History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c94.83

v7.c94.83

How the name Sāṅkhya came to be applied to a system of philosophy has to be considered. ‘Saṅkhyā’ means ‘number’, hence enumeration. As the Saṅkhya system enumerated twenty-five tattvas and as the Ṣaṣṭitantra of Pañcaśikha dealt with sixty topics, it is likely that the philosophy came to be called Sāṅkhya. The Śv. Up. I. 4 is full of numbers.²²⁵⁸ Verse I 5 of Śv. Up. employs the word pañca (five) seven times and also has the word ‘pañcāśadbhedām’, similar to ‘śatārdhāram’ in I. 4); vide VI. 3 also. In this sense Sāṅkhya means the philosophic system which postulates twentyfive tattvas, Prakṛti, Puruṣa and others. This is the sense in which the word is used once even in the Gītā (18. 13, Sāṅkhya kṛtānte proktāni &c). The Matsyapurāṇa also emphasizes this aspect of the Sāṅkhya system.