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Indian schools of philosophy are traditionally divided into two categories, Astika and Nastika. Astika schools accept the authority of the Vedas as divinely revealed truth (shruti), whereas Nastika schools, like Buddhism, Jainism, and Charvaka, reject the authority of the Vedas. Generally members of Astika schools are the ones that are called Hindu, whereas the Nastika schools fall into the broader category of Dharmic faiths. In any case, here are the traditional Astika schools of philosophy:

  1. Samkhya

  2. Yoga

  3. Nyaya

  4. Vaisheshika

  5. Mimāṃsā

  6. Vedanta

But it seems to me that one school is vastly more popular than the others: the Vedanta school, which derives its tenets from the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads, as expounded in Vyasa's Brahma Sutras. Here is Wikipedia's chart of the various Vedanta philosophies:

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From what I can tell, almost every popular sect of Hinduism subscribes to one of these Vedanta philosophies. Smarthas, for instance, believe in Adi Shankarachatya's philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, according to which Jivatma (the individual soul) and Paramatma (divine soul or supersoul) are identical. Sri Vaishnavas believe in Ramanujacharya's philosophy of Visistadvaita Vedanta, according to which Jivatmas are distinct parts of Parmatma but Paramatma extends beyond them. And Gaudiya Vaishnavas believe in Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Vedantic philosophy of Achintya Bheda Abheda, according to which there is a simultaneous unity and difference between Jivatma and Paramatma that is inconceivable.

So my question is, what is the percentage of Hindus who belong to a sect which subscribes to the Vedanta school of philosophy? Note that when I say "Hindu" I don't mean Buddhists and the like, I just mean people belonging to the Astika schools. I'm wondering how many Hindus belong to the Vedanta school, compared to how many Hindus belong to the other Astika schools like Purva Mimamsa.

My guess is that the percentage is significantly greater than 95%, but have there been any statistics collected on this?

Pandya
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  • are you looking for a scriptural statistic (as in like is it mentioned somewhere in scripture how many % of Hindus are vedantic)? or an opinion? Or perhaps a poll in StackExchange hehe :) – Sai Sep 24 '14 at 15:35
  • @Sai Haha no, I'm not looking for something in scripture. I'm looking for modern statistics of how many Hindus currently belong to sects that follow Vedanta. People conduct statistical studies on religions all the time, like how many Muslims are Sunni vs. Shia, how many Christians are Catholics vs. Protestant, etc. – Keshav Srinivasan Sep 24 '14 at 15:42
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    oh I see. :) Not sure if there would be a statistic because unlike the other sects I believe that the sects in Hinduism are not really conflicting, but one can choose to follow several of these together. – Sai Sep 24 '14 at 15:49
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    @Sai Well, you can worship both Vishnu and Shiva, but people don't generally identify themselves as both Sri Vaishnavas and Smarthas, for instance. So it would certainly be possible to collect statistics on the sect that people self-identify as. – Keshav Srinivasan Sep 24 '14 at 15:53
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    perhaps (and Im not saying that it is not :D) not in the way you mentioned. But I could certainly call myself both a Yogi (focusses on conentration and meditation) and a Vedanti (focusses on inner meaning of scriptures). I could also be both a Vaisheshikist (hehe) (one who believes in scientific experimentation) as well as Nyay-ist (hehe) ( believes in logical reasoning). Perhaps within those schools of thought there may be some conflicting beliefs. Just my opinion – Sai Sep 24 '14 at 15:58
  • @Sai Haha, yeah if you just look at the names of the different philosophical schools, you might even think that you belong to all six. But those names are deceptive: to be a Vedantin, for instance, doesn't mean you like to study the meaning of the Vedas, it means that you believe in the specific doctrines Vyasa lays out in the Brahma Sutras: http://www.advaita.it/library/brahmasutras2.htm The other schools also have very detailed belief systems. So just because you value or focus on logic and empirical work doesn't mean anything. These are schools of philosophy, not ways of life. – Keshav Srinivasan Sep 24 '14 at 16:11
  • @Sai I think you may be confusing schools of Hindu philosophy with the paths a Hindu can take, like Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, etc. – Keshav Srinivasan Sep 24 '14 at 16:13
  • Well alright, accepted. But in my opinion when you said 'to be a Vedantin, for instance, it means that you believe in the specific doctrines Vyasa lays out in the Brahma Sutras' I think that's a specific definition that you subscribe to of what a Vedanti is. Whereas I am talking about how I would call myself a Vedanti, because I believe in a different definition what it takes to be a Vedanti. Therefore different people (who would admittedly follow different vedantic beliefs) would still consider themselves vedantic. – Sai Sep 24 '14 at 16:32
  • I am already getting 'Would you like to automatically move this discussion to chat' stuffs. So I would like to end it here by saying perhaps if you would be able to define what exactly in your question you expect when you say 'Nyaya' or 'Yoga' then it would help narrow down and possibly easier to answer :). All the best! – Sai Sep 24 '14 at 16:33
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    @Sai Yeah, I could provide definitions for the different schools. But in any case, I'm not asking about how many Hindus would self-identify as Vedanta, because most people haven't even heard of the word "Vedanta". Rather, I'm asking how many people belong to a sect of Hinduism which subscribes to Vedanta. People would presumably know if they're Sri Vaishnava or Smartha, for instance, and based on that you can place them in one of the six Astika schools. So all I really want is a breakdown of Hindus by sect, not by philosophy, and then a breakdown by philosophy can be inferred. – Keshav Srinivasan Sep 24 '14 at 17:08
  • Okay so basically you're asking this: "If you are a Sri Vaishnava, you're categorized as Vedantic cuz that's what it subscribes to" and "If you are at Iskcon let me know and I'll categorize you as Vedantic cuz that's what it's based off". I get it. But I think it could be clearer that that's what you want from the question (question just says "what percentage of hindus belong to vedanta school"). In any case I have understood now what exactly you require :). Thanks for taking the time to clarify things! – Sai Sep 24 '14 at 17:16
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    Of the discussion, I think many Hindus subscribe to many things together. When they self-identify, they would self-identify multiply. They can go to a temple, attend a Vedanta class, do puja in the morning clean the beach in the evening and meditate on the Self in the night. Most modern masters, Aurobindo, Vivekanand etc have advocated a synthesis of multiple streams and the "exclusive self-identifying" people, such as this and not that, will be very few. This would require a survey, that uses checkboxes with multiple select, not a combo box, LoL. A clear divide is unlikely to be found. – Whirl Mind Nov 29 '15 at 19:32
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    Most of the people don't even know the names of the Astika schools let alone subscribing to them. "My guess is that the percentage is significantly greater than 95%" It is not even close to that. The percentage is less than 5%, that also I think is way too much. The real figure is in the range of 0.45% to 0.75%. Of course, this is all speculation but I strongly believe this is the correct figure. – Pinakin Feb 20 '16 at 05:51
  • @ChinmaySarupria Please see my conversation with Sai above. Im not asking how many people would say that they belong to the Vedanta school if you asked them. I'm asking, if you asked people what sect of Hinduism they belonged to, and then you classify those people according to what Astika school their sect believes in, then what is the percentage of people that would be classified under the Vedanta school? That's the question whose answer I think is far greater than 95%. Like Sri Vaishnavas, Advaitins, Madhvas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, Ramanandis, etc. all belong to sects which subscribe to Vedanta – Keshav Srinivasan Feb 20 '16 at 13:06
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    Now all are nastika schools only due to kaliyuga. – Parthasarathy Raghavan Aug 26 '16 at 05:16
  • Limiting the denotation of vedanta to uttara mimamsa is unwelcome. Vedanta has the meaning of "culmination of gnyana". In this light, this Q is incorrect. Plus the darsanas are not -isms. –  Apr 10 '18 at 13:56
  • @moonstar Well, Vedanta has multiple meanings. It can denote the Upanishads, it can denote a Darshana, and it can denote the culmination of Jnana. This question of mine is about the Vedanta Darshana, aka the Uttara Mimamsa Darshana. And I would say that the Darshana's are isms. They are schools of philosophy with distinct sets of beliefs, and they each come with a set of philosophers who try to disprove all the other Darshanas. That sounds like an ism to me. – Keshav Srinivasan Apr 10 '18 at 14:17
  • If the question is about uttara mimasa, state so. Do not use the collective noun of vedanta. –  Apr 10 '18 at 17:05
  • @moonstar By saying the term "Vedanta school", I make clear that I'm talking about the Darshana. – Keshav Srinivasan Apr 10 '18 at 17:12
  • Its not clear. Especially not to the average reader. –  Apr 10 '18 at 19:00
  • @moonstar Well, I specifically list the 6 Astika schools and then ask about the Vedanta school. – Keshav Srinivasan Apr 10 '18 at 19:50
  • That's not sufficient. Its not even straightforward. And darsanas are not isms. To say logic is an ism is vitanDa vAda –  Apr 11 '18 at 03:56
  • @moonstar In what sense are Darshanas not isms? They are distinct belief systems. What else is an "ism"? – Keshav Srinivasan Apr 11 '18 at 04:06
  • I already gave an example as to why they are not isms. Darsanas are not ideologies. This Q is impossible to answer because noone keeps such a census . the Q is designed to farm reputation and get bumped up continually by the community user –  Apr 16 '18 at 00:27
  • @moonstar Sorry, what was the example you gave to show they are not ideologies? I must have missed it. Was "logic", i.e. Nyaya, your example? But the Nyaya Darshana is different from just logic. The Nyaya Darshana had very specific philosophical beliefs; for instance, they believed that God is only the efficient cause of the Universe, in contrast to the Vedanta Darshana which says that Brahman is both the efficient cause and the material cause. That's why the Advaita philosopher Sri Harsha wrote a refutation of the Nyaya Darshana, the Khandana Khanda Khadya. Vyasa does so too in Brahmasutras – Keshav Srinivasan Apr 16 '18 at 00:44
  • @moonstar I don't think this question is impossible to answer. I agree that people wouldn't compile stats on different Astika Darshanas, but they might keep stats on how many members different sects of Hinduism belong to, and then by seeing what Darshanas these sects of Hinduism subscribe to, one can infer the answer to my question. For instance, Sri Vaishnavas subscribe to the Vedanta Darshana, whereas Kashmiri Shaivites do not. And this question isn't designed to farm reputation, I'm genuinely interested in the answer. I think the answer is "the vast majority", but I want to know how big. – Keshav Srinivasan Apr 16 '18 at 00:48
  • Nyaya is logic and epistemology. Harsha's work AFAIK criticises nyaya's methodologies of knowledge acquisition. It was also later refuted and we have a navyanyaya theory as well. 2) Noone keeps those numbers. Roundabout attempts to bring some obscure connection between existing sects (whose censuses are a novelty I see only in this Q) and darsanas is far-fetched at best
    • –  Apr 16 '18 at 01:12
  • @moonstar Nyaya is not just logic and epistemology. The different Darshanas all have their own epistemology and ontology. The Vaisheshika school believes in two Pramanas, Samkhya, Yoga, and Vedanta (mostly) believe in three, Nyaya believes in four, Prabhakaras in five, Bhattas and Advaitins in six. The different Darshanas also differ on the material cause of the Universe, the issue of whether Atma is atomic or omnipresent, the way to prove the existence of God, etc. There is a reason why Vyasa refutes all the other Darshanas in Adhyaya 2 Pada 2 of the Brahma Sutras. – Keshav Srinivasan Apr 16 '18 at 15:52