History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.16.2

v7.c94.16.2

These three factors or elements combine in various proportions and make up the evolving universe. The three are called guṇas from several points of view viz they are qualities, they also bind as with a rope the Puruṣa to *saṁsāra*. The basis of the universe is to be found in the guṇas. Pradhāna is not different from the guṇas, but it is only the name of the primordial matter before evolution starts. Prakṛti being *anādi* and eternal, the Sāṅkhya system did not postulate God as creator, and held God to be a superfluity. The Sāṅkhya propounds a theory of cosmic evolution which is practically as reasonable as any modern theory of evolution. It is probably the earliest attempt to furnish an answer from reason alone to the questions about the origin of the world, about the nature of man and his relation to the physical world and man's future destiny. In the nineteenth century mind and matter were held to be entirely different and atoms were supposed to be indivisible. Modern physics has reduced matter to energy but the nature of this last also is a mystery. Under the Sāṅkhya system, *puruṣa* or *prakṛti* or both serve no religious purpose. There is no definite or convincing answer as to why puruṣa becomes entangled in the web of prakṛti. The Sāṅkhya simply says that as a result of non-discrimination puruṣa somehow becomes entangled. The Vedāntasūtra refers to *pradhāna* as smārta in I. 2. 19 and as '*ānumānika*' in I. 4. 1. From Prakṛti evolves *mahān* (i. e.