astika

Classical India sorted its philosophies into astika and nastika , the schools that accepted the authority of the Vedas and those that did not.

Indian thinkers used a simple test to sort their philosophies: schools that accepted the authority of the Vedas were called astika , and those that rejected it were nastika .

The schools of Indian philosophy that accept that authority are called astika , "orthodox," and those that reject it, such as the Buddhists and Jains and the materialist Charvakas, are called nastika .

The line that divides, and what it is not The six are called astika , orthodox, and they are set against the nastika , the heterodox, and almost everyone misunderstands where the line falls.

The acceptance of the Veda became the line dividing the orthodox, āstika , from the heterodox, nāstika .

The school remains astika , orthodox, because it accepts the authority of the Vedas; it simply finds that it can account for the cosmos without a maker.

The ancient dividing line, astika and nastika , does not track belief in God.

They are orthodox schools, all six accepted as astika , as within the fold, because the fold was never defined by a person's doctrine in the first place.