The Positive Sciences of the Ancient Hindus c4.s3.12

c4.s3.12

As I have already noted in my account of the genesis of Tanmátras and Paramánus, various schools of Vedántists (*e.g.* the Rámánujists and the followers of Nimbárka) combined, in the orthodox fashion of the Smritis and the Puránas, the Vedántic theosophy with the Sánkhya cosmology, especially as regards Prakriti and the order of creation and dissolution. For example, the Vedánta-kaustubhaprabhá, fortifying itself with texts from the Vishnu Purána and the Subala and Gopála Upanishads, contends that, at the cosmic dissolution (Pralaya), each Mahábhúta merges into the one that preceded it in the order of creation by first disintegrating into its own proper Tanmátric form (तन्मात्रद्वारा), and that the Mahábhúta Ákása merges into the original Tanmátras, which then lapse into Bhútádi, the super-subtile rudiment-matter, proto-matter (Chap. II., Pada III., Sutra 14).