Indian Psychology

Abstract

Indian psychology is a twentieth-century phenomenon, though its roots go back to the Vedic period of the Indian sub-continent in Asia (originally known as Bhaarata), the exact date of which is still under debate. According to current historical reckoning, the Vedic period dates from about 3000 BCE, although some Western scholars date it back to 10,000 BCE, based on recent excavations in the site of the Indus Valley Civilization. Though psychology, unlike astronomy, medicine, economics, law and polity, or literature, was not recognized as an independent branch of study in ancient India, there has been no dearth of psychological theorizing scattered in varied sources, including mythology and epics, literary texts, linguistics, texts on dramatics, sexology, medicine, philosophy, religion, and spirituality. Concepts and models related to almost all aspects of human behavior, such as cognition, affect, and conation, can be found in these sources, especially those human potentials which are yet to find their way into mainstream psychology, such as intuition, paranormal phenomena, altered states of consciousness, and transcendent awareness or pure consciousness. These topics are found not only in texts and treatises related to Vedic tradition but also in non-Vedic traditions such as Jainism and Buddhism. Yet no efforts at collecting and systematizing a vast body of psychological knowledge are evident until the beginning of the twentieth century.