Abstract
This entry provides an overview, not intended to be exhaustive, of some of the important philosophical and religious issues that arose in discussions of the nature of and means to liberation (mokṣa) from the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra) found in Hindu Sanskrit literature composed in ancient and medieval South Asia. It highlights the importance of knowledge, especially knowledge of the immortal self (ātman), in achieving liberation, and the obstacle which desire (kāma, icchā) represents to liberating knowledge, and it distinguishes two main approaches (negative and positive) to the conceptualization and articulation of the causes and content of liberation.
Leach, Robert