Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c16.95

c16.95

**The Sāṁkhya Method of Study.** The new intellectual note of the age is struck by the *Sāṁkhya-Kārikā* at its very beginning. The efficacy of Vedic religion as a means of escape from the misery inherent in human life is questioned. It is found to have three defects, viz. (1) it is impure (*a-viśuddhi*), because, as the commentator explains, of its connection with sacrifice and slaughter of animals; (2) it is terminable (*kshaya*) because the practice of Vedic religion can secure only transitory results and not a final release; (3) it admits of gradation of happiness (*atiśaya*), for “all men are not wealthy enough to offer costly sacrifices to the gods and thus the rich man may have more and the poor less” (Davies). Hence final emancipation is to be attained not by Vedic ceremonies but by knowledge as explained by Kapila. We may also refer in this connection to the expression *dākshiṇaka-bandha* which, according to the *Tattva-Kaumudī*, is one of the three classes of the *bandha* or bondage mentioned in the *Kārikā*, 44. The expression condemns worship for personal ends, for which fees to priests are paid, as a kind of impediment to emancipation.