Chronology of Indian Philosophy

c. 2500 - 1500 BCE: The Vedic sacrificial tradition, based on ritual actions, was brought into north-west India by the Aryans. This tradition was preserved and administered by the Brahmin priests.

c. 800-500 BCE: The teachings recorded in the early Upanishads, in which knowledge is said to be of ultimate importance, were embraced by the Brahmanical tradition.

By 500 BCE: these two branches - ritual and gnostic- of the Brahmanical tradition coexisted.

5th century BCE milieu: householders and renouncers; in polar contrast to the householders of the Brahmanical religion, were the renouncers - perpatetic, mendicant, and celibate wanderers, in search of knowledge about the world and the self. Renouncers rejected all Brahmanical norms.

c. 485-405 BCE: the lifetime of the Buddha. Texts record that the Buddha challenged Brahmanical practices and teachings, and their claims to authority, and found no satisfactory alternative among the teachings of the renouncers. Based on insights gained at his own Enlightenment, he taught a Middle Way between those of the householders and the renouncers.

4th - 2nd century BCE: grammarians and early exegetes establish what should be 'looked at', In the face of proliferating counter-claims to knowledge of the truth, if the brahmins were to retain their hold on their dominant position they needed to clarify the issues which both justified their practices and confirmed their authority. As the ancient guardians of the sacrificial ritual and the language of Sanskrit, they sought to establish the criteria by which their practices and concerns would be validated, not just for themselves but also to refute the claims of others. In so doing they set the agenda for what each school of thought needed to establish in support of its own position.

Key figures include:

4th century BCE: the grammarian Panini

3rd - 2nd century BCE:Katyayana and Patanjali , commentators on Panini's grammar.

2nd century BCE: Jaimini, author of the first known exegetical text on the ritual section - karma kanda - of the Veda.

2nd century BCE: Badarayana, author of the Brahma Sutra, an important exegetical text on the Upanishads - the jnana kanda of the Veda.

3rd - 2nd century BCE: Vaisesika and Nyaya combine an ontology of pluralistic realism and a formal method by which to arrive at certain knowledge. Kanada's Vaisesika Sutra - concerned with the ontological status of the 'particulars' (visesa) of reality. Kanada sought to establish of what 'particulars', or types of entity, the world is comprised.

c. 3rd century CE: Gotama's Nyaya Sutra - adopting Kanada's ontology of pluralistic realism. Nyaya was concerned with how one can arrive at certain knowledge of that realism - what are the valid means of knowledge? Its main contribution was an epistemological method, based on inferential reasoning.


4th - 1st century BCE: the early Buddhist tradition undergoes division into different schools. Initially based on different disciplinary codes, these gradually developed distinctively different doctrinal views.

3rd centry BCE - 2nd century CE: development of the Buddhist Abhidharma (in Pali Abhidharma) tradition: the scholastic activity of the investigation and categorizing of phenomena (dharmas/dhammas) in order to understand the nature of reality.

1st century BCE - 1st century CE: the emergence of Mahayana Buddhism and the early Prajnaparamita ('Perfection of Wisdom') Sutras.

c. 2nd century CE: drawing on Prajnaparamita literature, Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka Karika focus on the 'emptiness' (sunyata) of all phenomena, and establish the basis of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school of thought. Of central importance to Nagarjuna's teachings is the Buddha's doctrine of 'dependent origination'.

c. 4th Century CE: the Cittamatra ('Mind Only'), or Yogacara ('Practice of Yoga'), school of Buddhism establishes an alternative interpretation of the import of the Prajnaparamita teachings, seeking to redress the apparent nihilism of the 'emptiness' school. As suggested by the terms 'yoga' and 'mind', its approach centres on understanting meditative processes, or 'consciousness events'.

3rd century CE: The Yoga-Sutras represent what is known as 'Classical Yoga'. Said to have been written by one Patanjali, in fact their authorship is uncertain. The Yoga-Sutras present a detailed mental disciplinary methodology for attaining liberating insight, a methodology that is compatible with the ontology of Samkhya.

4th - 5th century CE: Isvarakrishna codifies classical Samkhya in his Samkha Karika. Human beings are bound to rebirth because they do not realize what they take to be conscious is unconscious, and that consciousness lies only in ontologically separate and inactive 'selves' (purusha). The aim is to gain insight into this dualism.

5th century CE: the grammarian Barthrhari develops an orthodox darshana alongside the philosophical activity of linguistic analysis. Understanding the role of language, he stated, leads to liberating knowledge of Brahman, the unifying essence of the universe.

7th century CE: the flowering of the Mimamsa tradition of exegesis of the karma kanda (action section) of the Vedas. Principal proponents include Kumarila and Prabhakara.

8th century CE: Shankara's school of Advaita Vedanta, based on a 'non dual' (advaita) exegesis of the Upanishads, 'the end of the Veda' and its jnana-kanda (knowledge section).

11th century CE: Ramanuja's Visistadvaita Vedanta, a 'qualified non-dualism', also based on exegesis of the Upanishads.


Reference:

Indian Philosophy a very short introduction