What is a darshana?
Darshana (दर्शन) means “a way of seeing” or “view,” from the Sanskrit root drish, to see. A philosophical school earns the name when it offers a worked-out account of reality with its own sutra text, commentators, and live internal debates. The word also carries a devotional sense, the act of beholding a deity or saint, which is a separate usage. (For that meaning, see what darshan means in worship.)
Six darshanas are called astika, a label that turns on one criterion: they accept the authority of the Vedas. That is the technical meaning of orthodox here, and it says nothing about belief in a creator. Karl Potter's Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies treats these six as the mature systems of the classical tradition.
The six orthodox schools
Nyaya
Nyaya, the school traditionally ascribed to Gautama (also called Akshapada) in the Nyaya Sutras, built classical India's formal logic and epistemology. It articulated the anumana (inference) schema and accepted four pramanas. Its long debate with the Buddhist logicians Dignaga and Dharmakirti shaped the whole tradition. See Nyaya-Vaisheshika.
Vaisheshika
Vaisheshika, ascribed to Kanada in the Vaisheshika Sutras, is the ontology school. It catalogued the padarthas, the categories of existence, and proposed that the physical world is built from indivisible atoms (paramanu). It accepts only two pramanas, perception and inference. Its account is treated alongside Nyaya in the merged Nyaya-Vaisheshika tradition.
Samkhya
Samkhya, ascribed to Kapila and set out in Ishvarakrishna's Samkhya Karika, is the oldest systematic Indian metaphysics. It posits two ultimate realities: purusha, inactive consciousness, and prakriti, active nature that evolves through the interplay of three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas). It accepts three pramanas. Read Samkhya.
Yoga
Yoga, the darshana of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, takes Samkhya's metaphysics and supplies the discipline it lacked. Its eightfold ashtanga path isolates purusha from prakriti, ending in kaivalya. Patanjali also admits Ishvara, but as an object of meditative focus rather than a creator. Read Yoga darshana.
Purva Mimamsa
Purva Mimamsa, ascribed to Jaimini in the Mimamsa Sutras, is the school of ritual interpretation. It works out what Vedic injunctions command, how to resolve apparent contradictions in the text, and how dharma is established. Its hermeneutic methods became the template for classical Indian textual interpretation. The pramana count runs to five for Prabhakara and six for Kumarila Bhatta. Read Mimamsa.
Vedanta (Uttara Mimamsa)
Vedanta, ascribed to Badarayana in the Brahma Sutras, interprets the philosophical portions of the Veda and inquires into Brahman. It later split into rival sub-schools: Advaita (Shankara), Vishishtadvaita (Ramanuja), and Dvaita (Madhva). They share the same sutra text yet disagree sharply on the relation between self and Brahman. Read Vedanta and what Vedanta means.
The three traditional pairings
The six are not a flat list. The tradition groups them into three pairs by topical affinity, each pair joining a theory to its complement.
Nyaya and Vaisheshika
Nyaya supplied the method of valid reasoning; Vaisheshika supplied the inventory of what exists. Logic needs an ontology to reason about, and an ontology needs a logic to defend it, so the two were fused historically into a single Nyaya-Vaisheshika tradition. Its standard exposition is Prashastapada's Padartha-dharma-sangraha.
Samkhya and Yoga
Samkhya describes the terrain: consciousness (purusha) standing apart from an evolving nature (prakriti) built of three gunas. Yoga supplies the route across it, the eightfold ashtanga discipline that isolates purusha from prakriti. Patanjali borrows Samkhya's map and adds the practice it lacked.
Mimamsa and Vedanta
Both read the Veda, but they read different halves of it. Purva Mimamsa interprets the ritual and injunctive portions (karma-kanda); Uttara Mimamsa, which is Vedanta, interprets the philosophical portions (jnana-kanda) of the Upanishads. The shared name Mimamsa, meaning inquiry, marks them as the early and later stages of one interpretive project.
Astika vs nastika: what “orthodox” actually means
English sources often gloss astika as “theist” and nastika as “atheist.” That is the wrong axis. Astika means accepting the authority of the Vedas; nastika means rejecting it. The question is scriptural authority, not the existence of God.
The proof sits inside the six themselves. Purva Mimamsa is formally silent on a creator and concerns itself with ritual efficacy instead. Samkhya is formally atheistic, deriving the world from prakriti with no God required. Yoga admits Ishvara, but Patanjali treats it as a meditative focus, not a maker of worlds. All three remain astika, because all three accept Vedic authority.
The nastika schools are the ones that reject that authority: Buddhism, Jainism, and Charvaka. They are not lesser philosophies. Buddhist and Jain logicians developed rigorous metaphysics and epistemology and stayed in direct debate with the darshanas for centuries. This correction follows the analysis in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Karl Potter's Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies.
Frequently asked questions
How many classical darshanas are there?
There are six classical darshanas: Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Purva Mimamsa, and Vedanta (Uttara Mimamsa). All six are called astika because they accept the authority of the Vedas. They are traditionally grouped into three pairs by topical affinity.
What are the three traditional pairings of the darshanas?
The six schools pair as Nyaya-Vaisheshika (logic and ontology), Samkhya-Yoga (metaphysics and practice), and Mimamsa-Vedanta (ritual interpretation and philosophical interpretation of the Veda). Each pair shares a subject matter while keeping its own sutra text. Karl Potter's Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies treats them in these groupings.
What is the difference between astika and nastika schools?
Astika means accepting the authority of the Vedas, not belief in a creator God. Purva Mimamsa is formally silent on a creator, and Samkhya is formally atheistic, yet both are astika because they accept Vedic authority. Nastika schools reject that authority: Buddhism, Jainism, and Charvaka.
Which darshana is Yoga, and how does it relate to Samkhya?
Yoga is the darshana of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. It inherits Samkhya's purusha-prakriti dualism and its theory of the three gunas, then adds the eightfold ashtanga discipline as the practical method. The two differ on God: Yoga accepts Ishvara as a focus for meditation, while Samkhya is formally atheistic.