The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c7.16

c7.16

The absence of the fine elements, Tanmātras, from the epic, results in a different position in the series of evolution for the gross elements. Occasionally these are derived directly from the absolute being, following the doctrine of the *Taittirīya Upaniṣad* (ii, 1), or from mind, but their normal source is the principle of individuation. From the gross elements spring their Viśeṣas, distinctions, the term given to the specific qualities which they possess. In the classical Sāṃkhya the introduction of the Tanmātras reduces the gross elements to an inferior position: the fine elements are without distinction, Aviśeṣa, probably because each element consists of its own nature alone, while the gross elements now themselves bear the term Viśeṣas apparently because they each contain portions of the others. This theory of the mixing of elements is found in the epic, but there is also found the very different theory by which the elements, as in the *Taittirīya Upaniṣad* arise each from the less complex, the lowest, the ether, with one quality, and the highest, earth, with five.