Studies in the Epics and Puranas c8.77

c8.77

As subsequent writers have laid under contribution the conceptions propounded by the Sāṅkhya philosophy of which the germs are found in the Upaniṣads, it would be useful to append here a short sketch of the system about cosmogony. According to Sāṅkhya philosophy there are two principles entirely independent of each other: the Puruṣa and Prakṛti or Pradhāna. Prakṛti is made up of the three guṇas—sattva, rajas, and tamas—in the state of equipoise. Mahān or Buddhi is developed from Prakṛti when this equilibrium is disturbed through the presence of the Puruṣa. From Buddhi, which chiefly consists of sattva, is evolved Ahaṃkāra, whose function is to produce ego, which in its turn, produces the manas, the five buddhindriyas, the five karmendriyas, and the five tanmātras. Mutual combination of the last forms the five mahābhūtas,—pṛthvī, āp, tejas, vāyu and ākāśa. These in all are the twenty-five tattvas of Sāṅkhya.³⁷