Indian Philosophers or the darshanik are the connoisseurs who are experts with the system of Indian philosophy, or darshanas. The dealing subject of Indian Philosophers may refer to any of several traditions of philosophical thought that originated in the Indian subcontinent, such as the Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jain philosophy.

All the Indian branches of philosophies have a common underlying theme of Dharma, and similarly attempt to explain the attainment of liberation having the same or rather intertwined origins. Indian Philosophers first formalized darshanas and promulgated mainly between 1,000 BC to a few centuries A.D, with residual commentaries and reformations that continued up to as late as the 20th century by Aurobindo and ISKCON among other Indian Philosophers, who provided stylized interpretations.

The feature of the schools introduced by the Indian Philosophers is that they may belong to one "masthead" and be dissimilar from each other, or be in agreement while professing loyalty to different banners. An example of the latter trait is the non-Vedic Jain and the Vedic Samkhya schools, both of which possess similar ideas on pluralism; an example of the former would be the Dvaita and the Advaita schools, both of whom belong to the Vedic tradition. However, every school has subtle differences as the Indian Philosophers of every school also differ in their ideas.

Opposition between the various schools was intense during their formative years, especially from 800 BC to 200 AD. Some of the philosophical schools like the Jain, Buddhist, Shaiva and Advaita schools survived, while others like Samkhya and Ajivika did not. The Indian Philosophers viewed philosophy as a realistic necessity that needed to be cultivated in order to understand how life can be led at its best. Eventually, it became a custom for Indian Philosophers to explain at the beginning of philosophical works how it serves human ends. The experts centered philosophy on an assumption that there is a unitary underlying order, which is all enveloping and omniscient. The efforts of the Indian Philosophers of various schools were concentrated on explaining this order. All major phenomena like those seen in nature, fate, incidences and others were outcomes of this order.

The earliest mention of this explanation appears in the Rig Veda, which speaks of the Brahman, or the universally transcendent and "ethereal" building block of the entire world. It is described as dimensionless, eternal and beyond reach of the known frontiers of happiness and knowledge. Thus the Rig Veda can be said to be the origin of learning of all Indian Philosophers. The philosophers of India, dating back to pre-1500 BC is assumed to learn from the Vedas and Upanishads. However, the Indian Philosophers, who dealt with the Jaina, the Buddha, the Manu Smriti and the Bhagavad Gita probably belongs to the pre-500 BC.

During the pre-300 BC, the Indian Philosophers were responsible for the rise of the orthodox Darshanas and during 200 AD, they saw Nagarjuna and the rise of Mahayana Buddhism. The era of the Indian philosopher, Shankaracharya and the rise of Vedanta occurred during the 600 AD. In post-900 AD, the Indian Philosophers gave rise to other Vedantic schools like Visishtadvaita, Dvaita and so on.