A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c7.6.1

c7.6.1

3. Like Buddhism, Sāmkhya was also a system of philosophy which was very early to come into existence. Its origin may certainly be traced to Upanishadic literature if not even earlier. It is true that the Sāmkhya, along with its compeer system the Yoga, is mentioned by name only in such a late Upanishad as the Śvetāśvatara (S. 2. a); but the root-ideas of Sāmkhya are to be found much earlier in Upanishadic literature. When in the Chhāndogya we are told that behind all things, there are really three primary colours, namely the red, the white, and the black, and that it is only these three colours which may really be said to exist, while all other things that are constituted out of them are merely a word, a modification and a name, we have the rudiments of the theory of three Guṇas of the later Sāmkhya philosophy--a fact which was made use of in the description of the original Prakṛiti, made up of the red, the white and the dark colours by the Śvetāśvatarapanishad (S. 2. b). We must remember, therefore, that for the origin of the three Guṇas in the Sāmkhya philosophy we have to go to the conception of the three colours in the Chhāndogyopanishad as repeated also in the Śvetāśvataropanishad. Then again, we have an interesting specimen of how Sāmkhya philosophy was yet in the making at the time of the Kathopanishad.