Āstika and nāstika

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In Indian religion and philosophy, people and movements are traditionally classified as āstika (Sanskrit: आस्तिक, lit. "it exists", fig. "orthodox") if they accept the Vedas as revealed scripture and nāstika (नास्तिक, lit. "it does not exist", fig. "heterodox") if they do not.^[1] By this definition, Nyāyá, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedānta are classified as āstika schools, while Cārvāka, Ājīvika, Jainism, and Buddhism are considered nāstika.^[2]

In current Indian languages like Hindi, āstika usually means "theist", while nāstika means "atheist".^[3] However, the terms are used differently in Hindu philosophy.^[4] For example, Sāṃkhya is both an atheist and āstika (Vedic) philosophy.^[5]

Etymology

Āstika is a Sanskrit adjective (and noun) that is derived from asti ("it is or exists")^[6] meaning "believing" or "pious";^[7] or "one who believes in the existence."^[6] Nāstika (na (not) + āstika) is its negative, literally meaning "not believing" or "not pious". As used in Hindu philosophy the differentiation between āstika and nāstika refers to belief in Vedic authority, not belief or lack of belief in theism. As N. N. Bhattacharyya writes:

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

—^[8]

Classification of schools

Āstika

Several Indian intellectual traditions were codified during the medieval period into a standard list of six orthodox systems or ṣaḍdarśanas, all of which cite Vedic authority as their source.^[9] Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimāṃsā and Vedanta are classified as āstika schools:

1. Nyāyá, the school of logic
2. Vaiśeṣika, the atomist school
3. Sāṃkhya, the enumeration school
4. Yoga, the school of Patañjali (which assumes the metaphysics of Sāṃkhya)
5. Mimāṃsā, the tradition of Vedic exegesis
6. Vedanta or Uttara Mimāṃsā, the Upaniṣadic tradition.

These are often coupled into three groups for both historical and conceptual reasons: Nyāyá-Vaiśeṣika, Sāṃkhya-Yoga, and Mimāṃsā-Vedanta.

Nāstika

The main schools of Indian philosophy that do not base their beliefs on the Vedas were regarded as heterodox by Brahmins:

1. Buddhism
2. Jainism
3. Cārvāka
4. Ājīvika

The use of the term nāstika to describe Buddhism and Jainism in India is explained by Gavin Flood as follows:

At an early period, during the formation of the Upaniṣads 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 (nāstika) by orthodox (āstika) Brahmanism.

—^[10]

Tantric traditions in Hinduism have both āstika and nāstika lines; as Banerji writes in "Tantra in Bengal":

Tantras are ... also divided as āstika or Vedic and nāstika or non-Vedic. In accordance with the predominance of the deity the āstika works are again divided as Śākta, Śaiva, Saura, Gāṇapatya and Vaiṣṇava.

—^[11]

Zoroastrianism is not just literally nāstika (non-belief in the vedas), but is also adevism (because of rejecting the devas)

Jain usage

Jains themselves have been branded nāstika or not accepting the Vedas, and they in turn have accused many non-Jains of being nāstika. According to Jainism, nastikavada is a system of beliefs that are nāstika in nature. Jains assign the term nastika to one who is ignorant of the meaning of the religious texts^[12] or those who deny the existence of the soul.^[13]

The Jains acharyas, Manibhadra and Haribhadra associated Jainism of astika classification and associated the Lokayata (Charvaka) philosophy and Vedanta with nastika.^[14]

Buddhist usage

Although Buddhists have been branded by orthodox or mainstream Hinduism as Nastika, the Buddhists themselves have branded only the Cārvākas as nastika. For example Nagarjuna wrote in his Ratnavali,^[15] that nastikya (nihilism) leads to hell while astikya (affirmation) leads to heaven. Further, the Madhyamika philosopher Chandrakirti, who was accused of being a nastik, wrote in his Prasannapada that emptiness is a method of affirming neither being nor non-being and that nihilists are actually naive realists because they assume that things of this world have self-existent natures,^[16] whereas Madhyamikas view all things as arising dependently within the context of casual conditions.

There were also Buddhists that were accused of believing in ideas outside of the Buddha's teachings, and they were called nastika in the "Bodhisattvabhumi" (a section of the Yogacarabhumi by Asanga) and the scripture also declared they should be subject to isolation so their views do not infect the rest of the Buddhist community.^[17] Like the Manusmriti, the Bodhisattvabhumi also criticizes the nastika for reliance on logic only.^[17]

Bhavaviveka declares that Buddhists are not nastika by refuting the nihilists annihilation of 'karmaphalasambandha' and demonstrating the transmigration of sentient beings.^[18]

According to the Sallekha Sutta, belief leading to evil conduct is of three kinds, and natthika ditthi (nastikavada or nihilism), is one of them (the others being ahetuka ditthi or accidentalism and akiriya ditthi or the view of inaction).^[19]

According to Buddhist texts, Astikavada is also known as Sabbathikavada.

See also

• Hindu philosophy
• Atheism in Hinduism
• Theism

Notes

References