History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.11

v7.c94.11

Gauḍapāda composed a commentary on the S. Kārikā but only on 69 verses published in the Ch. S. Series. The Commentary called Sāṅkhyatattvakaumudī by the famous writer Vācaspatimiśra was published in the Chowkhamba S. S in 1919. A commentary called Jayamaṅgalā ascribed to Śaṅkarācārya (in the colophon) on the S. Kārikā was published at Calcutta in 1933 by Sri H. Sarma with a brief but interesting Introduction by Principal Gopinātha Kavirāj (vide also I. H. Q. vol. V. pp. 417-431) where Sri H. Sarma tries to prove that the Jayamaṅgalā is earlier than Vācaspatimiśra. Vijñānabhikṣu composed (about 1550 A. D) a bhāṣya on the Sāṅkhyapravacanasūtra. The Sūtrakāra and Vijñānabhikṣu make efforts to establish the impossible thesis that the teachings of the Sāṅkhya system are not in irreconcilable conflict with the doctrine of a personal God or with the Advaita Vedānta The Māṭharavṛtti on S. Kārikā 71 furnishes the names of certain teachers that flourished between Pañcaśikha and Īśvarakṛṣṇa viz Bhārgava, Ulūka (Kauśika?), Vālmīki, Hārīta, Devala and others, while the Jayamaṅgalā mentions Garga and Gautama as Sāṅkhya teachers after Pañcaśikha (vide note one in Pandit Aiyaswami's edition on p 99). The Sanskrit commentary reconstructed from the Chinese version of Paramārtha (p. 98 of Pandit Aiyaswami's edition states that the line of teachers and pupils from Pañcaśikha is: Pañcaśikha-Gārgya-Ulūka-Vārṣagaṇa-Īśvarakṛṣṇa. It is clear from the above that several teachers, in any case not less than five or six, intervened between Pañcaśikha and Īśvarakṛṣṇa. From a somewhat mutilated passage²²¹² of the Yuktidīpikā (p. 175) it appears that at least ten persons intervened between Pañcaśikha and Īśvarakṛṣṇa. If this be accepted and if Īśvarakṛṣṇa be assigned to about 250 A. D., then Pañcaśikha cannot be placed later than the first century B. C. and may be much earlier still. On ‘tena ca bahudhā kṛtaṁ tantram’ (S. Kārikā 70) the Yuktidīpikā speaks of *bhagavat* Pāñcaśikha as ‘daśama-kumāra’ (tenth son of Prajāpati?) and states that he expounded the śāstra to many persons such as Janaka and Vasiṣṭha and thereby identifies Pañcaśikha with the teacher Pañcaśikha mentioned by the Śāntiparva (vide note 2186 below).