History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.29

v7.c94.29

In view of the fact that the word 'Sāṅkhya' occurs in the Śv. Up. and that the Katha and Muṇḍaka have some doctrines similar to the Sāṅkhya system and the Śvetāśvatara employs many words that occur frequently in the works on Sāṅkhya, the question arises—what is the relation of the Sāṅkhya to the Upaniṣads. There are three possible views, (1) that Upaniṣad thought and Sāṅkhya made parallel progress, (2) that Sāṅkhya adopted and expanded some of the germinal ideas of the Upanisads, (3) that some Upanisads borrowed from the Sāṅkhya. It is not possible to discuss these questions here for reasons of space and relevance The present author holds that it is the Sāṅkhya that based itself on the thoughts of the Upanisads, particularly when the older Upanisads like the Br. Up and Chāndogya hardly exhibit any traces of Sāṅkhya doctrines or technique, when Sāṅkhya reference are found only in Katha, Mundaka, Śvetāśvatara, Praśna (which are held to be later than Chān. Up. and Br. Up by modern scholarship) and when there is hardly any work or writer of purely Sāṅkhya doctrines that can be assigned to a period even a few centuries earlier than the Christian era and when no one can place the principal Upanisads (about twelve, including the Śvetāśvatara) later than 300 B C, since even the Śv. Up. is referred to as ‘Śruti’ in V. S I. 4. 8, II. 3 22 Garbe (in ‘Die Sāṅkhya Philosophie’ pp 3 ff) denies that Sāṅkhya underwent any essential modifications in its long history. Jacobi does not agree, holding that Sāṅkhya originated out of a common cultural and philosophical heritage and Oldenberg sees the origin of Sāṅkhya in the Katha and Śv Up. and holds that epic Sāṅkhya is an independent development (‘Die Lehre der Upanishaden und die Anfänge des Buddhismus’, 1915, pp. 206 ff) Sāṅkhya and Yoga were known to Kautilya (Sāṅkhyam Yogo Lokāyatam cetyānvīkṣikī’ Arthaśāstrā I 2. p 6.). Therefore, we may say that Sāṅkhya as a philosophical school started at least before the 4th century B C.