The Most Famous

PHILOSOPHERS from India

This page contains a list of the greatest Indian Philosophers. The pantheon dataset contains 1,267 Philosophers, 46 of which were born in India. This makes India the birth place of the 8th most number of Philosophers behind Greece, and Turkey.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Indian Philosophers of all time. This list of famous Indian Philosophers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Indian Philosophers.

1. Rajneesh (1931 - 1990)

With an HPI of 80.10, Rajneesh is the most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 67 different languages on wikipedia.

Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain; 11 December 1931 – 19 January 1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and later as Osho (Hindi pronunciation: [ˈo:ʃo:]), was an Indian godman, philosopher, mystic and founder of the Rajneesh movement. He was viewed as a controversial new religious movement leader during his life. He rejected institutional religions, insisting that spiritual experience could not be organized into any one system of religious dogma. As a guru, he advocated meditation and taught a unique form called dynamic meditation. Rejecting traditional ascetic practices, he advocated that his followers live fully in the world but without attachment to it. In expressing a more progressive attitude to sexuality he caused controversy in India during the late 1960s and became known as "the sex guru". Rajneesh experienced a spiritual awakening in 1953 at the age of 21. Following several years in academia, in 1966 Rajneesh resigned his post at the University of Jabalpur and began traveling throughout India, becoming known as a vocal critic of the orthodoxy of mainstream religions, as well as of mainstream political ideologies and of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1970, Rajneesh spent time in Mumbai initiating followers known as "neo-sannyasins". During this period, he expanded his spiritual teachings and commented extensively in discourses on the writings of religious traditions, mystics, bhakti poets, and philosophers from around the world. In 1974, Rajneesh relocated to Pune, where an ashram was established and a variety of therapies, incorporating methods first developed by the Human Potential Movement, were offered to a growing Western following. By the late 1970s, the tension between the ruling Janata Party government of Morarji Desai and the movement led to a curbing of the ashram's development and a back tax claim estimated at $5 million. In 1981, the Rajneesh movement's efforts refocused on activities in the United States and Rajneesh relocated to a facility known as Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon. The movement ran into conflict with county residents and the state government, and a succession of legal battles concerning the ashram's construction and continued development curtailed its success. In 1985, Rajneesh publicly asked local authorities to investigate his personal secretary Ma Anand Sheela and her close supporters for a number of crimes, including a 1984 mass food-poisoning attack intended to influence county elections, an aborted assassination plot on U.S. attorney Charles H. Turner, the attempted murder of Rajneesh's personal physician, and the bugging of his own living quarters; authorities later convicted several members of the ashram, including Sheela. That year, Rajneesh was deported from the United States on separate immigration-related charges in accordance with an Alford plea. After his deportation, 21 countries denied him entry. Rajneesh ultimately returned to Mumbai, India, in 1986. After staying in the house of a disciple where he resumed his discourses for six months, he returned to Pune in January 1987 and revived his ashram, where he died in 1990. Rajneesh's ashram, now known as OSHO International Meditation Resort, and all associated intellectual property, is managed by the registered Osho International Foundation (formerly Rajneesh International Foundation). Rajneesh's teachings have had an impact on Western New Age thought, and their popularity reportedly increased between the time of his death and 2005.

2. Ramakrishna (1836 - 1886)

With an HPI of 75.98, Ramakrishna is the 2nd most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 82 different languages.

Ramakrishna (18 February 1836 – 16 August 1886), also called Ramakrishna Paramahansa (Bengali: রামকৃষ্ণ পরমহংস, romanized: Ramôkṛṣṇo Pôromohôṅso; pronounced [ramɔkriʂno pɔromoɦɔŋʃo] ; IAST: Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa), born Ramakrishna Chattopadhay, was an Indian Hindu mystic. He was a devotee of the goddess Kali, but adhered to various religious practices from the Hindu traditions of Vaishnavism, Tantric Shaktism, and Advaita Vedanta, as well as Christianity and Islam. He advocated the essential unity of religions and proclaimed that world religions are "so many paths to reach one and the same goal". His parable-based teachings espoused the ultimate unity of diverse religions as being means to enable the realization of the same God. He is regarded by his followers as an avatar (divine incarnation). Born in Kamarpukur, Bengal Presidency, India, Ramakrishna was the fourth and youngest child of his parents. He encountered several religious experiences starting from his childhood, and later began his career, at age twenty, as a temple priest at the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple in Calcutta. The devotional temperament of Ramakrishna coupled with his intense religious practices at the temple premises led him to experience various spiritual visions. Soon a few religious teachers visited Ramakrishna and assured him the sanctity of his visions. In 1859, in accordance with then prevailing customs, Ramakrishna was married to Sarada Devi, a marriage that was never consummated. Tota Puri, a vedanta monk, initiated Ramakrishna into sannyasa in 1865. Ramakrishna later gained widespread acclaim amongst the temple visiting public as a guru, attracting to him social leaders, elites, and common people alike. Although initially reluctant to consider himself a guru, he eventually taught his disciples and founded the monastic Ramakrishna Order. Ramakrishna died due to throat cancer on the night of 15 August 1886. After his demise, his chief disciple Swami Vivekananda popularized his ideas in India and the West.

3. Nagarjuna (150 - 250)

With an HPI of 75.72, Nagarjuna is the 3rd most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 99 different languages.

Nāgārjuna (Sanskrit: नागार्जुन, Nāgārjuna; c. 150 – c. 250 CE) was an Indian monk and Mahāyāna Buddhist philosopher of the Madhyamaka (Centrism, Middle Way) school. He is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers. Jan Westerhoff considers him to be "one of the greatest thinkers in the history of Asian philosophy." Nāgārjuna is widely considered to be the founder of the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy and a defender of the Mahāyāna movement. His Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Root Verses on Madhyamaka, MMK) is the most important text on the Madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness. The MMK inspired a large number of commentaries in Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Korean and Japanese and continues to be studied today.

4. Swami Vivekananda (1863 - 1902)

With an HPI of 71.86, Swami Vivekananda is the 4th most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 90 different languages.

Swami Vivekananda (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the introduction of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world. He is credited with raising interfaith awareness and bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion in the late nineteenth century. Born into an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family in Calcutta, Vivekananda was inclined from a young age towards religion and spirituality. He later found his guru Ramakrishna and became a monk. After the death of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda extensively toured the Indian subcontinent as a wandering monk and acquired first-hand knowledge of the living conditions of Indian people in then British India. Moved by their plight, he resolved to help them and found a way to travel to the United States, where he became a popular figure after the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago at which he delivered his famous speech beginning with the words: "Sisters and brothers of America ..." while introducing Hinduism to Americans. He made such an impression there that an American newspaper described him as "an orator by divine right and undoubtedly the greatest figure at the Parliament". After great success at the Parliament, in the subsequent years, Vivekananda delivered hundreds of lectures across the United States, England, and Europe, disseminating the core tenets of Hindu philosophy, and founded the Vedanta Society of New York and the Vedanta Society of San Francisco (now Vedanta Society of Northern California), both of which became the foundations for Vedanta Societies in the West. In India, he founded the Ramakrishna Math, which provides spiritual training for monastics and householders, and the Ramakrishna Mission, which provides charity, social work and education. Vivekananda was one of the most influential philosophers and social reformers in his contemporary India, and the most successful missionary of Vedanta to the Western world. He was also a major force in contemporary Hindu reform movements and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India. He is now widely regarded as one of the most influential people of modern India and a patriotic saint. His birthday is celebrated in India as National Youth Day.

5. Adi Shankara (788 - 820)

With an HPI of 70.78, Adi Shankara is the 5th most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 78 different languages.

Adi Shankara (8th c. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya (Sanskrit: आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, romanized: Ādi Śaṅkara, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, lit. 'First Shankaracharya', pronounced [aːd̪i ɕɐŋkɐraːt͡ɕaːrjɐ]), was an Indian Vedic scholar, philosopher and teacher (acharya) of Advaita Vedanta. Reliable information on Shankara's actual life is scanty, and his true impact lies in his "iconic representation of Hindu religion and culture," despite the fact that most Hindus do not adhere to Advaita Vedanta. Tradition also portrays him as the one who reconciled the various sects (Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Saktism) with the introduction of the Pañcāyatana form of worship, the simultaneous worship of five deities – Ganesha, Surya, Vishnu, Shiva and Devi, arguing that all deities were but different forms of the one Brahman, the invisible Supreme Being. While often revered as the most important Indian philosopher, the historical influence of his works on Hindu intellectual thought has been questioned. Until the 10th century Shankara was overshadowed by his older contemporary Maṇḍana Miśra, and there is no mention of him in concurring Hindu, Buddhist or Jain sources until the 11th century. The popular image of Shankara started to take shape in the 14th century, centuries after his death, when Sringeri matha started to receive patronage from the kings of the Vijayanagara Empire and shifted their allegiance from Advaitic Agamic Shaivism to Brahmanical Advaita orthodoxy. Hagiographies dating from the 14th-17th centuries deified him as a ruler-renunciate, travelling on a digvijaya (conquest of the four quarters) across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy, defeating his opponents in theological debates. These hagiographies portray him as founding four mathas ("monasteries"), and Adi Shankara also came to be regarded as the organiser of the Dashanami monastic order, and the unifier of the Shanmata tradition of worship. The title of Shankaracharya, used by heads of certain monasteries in India, is derived from his name. Due to his later fame, over 300 texts are attributed to him, including commentaries (Bhāṣya), introductory topical expositions (Prakaraṇa grantha) and poetry (Stotra). However, most of these are likely to be written by admirers or pretenders or scholars with an eponymous name. Works known to be written by Shankara himself are the Brahmasutrabhasya, his commentaries on ten principal Upanishads, his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, and the Upadeśasāhasrī. The authenticity of Shankara being the author of Vivekacūḍāmaṇi has been questioned and mostly rejected by scholarship. His authentic works present a harmonizing reading of the shastras, with liberating knowledge of the self at its core, synthesizing the Advaita Vedanta teachings of his time. The central concern of Shankara's writings is the liberating knowledge of the true identity of jivatman (individual self) as Ātman-Brahman, taking the Upanishads as an independent means of knowledge, beyond the ritually-oriented Mīmāṃsā-exegesis of the Vedas. Shankara's Advaita shows influences from Mahayana Buddhism, despite Shankara's critiques; and Hindu Vaishnava opponents have even accused Shankara of being a "crypto-Buddhist," a qualification which is rejected by the Advaita Vedanta tradition, highlighting their respective views on Atman, Anatta and Brahman.

6. Kabir (1440 - 1518)

With an HPI of 70.21, Kabir is the 6th most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 62 different languages.

Kabir (1398–1518 CE): 14–15 was a well-known Indian mystic poet and sant. His verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das, and Kabir Sagar of Dharamdas. Today, Kabir is an important figure in Hinduism, Sikhism and in Sufism. Born in the city of Varanasi in what is now Uttar Pradesh, he is known for being critical of organized religions. He questioned what he regarded to be the meaningless and unethical practices of all religions, primarily what he considered to be the wrong practices in Hinduism and Islam. During his lifetime, he was threatened by both Hindus and Muslims for his views. When he died, several Hindus and the Muslims he had inspired claimed him as theirs. Kabir suggested that "truth" is with the person who is on the path of righteousness, who considers everything, living and non living, as divine, and who is passively detached from the affairs of the world. To know the truth, suggested Kabir, drop the "I", or the ego. Kabir's legacy survives and continues through the Kabir panth ("Path of Kabir"), Sant Mat sect that recognizes Kabir as its founder. Its members are known as Kabir panthis.

7. Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895 - 1986)

With an HPI of 69.81, Jiddu Krishnamurti is the 7th most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 74 different languages.

Jiddu Krishnamurti ( JID-oo KRISH-nə-MOOR-tee; 12 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian philosopher, speaker, writer, and spiritual figure. Adopted by members of the Theosophical tradition as a child, he was raised to fill the advanced role of World Teacher, but in adulthood he rejected this mantle and distanced himself from the related religious movement. He spent the rest of his life speaking to groups and individuals around the world; many of these talks have been published. He also wrote many books, among them The First and Last Freedom (1954) and Commentaries on Living (1956–60). His last public talk was in January 1986, a month before his death at his home in Ojai, California. Krishnamurti asserted that "truth is a pathless land" and advised against following any doctrine, discipline, teacher, guru, or authority, including himself. He emphasized topics such as choiceless awareness, psychological inquiry, and freedom from religious, spiritual, and cultural conditioning. His supporters — working through non-profit foundations in India, Britain, and the United States — oversee several independent schools based on his views on education, and continue to distribute his thousands of talks, group and individual discussions, and writings in a variety of media formats and languages.

8. Vyasa (-390 - -310)

With an HPI of 67.00, Vyasa is the 8th most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 62 different languages.

Krishna Dvaipayana (Sanskrit: कृष्णद्वैपायन, IAST: Kṛṣṇadvaipāyana), better known as Vyasa (; Sanskrit: व्यास, lit. 'compiler', IAST: Vyāsa) or Veda Vyasa (Sanskrit: वेदव्यास, lit. 'the one who classified the Vedas', IAST: Vedavyāsa,), is a revered rishi (sage) portrayed in most Hindu traditions. He is traditionally regarded as the author of a number of Hindu texts, including the epic Mahābhārata, where he also plays a prominent role as a character. Vyasa is also regarded by many Hindus as a partial incarnation (Sanskrit: अंशावतार, IAST: Aṃśāvatāra) of Vishnu. He is regarded to be the compiler of the mantras of the Vedas into four texts, as well as the author of the eighteen Puranas and the Brahma Sutras. He is one of the immortals called the Chiranjivis, held by adherents to still be alive in the current age known as the Kali Yuga.

9. Aśvaghoṣa (80 - 150)

With an HPI of 66.20, Aśvaghoṣa is the 9th most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 43 different languages.

Aśvaghoṣa, also transliterated Ashvaghosha (Sanskrit: [ˌɐɕʋɐˈɡʱoːʂɐ], अश्वघोष; lit. "Having a Horse-Voice"; Tibetan: སློབ་དཔོན་དཔའ་བོ།, Wylie: slob dpon dpa' bo; Chinese: 馬鳴菩薩; pinyin: Mǎmíng púsà; lit. 'Bodhisattva with a Horse-Voice') (c. 80 – c. 150 CE), was a Buddhist philosopher, dramatist, poet, musician, and orator from India. He was born in Saketa, today known as Ayodhya. He is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist, and is considered the greatest Indian poet prior to Kālidāsa. It seems probable that he was the contemporary and spiritual adviser of Kanishka in the first century of our era. He was the most famous in a group of Buddhist court writers, whose epics rivaled the contemporary Ramayana. Whereas much of Buddhist literature prior to the time of Aśvaghoṣa had been composed in Pāli and Prakrit, Aśvaghoṣa wrote in Classical Sanskrit. He may have been associated with the Sarvāstivāda or the Mahasanghika schools.

10. Padmasambhava (717 - 762)

With an HPI of 66.15, Padmasambhava is the 10th most famous Indian Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 54 different languages.

Padmasambhava ("Born from a Lotus"), also known as Guru Rinpoche (Precious Guru) and the Lotus Born from Oḍḍiyāna, was a semi-legendary tantric Buddhist Vajra master from India who fully revealed the Vajrayana in Tibet, circa 8th – 9th centuries. He is considered the reincarnation of Shakyamuni Buddha as foretold by the Buddha himself. According to early Tibetan sources including the Testament of Ba, he came to Tibet in the 8th century and designed Samye Monastery, the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet during the reign of King Trisong Detsen. He, the king, and Khenpo Shantarakshita are also responsible for creating the Tibetan Canon through translating all of the Buddha's teachings and their commentaries into the Tibetan language. According to Lewis Doney, while his historical authenticity was questioned by earlier Tibetologists, it is now "cautiously accepted". Padmasambhava himself was recorded as saying he was an historical person, and his footprints left in rocks are evidence. Padmasambhava later came to be viewed as a central figure in the transmission of Buddhism to Tibet. Starting from around the 12th century, hagiographies concerning Padmasambhava were written. These works expanded the profile and activities of Padmasambhava, now seen as taming all the Tibetan spirits and gods, and concealing various secret texts (terma) for future tertöns. Nyangral Nyima Özer (1124–1192) was the author of the Zangling-ma (Jeweled Rosary), the earliest biography of Padmasambhava. He has been called "one of the main architects of the Padmasambhava mythos – who first linked Padmasambhava to the Great Perfection in a high-profile manner." In modern Tibetan Buddhism, Padmasambhava is considered to be a Buddha that was foretold by Buddha Shakyamuni. According to traditional hagiographies, his students include the great female masters Yeshe Tsogyal and Mandarava. The contemporary Nyingma school considers Padmasambhava to be a founding figure. The Nyingma school also traditionally holds that its Dzogchen lineage has its origins in Garab Dorje through a lineage of transmission to Padmasambhava. In Tibetan Buddhism, the teachings of Padmasambava are said to include an oral lineage (kama), and a lineage of the hidden treasure texts (termas). Tibetan Buddhism holds that Padmasambhava's termas are discovered by fortunate beings and tertöns (treasure finders) when conditions are ripe for their reception. Padmasambhava is said to appear to tertöns in visionary encounters, and his form is visualized during guru yoga practice, particularly in the Nyingma school. Padmasambhava is widely venerated by Buddhists in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, the Himalayan states of India, and in countries around the world.

People

Pantheon has 47 people classified as Indian philosophers born between 390 BC and 1950. Of these 47, 3 (6.38%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Indian philosophers include Rishabhanatha, Rambhadracharya, and Homi K. Bhabha. The most famous deceased Indian philosophers include Rajneesh, Ramakrishna, and Nagarjuna. As of April 2024, 2 new Indian philosophers have been added to Pantheon including Keshub Chandra Sen, and Chinmayananda Saraswati.