Hindu atheism

Hindu atheism or Hindu non-theism, which is known as Nirīśvaravāda (Sanskrit: Sanskrit: निरीश्वर्वाद, romanized: nirīśvarvāda, lit. 'Argument against the existence of Ishvara') has been a historically propounded viewpoint in many of the Āstika (Orthodox) streams of Hindu philosophy. Hindu spiritual atheists, agnostics or non-theists who affirm the sanctity of the Vedas and the concept of Brahman, as well as those who follow āstika (orthodox) philosophies but reject personal god(s), are also called Dharmic atheists, Vedic atheists or Sanatani atheists.

In current Indian languages, such as Hindi or Bengali, āstika and its derivatives usually mean 'theist', and nāstika and its derivatives denote an 'atheist'; however, the two terms in ancient- and medieval-era Sanskrit literature do not refer to 'theism' or 'atheism'. In ancient India, āstika meant those who affirmed the sanctity of the Vedas, ātman and Brahman, while nāstika, by contrast, are those who deny all the aforementioned definitions of āstika; they do not believe in the existence of self or Ishvara (God) and reject the sanctity of the Vedas.

Sometimes nāstika philosophies are also considered as a part of Hindu philosophy because the word 'Hindu' is actually an exonym and historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for people living in the Indian subcontinent. Many scholars, such as S. Radhakrishnan, Surendranath Dasgupta and Chandradhar Sharma, consider the Nāstika philosophies, i.e. the Indian 'Heterodox' Philosophies like Buddhism, Jainism and Charvaka, to be distinct schools of philosophies, while some others consider them parts of Hindu philosophy. Although Buddhism initially started as yet another school of Indian philosophy with neutral or undiscussed views of most other philosophies, its spread through the Silk Road during the rule of emperor Ashoka, eventually led to a religious kind of self-organisation with structure, rituals and practises.

There are six major orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy — Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedanta. Among them, Samkhya, Yoga and Mimamsa, while not rejecting either the Vedas or Brahman, typically reject a personal god, creator god, or a god with attributes.

Some schools of thought view the path of atheism as a valid one, but difficult to follow in matters of spirituality.