Āstika and nāstika

Āstika (Sanskrit: आस्तिक, IAST: āstika) and nāstika (Sanskrit: नास्तिक, IAST: nāstika) are mutually exclusive terms that modern scholars use to classify the schools of Indian philosophy as well as some Hindu, Buddhist and Jain texts. The various definitions for āstika and nāstika philosophies have been disputed since ancient times, and there is no consensus. One standard distinction, as within ancient- and medieval-era Sanskrit philosophical literature, is that āstika schools accept the Vedas, the ancient texts of India, as fundamentally authoritative, while the nāstika schools do not.

Extends: Āstika, Nāstika, [Hindu philosophical concepts](https://wikipedia.org.ai/Hindu philosophical concepts), [Schools and traditions in ancient Indian philosophy](https://wikipedia.org.ai/Schools and traditions in ancient Indian philosophy)