PRASTHĀNABHEDA ｜ प्रस्थानभेदः

The *Prasthānabheda*, authored by Madhusudana Sarasvati, is a concise 16th-century Sanskrit treatise that presents a systematic classification of diverse Indian philosophical, religious, and textual traditions, integrating them within a unified Advaita Vedānta framework.



It categorizes major *darśanas* such as Vedānta, Nyāya, and Mīmāṃsā, along with Vedic, Tantric, and Purāṇic traditions, thereby offering a structured intellectual map of Indian knowledge systems while emphasizing the reconciliatory vision of Advaita.



The work serves as an important guide for understanding the hierarchy and interrelation of various *prasthānas* (approaches), presenting them as progressive stages culminating in non-dual realization, and holds significant value in the historical and comparative study of Indian philosophical literature.



Credits: Divya Prakash Pathak; Shraddha Aggarwal (Data Collection); Prof. Subhash Chandra; Dr. Avadhesh Pratap Singh; Prof. Om Nath Bimali ( First Summer School on Sanskrit Computational Linguistics 2025, University of Delhi)



Source: Standard editions and translations of *Prasthānabheda* in Indological scholarship.