History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.66

v7.c94.66

Pañcaśikha's is a great name in the Sāṅkhya system. His systematic work on that system was called Ṣaṣṭitantra. The S. Kārikā (70, 72) refers to him as the author of the Ṣaṣṭitantra containing great details, illustrative tales and discussions of others' views. It was called Ṣaṣṭitantra because it expounded sixty topics and it contained sixty thousand gāthās.²²⁴⁸ The Yogasūtrabhāṣya (IV. 13) quotes a verse which is ascribed to Ṣaṣṭitantra by Vācaspati on Yogasūtrabhāṣya IV. 13. The present writer cannot agree with Keith p. 69 that the reference to Ṣaṣṭitantra in S. Kārikā (verse 72) is not to a work but to a philosophy of sixty topics. The āryā 72 had a Sanskrit commentary which was translated into Chinese in 546 A. D. in which it was stated that the work contained six thousand *gāthās*,²²⁴⁹ but the Bhāmatī (by Vācaspati) on V. S. II. 1. 3 ascribes it to Vārṣagaṇya. It may be a slip on the part of Vācaspati or it is possible that he regarded Pañcaśikha and Vārṣagaṇya as the names of the same person, the first being a nickname and the latter a gotra name. On Yogasūtra I. 4, 25, 36, II. 5, 6, 13, 17, 18, 20, III. 13 and 41, IV. 13 (tathā ca śāstrānuśāsanam 'Guṇānām &c), prose passages occur which Vācaspati ascribes to Pañcaśikha. On S. Kārikā 2 Vācaspati quotes in his com. the view of Pañcaśikhācārya. In Yogasūtrabhāṣya on I. 25 a sūtra is quoted which Vācaspati ascribes to Pañcaśikha in which Kapila is styled 'ādividvān' (the first master of Sāṅkhya) and 'paramarṣi' and is said to have imparted to Āsuri the Tantra, the Sāṅkhya Siddhānta.