheshika; also attributing the eight limbs to Samkhya rather than Yoga.
• Confusing Yoga's *samprajnata* with *asamprajnata* samadhi, or listing *samyama* as a ninth limb instead of the trio dharana-dhyana-samadhi.
• Writing that Nyaya accepts six pramanas - it accepts four; Vaisheshika two, Samkhya-Yoga three, Kumarila six, Prabhakara five, Advaita six.

Related topics

Vedic and Upanishadic thought · Heterodox schools: Charvaka, Buddhism and Jainism · Indian epistemology: the pramanas · Modern Indian thinkers: Vivekananda, Tagore, Gandhi, Aurobindo and Ambedkar · Theories of causation in Indian philosophy · Indian theories of error and the self