Reference: SC: Psychology
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Ancient history – BCE
- c. 2600–1900 BCE – Indus Valley Civilization
Iconography suggests early yogic/meditative postures and concern with inner states, though not yet systematized as explicit psychology. - c. 1500–1200 BCE – Early Vedic Period (Ṛgveda)
Vedic hymns introduce early notions of manas (mind), sattva–rajas–tamas as qualitative traits, and distinguish mental from physical affliction in ritual-healing contexts. - c. 1000–600 BCE – Later Vedic / Upaniṣadic Emergence
Principal Upaniṣads begin to take shape; they analyze states of consciousness (waking, dream, deep sleep, and samādhi), the relation of ātman and mind, and introduce explicit practices of self‑inquiry (ātma‑vicāra). - c. 600–400 BCE – Early Upaniṣads and Vedānta
The major classical Upaniṣads (Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Chāndogya, etc.) are composed, offering detailed accounts of cognition, memory, desire, and the psychosomatic linkage of thought, breath, and health. - c. 6th century BCE – Historical Buddha and Early Buddhism
Gautama Buddha formulates the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path as a diagnostic–therapeutic model of suffering, with a phenomenological account of craving, perception, and the no‑self (anātman) doctrine. - c. 6th–5th century BCE – Jaina and early Buddhist psychological doctrines
Early Jaina and Buddhist texts analyze karmic conditioning of mind, types of cognition, and structured paths of purifying attention and emotion (e.g., mindfulness of body, feeling, mind, dhammas). - c. 5th–4th century BCE – Classical Upaniṣads complete
Upaniṣadic corpus largely stabilized; Vedāntic analyses of self, mind, and liberation become the primary “high theory” of Indian psychological thought. - c. 4th–3rd century BCE – Abhidharma beginnings
The earliest Abhidharma texts appear, initiating the systematic taxonomic analysis of mental factors (cetasikas), momentary dharmas, and cognitive processes in Theravāda and other schools. - c. 3rd–2nd century BCE – Aśokan and early scholastic period
Growth of Buddhist monastic centers supports more technical Abhidharma work and debate; mental phenomena are classified with increasing precision for contemplative training. - c. 2nd–1st century BCE – Bhagavad Gītā
The Gītā (often dated roughly between 200 BCE and 200 CE) presents a psychologically rich dialogue: Arjuna’s crisis, analysis of anxiety and despondency, typology of guṇa‑based personalities, and four yogas as integrated methods of cognitive–emotional transformation.
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