Welcome back to another post on developing reading habits, and concomitantly increasing our knowledge. This one deals with our very own country and its past. It’s a very basic introduction to Indian Philosophy. And here philosophy is used not in the colloquial sense but in the strict sense of the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline. 

Introduction
Indian Philosophy (or, in Sankrit, Darshanas), refers to any of several traditions of philosophical thought that originated in the Indian subcontinent, including Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jain philosophy (see below for brief introductions to these schools). It is considered by Indian thinkers to be a practical discipline, and its goal should always be to improve human life.

Orthodox (Hindu) Schools
The main Hindu orthodox (astika) schools of Indian philosophy are those codified during the medieval period of Brahmanic-Sanskritic scholasticism, and they take the ancient Vedas (the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism) as their source and scriptural authority:

Samkhya:
Samkhya is the oldest of the orthodox philosophical systems, and it postulates that everything in reality stems from purusha (self or soul or mind) and prakriti (matter, creative agency, energy). It is a dualist philosophy, although between the self and matter rather than between mind and body as in the Western dualist tradition, and liberation occurs with the realization that the soul and the dispositions of matter (steadiness, activity and dullness) are different. (More here)