Vedika
Traditions
The philosophical and spiritual paths adjacent to, in dialogue with, and transformed by the Vedic world — heterodox challengers, Buddhist lineages, world resonances, foundational concepts. The six orthodox darśanas have their own page.
What is Dharma?
Before every tradition on this page — before the heterodox challengers, the Buddhist schools, the world resonances — there is Dharma. Cosmic law, personal ethical duty, and the sustaining fabric of the universe. Every tradition here either inherits, contests, transforms, or silently parallels this idea.
Schools that rejected Vedic authority — rigorous philosophical opponents whose challenges forced every orthodox school to prove, not merely assert, the realities they claimed.
Buddhism emerged from the same civilisational soil as Vedic philosophy — sharing karma, rebirth, and liberation — while arriving at fundamentally different answers, above all on the ātman.
Traditions that did not emerge from the Vedic world but share deep structural resonances — and through trade routes, conquest, and pilgrimage, entered into direct conversation with Indian thought.
The shared vocabulary across all traditions on this page — concepts every school inherits, contests, or silently parallels.
Karma
Does action bind — and can it be dissolved?
Ahiṃsā
Why does non-violence become philosophy?
Māyā
Is the world real — or a projection?
Ṛta
The oldest cosmic order — and its cousins worldwide
Śūnyatā
Is emptiness the same as fullness?
Mokṣa / Nirvāṇa
The same freedom — or fundamentally different?
Tantra
How does the body become the path?
Anekāntavāda
Can every position be simultaneously true?
Bhakti
Can love itself be liberation?
Pramāṇa
How do you know what you know?
Saṃsāra
The cycle of rebirth — how real is it?
Dharma (cross-tradition)
How do other traditions answer the question Dharma poses?