The Samkhya System: A History of the Samkhya Philosophy c9.7

c9.7

The enumeration of topics is enough to show that there did exist some system of philosophy of the nature indicated, one which must have been closely allied with the epic Yoga system. But there is also evidence regarding the author of a work bearing the name Ṣaṣṭitantra, from which probably enough the term as a designation of the Sāmkhya system may have been derived. That work is stated in a Chinese tradition* to have been composed in 60,000 Ślokas and to have been written by Pañcaśikha. The statement seems, however, to lack probability, and its origin can easily be accounted for by the fact that Pañcaśikha is mentioned as the third in the order of tradition of the doctines of the school in the Sāmkhya Kārikā (70), and it is said that the doctrine was widely extended by him, words which may have been understood in the literal sense as denoting that an extensive text book was composed by him. On the other hand, there is the express testimony of the commentator Bālārāma that the author of the Ṣaṣṭitantra was Vārṣagaṇya, and this testimony receives some support from the fact that in his commentary on the Yoga Sūtra (iv, 13) Vyāsa cites a passage from the Śāstra which is expressly attributed by Vācaspatimiśra in his commentary on the Brahma Sūtra (ii, 1, 3) to Vārṣagaṇya, and which he seems† to have believed to be taken from the Ṣaṣṭitantra. This evidence, in itself far from clear, is strongly supported by the further Chinese tradition, which ascribes to Vindhyavāsa, who is in