The Age Of Philosophy
A golden period of ideas and debates in India
Hello there,
Many people proudly remember the fact that for many long periods in history, Bharat was one of the wealthiest places on the planet.
What I find fascinating is not just the material wealth, but the spiritual advancements and breakthroughs that this ancient land experienced throughout its history.
What was this process like? When did the battle of ideas reach an exciting pace, and what did the India of that time look and feel like?
Here are some notes that you will find fascinating:
Age of Ferment: The 6th Century BC saw a golden age of new philosophical schools, competing ideas, and vigorous debate. While this was a profoundly significant century that saw the rise of the Buddhist and Jain schools to prominence, the flourishing of ideas went on till the 13th century AD. As humans moved on beyond their day-to-day issues of survival, they began focusing on quality of life and were diverted from external troubles to the troubles within. This macro shift resulted in a sudden burst of new ideas.
Free Society: A major cultural development that led to this was the emergence of a stable, prosperous, and well-organized set of kingdoms that offered freedom of thought. Moreover, the kings were patrons of the arts and culture and offered their support to spiritual leaders. This led to the establishment of an open, free, and progressive society with a level of freedom that will probably remain unmatched in world history. This was the crucial backdrop against which this golden age unfolded. Without a stable political scene, one can hardly afford to spend their time on abstractions and dabble with abstruse ideas.
The Vedas: Even before this age, India already had a solid knowledge tradition that promoted a love for learning. This can be seen in the focus on understanding the Vedas, a set of philosophical works that were one of the oldest treatises in the world and go back by at least a few more centuries (if not millennia). As I pointed out in the article on the evolution of writing, there was great emphasis on memorizing the Vedas in multiple ways, such that not a single word (or the order in which they came) was forgotten. This focus, and vigorous efforts to preserve distortions to the Vedas, led to the development of Ashtadhyayi, a Sanskrit grammar treatise written by Panini. Renowned as the greatest linguist of antiquity, his masterwork on the philosophy of language sets the rules of the game in an algorithmic manner and has been likened to a Turing machine.
The Upanishads: The Vedas were expounded in the Upanishads, which represent a great intellectual feat for humankind. Out of this emerged a sophisticated system of Vedanta, which can truly open the doors of perception. The German philosopher Schopenhauer found solace in this work- apparently, he read a Persian translation done by the Mughal prince Dara Shukoh. With this work, thinkers had moved beyond deities & rituals and begun to delve into metaphysics and a deeper exploration of the nature of reality. As Historian Abraham Eraly says: “Thus, philosophy was born in the twilight of Gods”, as sacrifices gave way to abstractions.
Public Culture: Just like we ask “Where do you work?” when we meet a stranger, people of this age were equally keen to ask “Which philosophical school are you into?” as a follow-up question. Fierce public debates were a major part of the cultural zeitgeist and came to be seen as high entertainment, even though they trace their origins to the Vedic times. These were virulent, combative, and controversial affairs, not unlike the Twitter shitstorms and Newshour madness that we’re accustomed to in today’s age of digital overload. Ascetics were the coolest people in town and had as much social currency (if not more) as the “influencers” and “entrepreneurs” of today.
A Battle Of Ideas: The 2 major philosophical systems that emerged and lasted the test of time were the Buddhists and the Jains. Even though they possessed many similarities, they rivaled each other and sought royal patronage. But do not err by thinking that these were the only 2 schools that captured people’s attention. The county saw a whopping 60+ philosophical systems that came up, and it’s unfortunate that we’ve lost access to their ideas. Whatever little we have can be noted through the criticisms leveled at them in Buddhist and Jain scriptures. One such prominent rival school was that of Ajivikas, started by Gosala Mankhaliputta. The Ajivikas preached amoralism, and claimed that there’s no free will- and we therefore don’t have any moral responsibility. There were many more fascinating approaches, like the materialist Charavaka philosophy that seemed to predate the Western scientific worldview by a millennium.
This was truly an age of incredible intellectual development, made possible by a truly free society- a period we can take tremendous inspiration and learnings from.
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