To understand What is Indian Psychology? we need to know the what is the meaning of Indian?

Indian means relating to India or its people, customs, or languages. What is psychology?

The study of human behavior and mental processes. So, If we combine both meanings of, it will
be the Scientific study of Human Behavior related to India or its people, customs or language.
But it is more than that. and definitely not ‘the psychology of the Indian people’.

Indian psychology is an approach to psychology based on the Indian ethos, the characteristic
spirit of the Indian civilization. One could also say that it is a psychology rooted in the
consciousness-based Indian worldview, yoga and a life-affirming spirituality.

As such, it is thus not a psychology specifically or exclusively suitable for people living in the
Indian sub-continent or of Indian origin: We feel that the Indian tradition can make valuable
contributions to the psychological understanding of all human beings, irrespective of their
descent or cultural background.

Definition of Indian Psychology.

Cornelissen, Misra, & Varma (2014) defined, “Indian psychology as an approach to
psychology that is based on ideas and practices that developed over thousands of years
within the Indian sub-continent.”
Rao K. R (2014) “Indian psychology refers to a system/school of psychology derived from
classical Indian thought and rooted in the psychologically relevant practices such
as yoga prevalent in the Indian subcontinent for centuries.”
Nature.
Upanishadas explain the self and personality structure with the help of concept called Kosha
(cover). These are Annamaya kosha, Pranmayakosha, Manomayakosha, Vidnyanmaya kosha and
Anandmaya kosha. They also talked about factors that affected these
koshas and also how these koshas determine human behavior.
According to Ayurveda, there are three types of doshas, which are Kapha, Vata and Pitta and
these doshas determine Prakruti (characteristics) of human beings.
 Individuals who have kapha as a dominant doshas are calm, flexible, patient, and caring.
They have strong memory. It is said, that they take longer to grasp a subject but once they
understand it they are able to retain it for a longer time.
 Individuals who have Vata as a dominant dosha are unpredictable. Their moods and
thoughts fluctuate. They get angry very quickly but they also calm down very fast. Also, they
are art lovers.
 Individuals who have Pitta as a dominant dosha are believed to be very sharp. However,
they are known to be short tempered.
Guna
concept to explain human temperament .Human body is made up of Rajas, Tamas and Sattva
Guna.

1. Sattva Guna,- Idle& sluggish. They do not work hard. They seem to be depressed.
2. Rajas Guna,- Aristocratic & aggressive. Strong self esteem. So, they think that everything
should happen according to their own wish.
3. Tamas Guna- Calm & understanding. They do their work carefully and promptly. They are
aware of reality therefore they behave calmly.
Patanjali explained deep thought about Psychology in Yogsutra. He studied levels of human
consciousness and also proposed ways to evolve spiritually. His theory of ashtangyoga is useful
today also. So, the eight aspects of ashtangyoga are yama, niyama, aasana, pranayam, pratyahar,
dharana, dhyan and Samadhi.
Many Indian saints and philosophers have made many comments about mind or human
behaviour. However, Jain Tirthankar, Tathagat Buddha, Saint Kabir, Swami Vivekanand etc.
highlighted various aspects of human mind and behaviour.

History.
During the 20th century scholars had intermittently studied the psychological ideas embedded in
Indian traditions. This process substantially accelerated at the turn of the 21st century, which saw
the issuance of the Manifesto on Indian Psychology[1] (2002) as a milestone for what has been
called the Indian Psychology Movement.

For catalyzing this intensified interest, S. K. Kiran Kumar (2008) wrote that
two specific developments... have played key roles in stimulating investigators to examine and
incorporate Indian psychological thoughts into current literature. First, in 1960s and 1970s, the
increasing popularity of meditation and Yoga... the increasing interest in the study of
consciousness... and the emergence of transpersonal psychology... brought to focus the Indian
religio-spiritual and philosophical traditions.... Secondly, the increase in cross-cultural research
and the development of cross-cultural psychology... led to a greater appreciation of the
paradigmatic limitations of modern scientific psychology, which render the claim of its
universality doubtful.[9]: 28
Other contributing factors were the sense that there had been in India a "painful neglect of the
indigenous tradition",[10]: vii and that modern psychology as studied in India was "essentially a
Western transplant, unable to connect with the Indian ethos and concurrent community
conditions.... by and large imitative and replicative of Western studies"

Manifesto[edit]
From September 29 to October 1, 2002, more than 150 Indian psychologists met in Pondicherry at
the National Conference on Yoga and Indian Approaches to Psychology. These psychologists [1]
[11]
issued a declaration that has become known as the Manifesto on Indian Psychology, which was
published in Psychological Studies,[1][12] the journal of the Indian National Academy of Psychology.
The Manifesto affirmed that "Rich in content, sophisticated in its methods and valuable in its applied
aspects, Indian psychology is pregnant with possibilities for the birth of new models in psychology
that would have relevance not only to India but also to psychology in general.... By Indian
psychology we mean a distinct psychological tradition that is rooted in Indian ethos and thought,
including the variety of psychological practices that exist in the country".[1]: 168 The Manifesto also
recommended eight "necessary steps for responsibly promoting psychology in India"[1]: 168 that ranged
from preparing resource materials to offering student fellowships, conducting seminars, offering
courses, generating a website, and appointing a committee for follow-up action to ensure the
implementation of the recommendations.[13]
As described by Rao and Paranjpe (2016), the conference attendees unanimously proclaimed the
Manifesto of Indian Psychology. It was a declaration of their conviction that psychological concepts
and ideas inherent in Indian tradition have much to contribute to advance psychological knowledge
in general and that their neglect by psychologists in India is responsible in a large measure to the
current unsavoury state of psychology in the country. They reiterated their resolve to reorient
psychology along the lines shaped by India’s intellectual and spiritual history and ethos. [10]: vii

Goals and progress[edit]

Rao and Paranjpe (2016) reported that about a year after the issuance of the Manifesto, "a smaller
group assembled in Visakhapatnam and worked out a plan to prepare a set of three volumes, a
handbook, a textbook, and a sourcebook of Indian psychology.[10]: vii By 2016, both the
handbook[14] and textbook[10] had been published, but the sourcebook project had "languished...
mainly because it has not been easy to find either psychologists who have deep knowledge of the
classic works in Sanskrit, Pāli, and Ardhamāgadhi or classicists sufficiently aware of the
perspectives and needs of psychology today", but that plans for the sourcebook were "still on", and
that they hoped that the sourcebook would "soon be completed".[10]: vii
Dalal (2014) reported that "efforts to build Indian psychology as a vibrant discipline" [15]: 35 have
received impetus through several conferences that have taken place in Pondicherry (2001, 2002,
2004), Kollam (2001), Delhi (2002, 2003, 2007), Visakhapatnam (2002, 2003, 2006),
and Bengaluru (2007). The Bengaluru (2007) conference on the SVYASA campus was national in
scope and involved the presentation of over 120 papers in seven plenary sessions and 25
concurrent sessions.[16] Multiple books on Indian psychology have emerged from conference
proceedings.[17][18]
Oman and Singh (2018) stated that "The Indian psychology movement has made substantial strides
in incorporating theory- and realization-derived content".[6]: 175 Indian psychology texts have been
favorably reviewed in journals dedicated to a variety of other fields and subfields of psychology. [19][20][21]
[22][23][24][25]
Other external impacts to date include a meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin, in
which Sedlmeier and his meta-analytic colleagues, for determining basic traditional teachings
relevant to meditation, "lean heavily on the recent Indian psychology movement, which originated in
India but includes experts on diverse theoretical approaches to meditation from both East and West"

Narendra Nath Sen Gupta, the founder of the Journal of Indian Psychology is the father of
Indian Psychology. And, he had a significant role in founding the Indian Psychological
Association in 1924.

Topics, characteristics, and methods[edit]

Varied topics have been addressed to date in Indian psychology publications. Chaudhary [19] noted
that the Handbook[14] contains sections on schools of thought (Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and
various related traditions), specific psychological processes and constructs ("values, personality,
perception, cognition, emotion, creativity, education, and spirituality"[19]: 289 ), and applications to
individual psychology and group dynamics, including meditation from different traditions, yoga,
and ayurveda. The Indian psychology literature also includes case studies of a number of prominent
Indian spiritual figures and their legacies, including Saint Tukārāma,[10]: 276–292 B. G. Tilak,[10]: 262–
276
Ramana Maharshi,[10]: 292–300 Mahatma Gandhi,[26][10]: 301–340 and Eknath Easwaran.[27]
Dalal (2014) stated that Indian psychology can be deemed as "universal [and not] subsumed under
indigenous or cultural psychology if that implies delimiting the scope of psychological inquiry.... deals
primarily with the inner state of a person.... [and is] spiritual in its orientation [but that] does not mean
otherworldly, nor does it mean being religious or dogmatic .... [is] based on veridical methods....
[that] rely on the blending of first person and second person perspectives .... [and] is applied....
concerned about... practices that can be used for the transformation of human conditions toward
perfection... of the person to higher levels of achievement and well-being" (emphases in original). [15]:
33–34

Rao and Paranjpe (2016) stated that Indian psychology

subscribes to methodological pluralism. Without rejecting objectivity, control, and simplicity of
experimental exploration, Indian psychology recognizes the need to go beyond experimentation to
usefully capture the richness and manifold complexity of human experience to embrace and
accommodate phenomenological methods as coequals.[10]: 32

Arulmani (2007) stated that "In the same manner that Western psychology is committed to the
deployment of techniques to make valid and reliable objective observations, the Indian tradition has
developed a wide variety of methods to sharpen the quality and reliability of inner, subjective
observations".
Relation to other fields[edit]
Rao and Paranjpe (2016) wrote that "We should consider the Western and Indian approaches not as
either or but mutually complementary and reinforcing models."[10]: 128
Oman and Singh (2018) wrote that "Like modern psychological paradigms, many indigenous Indian
paradigms are framed universally and can be explored for relevance to diverse populations
worldwide. The Indian psychology movement aims to reclaim traditional riches while expanding and
refining the best of modern psychology".[6]: 173
Rao, Paranjpe, and Dalal (2008) wrote that "Indian psychology recognizes that physical processes
influence mental functions, but it also stresses that mental functions influence bodily processes....
Therefore, neurophysiological studies are not considered irrelevant to Indian psychology, but are
regarded as insufficient to give us a complete understanding of human nature". [4]: 8
Oman and Singh (2018) wrote that "psychologists connected to diverse religious traditions have
engaged in what we may call epistemic integration [in which researchers] have generated texts and
conducted research that explicitly respects one or more [religious/spiritual] traditions as sources of
knowledge.... The Indian psychology movement may be viewed as in part an epistemic integration
attempt and in part as an attempt to expand modern psychology".[6]: 174 [29]
Rao and Paranjpe (2016) wrote that "In the Indian tradition the guru (preceptor)… occupies an
intermediate position between first-person experience of the practitioner and the final self-certifying
state of pure consciousness, playing an indispensable role of mediation and providing a second-
person perspective to supplement third-person and first-person approaches. … [which yields an]
important methodological addition to psychological research suggested by Indian psychology". [10]: 174
Oman and Singh (2018) wrote that "In studying religion/spirituality, US psychologists have
emphasized empirical work, whereas the Indian psychology movement has emphasized insights
from experience and realization. Through collaboration, Indian and US psychologists can learn from
each other and combine the strengths of the two approaches."

Scope of Indian Psychology.

It included conceptions or processes relevant to

 Values,
 Personality,
 Perception,
 Cognition,
 Emotion,
 Creativity,
 Education,
 Spirituality
 As well as applications such as meditation, yoga, and ayurveda,