Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s7.t10.16

v1.c7.s7.t10.16

The philosophical theories of the Samkhya school also exerted some influence on the intellectual scene of contemporary India. In modern India, during religious and social reform movements, certain thinkers or philosophers, when engaging in social activities or building philosophical systems, had heavily absorbed or borrowed from *Samkhya* ideas. For example, such famous philosophers in contemporary India as Vivekananda and Aurobindo Ghosh all conducted serious analyses of Samkhya theories. Vivekananda held that dualism was the most prevalent philosophical viewpoint in India, in actuality considering the dualistic theory of the classic Samkhya school as natural. Additionally, he also extensively borrowed from *Samkhya* theories in expounding his epistemology. When studying the yoga school, Ghosh also scrutinised a key concept of the Samkhya shool —— three gunas (*tamas*, *sattva*, and *rajas*), and talked about the significance and roles of the three gunas and the interrelationship among them. Samkhya theories had long been widely regarded as a distinctive part of Indian orthodox philosophy.