12 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Indian Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher who wrote Awareness, Song of the Bird, and Sadhana — combining Christian mysticism with Eastern meditation and Western psychology — known for a direct, provocative teaching style that challenged comfortable religious assumptions.
Indian ruler who founded the Maurya Empire — the first empire to unify most of the Indian subcontinent — after overthrowing the Nanda dynasty with the counsel of Kautilya (Chanakya), author of the Arthashastra.
Indian Buddhist philosopher who founded the Madhyamaka school — arguing through rigorous dialectical analysis that all phenomena are empty (shunyata) of inherent existence, that even emptiness is empty, and that the two truths (conventional and ultimate) must be carefully distinguished.
British writer born in India who wrote The Jungle Book, Kim, Just So Stories, If, and The White Man's Burden — the most popular English-language poet of his era and the Nobel laureate who most fully articulated the British imperial consciousness — now a contested figure because of his celebration of empire.
Hermann Hesse's 1922 novel — following Siddhartha's spiritual journey in ancient India through asceticism, sensuality, and merchant life to ultimate enlightenment — the most widely read Western novel about Eastern spiritual seeking.
William Dalrymple's 2019 history of the East India Company — arguing that the first corporate takeover of a sovereign nation was conducted not by the British Crown but by a private company — tracing the Company's transformation from merchant enterprise to imperial power across the 18th century.
Ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy, and military strategy — attributed to Kautilya (Chanakya), minister of the Maurya Emperor Chandragupta — the most comprehensive ancient manual for governance, combining realism about power with systematic policy advice.
Amaury de Riencourt's study of the Eastern vision — examining Indian philosophy, religion, and civilization through his characteristic civilizational morphology approach.
Indian Buddhist philosopher who wrote the Abhidharmakosa (treasury of higher doctrine) and co-founded the Yogacara (mind-only) school — arguing that what we experience as external reality is in fact constructed by consciousness — making him the Buddhist parallel to Kant's transcendental idealism.
Scottish historian based in India who wrote In Xanadu, City of Djinns, White Mughals, The Last Mughal, Return of a King, and The Anarchy — among the most acclaimed popular historians of South Asian history — known for his accessible narrative style and archival depth.
Indian religious and philosophical tradition founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha — c. 5th century BCE) — centered on the Four Noble Truths (suffering, its cause in craving, its cessation, the path) and the Eightfold Path — the third-largest world religion and the most psychologically sophisticated of the major traditions.
Family of Indian religious traditions — the world's oldest living religious complex — encompassing diverse practices, philosophies, and mythologies united by the Vedic scriptural canon, the concepts of dharma, karma, moksha, and samsara, and the authority of the Brahmin tradition — the third-largest world religion with over one billion adherents.