Atheism

=== Early Indian religions ===

{{Main|Atheism in Hinduism}}

Ideas that would be recognized today as atheistic are documented from the [[Vedic period]]<ref name="Pandian 1996 64">{{cite book |last=Pandian |title=India, that is, sidd |publisher=Allied Publishers |year=1996 |page=64 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B90uj14NHjMC&pg=PA64 |isbn=978-81-7023-561-3 |access-date=April 9, 2011}}</ref> and the [[classical antiquity]].<ref name="GraftonMostSettis">{{cite book |date=2010 |last=Mulsow |first=Martin |chapter=Atheism |title=The Classical Tradition |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbqF8z2bq3sC&q=devil+poseidon+pan&pg=PA264 |editor1-last=Grafton |editor1-first=Anthony |editor1-link=Anthony Grafton |editor2-last=Most |editor2-first=Glenn W. |editor2-link=Glenn W. Most |editor3-last=Settis |editor3-first=Salvatore |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts and London |isbn=978-0-674-03572-0 |pages=96–97 |access-date=February 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171206135820/https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LbqF8z2bq3sC&pg=PA264&dq=devil+poseidon+pan#v=onepage&q=devil%20poseidon%20pan&f=false |archive-date=December 6, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Atheistic schools are found in early Indian thought and have existed from the times of the [[historical Vedic religion]].<ref name="Pandian 1996 64"/> Among the six [[Astika and Nastika|orthodox]] schools of Hindu philosophy, [[Samkhya]], the oldest philosophical school of thought, does not accept God, and the early [[Mimamsa]] also rejected the notion of God.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dasgupta |first=Surendranath |title=A history of Indian philosophy, Volume 1 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1992 |page=258 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoaMFmS1_lEC&pg=PA258 |isbn=978-81-208-0412-8}}</ref>

The thoroughly materialistic and anti-theistic philosophical [[Charvaka|Chārvāka]] (or ''Lokāyata'') school that originated in [[India]] around the 6th century BCE is probably the most explicitly atheistic school of philosophy in India, similar to the Greek [[Cyrenaic school]]. This branch of Indian philosophy is classified as [[nastika|heterodox]] due to its rejection of the authority of [[Vedas]] and hence is not considered part of the six orthodox schools of [[Indian philosophy]]. It is noteworthy as evidence of a materialistic movement in ancient India.<ref>{{Cite web|date=April 3, 2019|title=The ancient connections between atheism, buddhism and Hinduism|url=https://qz.com/india/1585631/the-ancient-connections-between-atheism-buddhism-and-hinduism/|url-status=live|website=Quartz.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403094858/https://qz.com/india/1585631/the-ancient-connections-between-atheism-buddhism-and-hinduism/ |archive-date=April 3, 2019 }}</ref><ref>Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Charles A. Moore. ''A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy''. (Princeton University Press: 1957, Twelfth Princeton Paperback printing 1989) pp. 227–249. {{ISBN|0-691-01958-4}}.</ref>

Satischandra Chatterjee and Dhirendramohan Datta explain in ''An Introduction to Indian Philosophy'' that our understanding of Chārvāka philosophy is fragmentary, based largely on criticism of the ideas by other schools:<ref>Satischandra Chatterjee and Dhirendramohan Datta. ''An Introduction to Indian Philosophy''. Eighth Reprint Edition. (University of Calcutta: 1984). p. 55.</ref> "Though [[materialism]] in some form or other has always been present in India, and occasional references are found in the Vedas, the Buddhistic literature, the Epics, as well as in the later philosophical works we do not find any systematic work on materialism, nor any organized school of followers as the other philosophical schools possess. But almost every work of the other schools states, for refutation, the materialistic views. Our knowledge of Indian materialism is chiefly based on these."

Other Indian philosophies generally regarded as atheistic include [[Samkhya|Classical Samkhya]] and [[Mimamsa|Purva Mimamsa]]. The rejection of a personal creator "God" is also seen in [[Jainism]] and [[Buddhism]] in India.<ref name="Joshi">{{cite journal |last=Joshi |first=L.R. |year=1966 |title=A New Interpretation of Indian Atheism |journal=Philosophy East and West |volume=16 |issue=3/4 |pages=189–206 |doi=10.2307/1397540 |jstor=1397540}}</ref>