The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c9.4

c9.4

More light on this system is perhaps to be obtained from the Ahirbudhnya Saṃhitā, a text of the Pāñcarātra school, of uncertain date, but apparently with some claim to antiquity. In its twelfth Adhyāya are described the five systems, the Vedas, the Yoga, the Pāśupata, the Sātvata, and the Sāṃkhya. The latter is described as a Tantra with sixty divisions, which are set out in detail, in two series or Maṇḍalas, the first consisting of thirty-two and the second of twenty-eight. Of these the first are Prakṛtis, while the second are Vikṛtis. These terms, however, are used in a manner which differs essentially from that of the orthodox Sāṃkhya: in the first series are included all the principles of the Sāṃkhya and some other conceptions, while the second list contains the chief concepts of a practical physiology and ethics, these affections of the soul being termed Vikṛtis or modifications, because they come into existence only as a result of the activity of the creative principles. The first of the principles is Brahman, the second Puruṣa, and the third Śakti, terms which point clearly to a form of the Yoga philosophy with express recognition of a God, beside spirit and matter. The following principles are fate, time, the three Guṇas, the Akṣara, probably meaning the doctrine of the imperishable character of sound, the Prāṇas, which in the Sāṃkhya are given a wholly dependent position, the Kartṛ and Svāmin Tantras, which may refer to intelligence with individuation, and mind, the five organs of perception, the five organs of action, the five fine elements and the five gross elements. The similarities of this system to the classic Sāṃkhya are not unimportant, but the differences are also great: there is in the interpretation given to Kartṛ and Svāmin no separate place whatever for the principle of individuation; the ideas of time and fate as principles are new; the place of the Prāṇas is contrary to the view of the Sāṃkhya; and the ideas of God and the Sphoṭa are not accepted by the Sāṃkhya.