Vedanta (Sanskrit: वेदान्त, IAST: Vedānta), also known as Uttara Mīmāṃsā, is one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy and textual exegesis. The term literally means "conclusion of the Vedas," and the school encompasses a body of ideas that emerged from, aligned with, or reinterpreted the speculations and enumerations contained in the Upanishads. Across its many sub-traditions, Vedanta focuses, with varying emphasis, on devotion (bhakti), knowledge (jñana), and liberation (moksha).
Rather than a single unified doctrine, Vedanta is best understood as a family of traditions that share a common scriptural canon but interpret it in markedly different ways. All Vedanta schools place great importance on textual exegesis, and contain extensive discussions on ontology (the nature of reality), soteriology (the nature and means of liberation), and epistemology (the means of valid knowledge). Considered independently, the various sub-traditions may seem strikingly different from one another due to pronounced differences in their metaphysical conclusions and modes of reasoning.
The shared textual basis of all Vedanta traditions is the corpus known as the Prasthānatrayī, translated as "the three sources." These are:
Each major Vedanta teacher (ācārya) traditionally established the authority of his school by composing commentaries (bhāṣyas) on these three texts. The differences among the schools largely arise from divergent readings of key terms and passages in this shared canon, particularly those concerning the nature of Brahman (the ultimate reality), the individual self (ātman or jīva), the world (jagat), and the relationship among them.
Vedanta is also referred to as Uttara Mīmāṃsā ("later inquiry"), in contrast with Pūrva Mīmāṃsā ("earlier inquiry"), which focuses on the ritual portions (karma-kāṇḍa) of the Vedas. Vedanta concentrates on the knowledge portion (jñāna-kāṇḍa) found principally in the Upanishads.
Vedanta developed into several distinct traditions, each associated with one or more foundational teachers and a particular interpretation of the Prasthānatrayī. The principal traditions identified within Vedanta include:
Most of the major Vedanta schools, with the exception of Advaita Vedanta and its modern reformulations, are closely linked with Vaishnavism and emphasise devotion (bhakti) to God, understood as Vishnu or one of his manifestations. Advaita Vedanta, by contrast, gives primary emphasis to jñana (knowledge) and jñana yoga as the means to liberation, although devotional elements are not absent, and Shankara himself is sometimes held to have been a Vaishnavite in personal practice.
Modern developments within the Vedantic tradition include Neo-Vedanta — a broad term covering reformist and universalist reinterpretations associated with figures such as Swami Vivekananda — and the philosophy of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya, which articulates its own distinct Vedantic position.
Vedanta occupies a central place in classical Hindu philosophical thought. Its commentarial tradition has shaped much of the theological vocabulary used in Hinduism, including the categories of Brahman, ātman, māyā, jīva, Īśvara, and moksha, and the relationships posited among them. The Brahma Sutras, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita have remained living texts within these schools, continuously interpreted and re-interpreted by successive generations of teachers.
Vedanta has also influenced devotional movements, monastic orders, and lineages of teachers across the Indian subcontinent. Different schools are associated with distinctive temple traditions, liturgical practices, and networks of monastic institutions (mathas). The Advaita tradition, in particular, has attracted considerable attention beyond India, partly through the work of the 14th-century Advaitin Vidyaranya and, in modern times, through the writings and lectures of figures associated with Neo-Vedanta. Vaishnava Vedanta traditions have similarly spread internationally through their respective sampradāyas.
Within Indian intellectual history, Vedanta has engaged in sustained dialogue and debate with other āstika schools (such as Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, and Pūrva Mīmāṃsā) as well as with non-āstika traditions such as Buddhism and Jainism. These debates have left a substantial body of polemical and systematic literature.
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