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{{Hindu philosophy}}
'''Samkhya''' or '''Sankhya''' ({{lang-sa|[[:wikt:सांख्य|सांख्य]]}}, [[IAST]]: ''{{IAST|sāṃkhya}}'') is one of the six [[Āstika and nāstika|āstika]] (orthodox) schools of [[Hindu philosophy]].<ref>Knut Jacobsen, Theory and Practice of Yoga, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120832329, pages 100-101</ref><ref>"Samkhya", American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition (2011), Quote: "'''Samkhya is a system of Hindu philosophy based on a dualism involving the ultimate principles of soul and matter.'''"</ref><ref>"Samkhya", Webster’s College Dictionary (2010), Random House, ISBN 978-0375407413, Quote: "'''Samkhya is a system of Hindu philosophy stressing the reality and duality of spirit and matter'''."</ref> It is most related to the [[Yoga (philosophy)|Yoga]] school of [[Hinduism]], and it was influential on other schools of Indian philosophy.<ref name=royper>Roy Perrett, Indian Ethics: Classical traditions and contemporary challenges, Volume 1 (Editor: P Bilimoria et al), Ashgate, ISBN 978-0754633013, pages 149-158</ref> Sāmkhya is an enumerationist philosophy whose [[epistemology]] accepts three of six [[pramana]]s (proofs) as the only reliable means of gaining knowledge. These include ''pratyakṣa'' (perception), ''anumāṇa'' (inference) and ''śabda'' (''āptavacana'', word/testimony of reliable sources).<ref name="Lpage9"/><ref name=eliottjag/><ref name=jag>John A. Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791430675, page 238</ref> Sometimes described as one of the [[rationalism|rationalist]] school of [[Indian philosophy]], this ancient school's reliance on reason was neither exclusive nor strong.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 43-46</ref><ref>David Kalupahana (1995), Ethics in Early Buddhism, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0824817022, page 8, Quote: The rational argument is identified with the method of '''Samkhya, a rationalist school,''' upholding the view that "nothing comes out of nothing" or that "being cannot be non-being".</ref>
Samkhya is strongly [[dualism|dualist]].<ref>{{harvnb|Michaels|2004|page=264}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Sen Gupta|1986|page=6}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|Moore|1957|page=89}}</ref> Sāmkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities; [[purusha|puruṣa]] (consciousness) and [[prakṛti]] (matter). [[Jiva]] (a living being) is that state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakṛti in some form.<ref name=sambri/> This fusion, state the Samkhya scholars, led to the emergence of ''buddhi'' ("intellect") and ''ahaṅkāra'' (ego consciousness). The universe is described by this school as one created by purusa-prakṛti entities infused with various permutations and combinations of variously enumerated elements, senses, feelings, activity and mind.<ref name=sambri>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/520526/Samkhya Samkhya - Hinduism] Encyclopedia Britannica (2014)</ref> During the state of imbalance, one of more constituents overwhelm the others, creating a form of bondage, particularly of the mind. The end of this imbalance, bondage is called liberation, or [[kaivalya]], by the Samkhya school.<ref name="Gerald James Larson 2011 pages 36-47">Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 36-47</ref>
The existence of God or supreme being is not directly asserted, nor considered relevant by the Samkhya philosophers. Sāṃkhya [[teleology|denies]] the [[Four causes#Final cause|final cause]] of [[Ishvara]] (God).{{sfn|Dasgupta|1922|page=258}} While the Samkhya school considers the [[Vedas]] as a reliable source of knowledge, it is an atheistic philosophy according to [[Paul Deussen]] and other scholars.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, page 39</ref><ref name=lpfl>Lloyd Pflueger, Person Purity and Power in Yogasutra, in Theory and Practice of Yoga (Editor: Knut Jacobsen), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120832329, pages 38-39</ref> A key difference between Samkhya and Yoga schools, state scholars,<ref name=lpfl/><ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, page 39, 41</ref> is that Yoga school accepts a "personal, yet essentially inactive, deity" or "personal god".<ref>Kovoor T. Behanan (2002), Yoga: Its Scientific Basis, Dover, ISBN 978-0486417929, pages 56-58</ref>
Samkhya is known for its theory of [[guṇa]]s (qualities, innate tendencies).<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 154-206</ref> Guṇa, it states, are of three types: ''sattva'' being good, compassionate, illuminating, positive, and constructive; ''rajas'' is one of activity, chaotic, passion, impulsive, potentially good or bad; and ''tamas'' being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destructive, lethargic, negative. Everything, all life forms and human beings, state Samkhya scholars, have these three guṇas, but in different proportions. The interplay of these guṇas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life.<ref name=jamesg>James G. Lochtefeld, Guna, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, Vol. 1, Rosen Publishing, ISBN 9780823931798, page 265</ref><ref>T Bernard (1999), ''Hindu Philosophy'', Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1373-1, pages 74–76</ref> The Samkhya theory of guṇas was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies, including [[Buddhism]].<ref>Alex Wayman (1962), Buddhist Dependent Origination and the Samkhya gunas, Ethnos, Volume 27, Issue 1-4, pages 14-22, {{doi|10.1080/00141844.1962.9980914}}</ref> Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.<ref name=royper/>
==Etymology==
''Samkhya'' (सांख्य), also referred to as ''Sankhya'', ''Sāṃkhya'', or ''Sāṅkhya'', is a [[Sanskrit grammar|Sanskrit word]] that, depending on the context, means "to reckon, count, enumerate, calculate, deliberate, reason, reasoning by numeric enumeration, relating to number, rational."<ref>[http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/tamil/index.html saMkhya] Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Germany</ref> In the context of ancient Indian philosophies, ''Samkhya'' refers to the philosophical school in Hinduism based on systematic enumeration and rational examination.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 47-48</ref>
== Historical development ==
The word ''samkhya'' means ''empirical'' or ''relating to numbers''.<ref name="harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664">{{harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664}}</ref> Although the term had been used in the general sense of ''metaphysical knowledge'' before,<ref>{{harvnb|Bhattacharyya|1975|pages=419–20}}</ref> in technical usage it refers to the Samkhya school of thought that evolved into a cohesive philosophical system in early centuries CE.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=4, 38, 288}}</ref> The Samkhya system is called so because "it 'enumerates' twenty five ''Tattvas'' or true principles; and its chief object is to effect the final emancipation of the twenty-fifth Tattva, i.e. the puruṣa or soul."<ref name="harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664"/>
===Origins===
[[File:Amsuman and Kapila.jpg|thumb|King Amsuman and the yogic sage [[Kapila]].]]
Some 19th and 20th century scholars suggested that Samkhya may have non-Vedic origins. Richard Garbe stated in 1898, "The origin of the Sankhya system appears in the proper light only when we understand that in those regions of India which were little influenced by Brahmanism the first attempt had been made to solve the riddles of the world and of our existence merely by means of reason. For the Sankhya philosophy is, in its essence, not only atheistic but also inimical to the Veda."<ref>{{cite book|title=Aniruddha's Commentary and the original parts of Vedantin Mahadeva's commentary on the Sankhya Sutras Translated, with an introduction to the age and origin of the Sankhya system|author=Richard Garbe|pages=xx-xxi|year=1892}}</ref> Dandekar, similarly wrote in 1968, "The origin of the Sankhya is to be traced to the pre-Vedic non-Aryan thought complex".<ref>{{cite book|title='God in Indian Philosophy' in Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute|author=R.N. Dandekar|pages=444|year=1968}}</ref>
Some scholars disagreed with this view. Arthur Keith, for example in 1925, stated, "Samkhya owes its origin to the Vedic-Upanisadic-epic heritage is quite evident,"<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 31-32</ref> and "Samkhya is most naturally derived out of the speculations in the Vedas, Brahmanas and the Upanishads."<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 29</ref>
Johnston in 1937, analyzed then available Hindu and Buddhist texts for the origins of Samkhya, then wrote "the origin lay in the analysis of the individual undertaken in the [[Brahmanas]] and earliest [[Upanishads]], at first with a view to assuring the efficacy of the sacrificial rites and later in order to discover the meaning of salvation in the religious sense and the methods of attaining it. Here – in [[Kaushitaki Upanishad]] and [[Chandogya Upanishad]] – the germ are to be found (of) two of the main ideas of classical Samkhya."<ref>EH Johnston (1937), Early Samkhya: An Essay on its Historical Development according to the Texts, The Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Volume XV, pages 80-81</ref>
More recent scholarship offers another perspective. Ruzsa in 2006,{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}} for example, states, "Sāṅkhya has a very long history. Its roots go deeper than textual traditions allow us to see. The ancient Buddhist Aśvaghoṣa (in his Buddha-Carita) describes Arāḍa Kālāma, the teacher of the young Buddha (ca. 420 B.C.E.) as following an archaic form of Sāṅkhya."{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}}
[[A. K. Warder|Anthony Warder]] in 2009, summarizes that Samkhya and [[Mīmāṃsā]] schools appear to have been established before Sramana traditions in India (~500 BCE), and he traces Samkhya origins to be Vedic. Samkhya, writes Warder, "has indeed been suggested to be non-Brahmanical and even anti-Vedic in origin, but there is no tangible evidence for that except that it is very different than most Vedic speculation – but that is (itself) quite inconclusive. Speculations in the direction of the Samkhya can be found in the early Upanishads."<ref>Anthony Kennedy Warder (2009), A Course in Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120812444, pages 63-65</ref>
Mikel Burley in 2012, writes Richard Garbe's 19th century view on Samkhya's origin are weak and implausible.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 37-38</ref> Burley states that India's religio-cultural heritage is complicated, and likely experienced a non-linear development.<ref name=burleyorigins/> Samkhya is not necessarily non-Vedic nor pre-Vedic, nor a "reaction to Brahmanic hegemony", states Burley.<ref name=burleyorigins/> It is most plausibly, in its origins a lineage that grew and evolved from a combination of ascetic traditions and Vedic "''guru'' (teacher) and disciples". Burley suggests the link between Samkhya and Yoga as likely root of this evolutionary origin during the Vedic era of India.<ref name=burleyorigins>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 37-39</ref>
Between 1938 and 1969, two previously unknown manuscript editions of ''Yuktidipika'' were discovered and published.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> ''Yuktidipika'' is an ancient review and has emerged as the most important commentary on ''Samkhyakarika'' – itself an ancient key text of the Samkhya school.<ref name=larsonyukti/> This discovery and recent scholarship<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> by Paul Hacker and others suggests Samkhya with well established [[epistemology]], [[ontology]] and [[cosmology]] existed earlier than previously thought, sometime in the 1st millennium BCE and that many more ancient scholars contributed to the origins of Samkhya in ancient India, than were previously known. However, almost nothing is preserved about the centuries when these ancient Samkhya scholars lived.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state that the newly discovered literature hints, but does not conclusively prove, that Samkhya may be the oldest school of Indian philosophy, one that evolved over time and influenced major schools, as well as Buddhism and [[Jainism]].<ref name=larsonbhatpotter>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 3-11</ref> These scholars place the earliest references to Samkhya ideas in the Vedic period literature of India (~1500 BCE to ~400 BCE).<ref name=larsonyukti>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 3-4</ref>
===Founders===
Sage Kapila is traditionally credited as a founder of the Samkhya school.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|page=149}}</ref> However, it is unclear in which century of 1st millennium BCE Kapila lived.<ref name=geraldl>Gerald James Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya, The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 107-109</ref> Kapila appears in [[Rigveda]], but context suggests that the word means "reddish-brown color". Both Kapila as a "seer" and the term ''Samkhya'' appear in hymns of section 5.2 in [[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]] (~300 BCE), suggesting Kapila's and Samkhya philosophy's origins may predate it. Numerous other ancient Indian texts mention Kapila; for example, Baudhayana Grhyasutra in chapter IV.16.1 describes a system of rules for ascetic life credited to Kapila, called ''Kapila Sannyasa Vidha''.<ref name=geraldl/> A 6th century CE Chinese translation and other texts consistently state Kapila as an [[Sannyasa|ascetic]] and the founder of the school, mention Asuri as the inheritor of the teaching, and a much later scholar named Pancasikha as the scholar who systematized it and then helped widely disseminate its ideas. Isvarakrsna is identified in these texts as the one who summarized and simplified Samkhya theories of Pancasikha, many centuries later (roughly 4th or 5th century CE), in the form that was then translated into Chinese by Paramartha in the 6th century CE.<ref name=geraldl/>
===Emergence as a distinct philosophy===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=In the beginning this was Self alone, in the shape of a person (puruṣa). He looking around saw nothing but his Self ([[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]]). He first said, "This is I", therefore he became I by name.|salign = right
|source =—Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.1<ref>Max Muller, [https://ia800307.us.archive.org/22/items/SacredBooksEastVariousOrientalScholarsWithIndex.50VolsMaxMuller/15.SacredBooksEast.VarOrSch.v15.Muller.Hindu.Mull.Upanishads.p2.KathMundTait..Mait.Oxf.1884._text.pdf Brihadaranyaka Upanishad], Oxford University Press, page 85</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|1953|page=163}}</ref>}}
The early texts of the Vedic period,<ref>such as Rg Veda 1.164, 10.90 and 10.129; see GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, page 5</ref> contain references to elements of Samkhya philosophy. However, the Samkhya ideas had not distilled and congealed into a distinct, complete philosophy.<ref name=larsonyukti/> The early, proto-Samkhya phase was followed by early Upanishads, about 800 to 700 BCE, wherein ascetic spirituality and monastic (''sramana'' and ''yati'') traditions came in vogue in India. It is in this period, state Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter, that ancient scholars combined proto-Samkhya ideas with a systematic methodology of reasoning (epistemology) and began distilling concepts of spiritual knowledge (''vidya, jnana, viveka''), making Samkhya a more emerging, comprehensive philosophy.<ref name=larsonchandogya>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 4-5</ref> These developing ideas are found in texts such as the [[Chandogya Upanishad]].<ref name=larsonchandogya/>
Sometime about the 5th century BCE, Samkhya thought from various sources started coalescing into a distinct, complete philosophy.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} Philosophical texts such as the [[Katha Upanishad]] in verses 3.10-13 and 6.7-11 describe a well defined concept of puruṣa and other concepts of Samkhya,<ref name=pauldeussen>[[Paul Deussen]], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814684, pages 273, 288-289, 298-299</ref> The ''Shvetashvatara Upanishad'' in chapter 6.13 describes Samkhya with Yoga philosophy, and Bhagavad Gita in book 2 provides axiological implications of Samkhya, therewith providing textual evidence of Samkhyan terminology and concepts.<ref name="Burley2">{{harvnb|Burley|2006|pages=15–18}}</ref> Katha Upanishad conceives the Purusha (cosmic spirit, consciousness) as same as the individual soul ([[Ātman (Hinduism)|Ātman]], Self).<ref name=pauldeussen/><ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=96}}</ref> The ''Mokshadharma'' chapter of [[Shanti Parva]] (Book of Peace) in the Mahabharata epic, composed between 400 BCE to 400 CE, explains Samkhya ideas along with other extant philosophies, and then lists numerous scholars in recognition of their philosophical contributions to various Indian traditions, and therein at least three Samkhya scholars can be recognized – Kapila, Asuri and Pancasikha.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/><ref>Mircea Eliade et al (2009), Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691142036, pages 392-393</ref> The 12th chapter of the Buddhist text ''Buddhacarita'' suggests Samkhya philosophical tools of reliable reasoning were well formed by about 5th century BCE.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/>
Samkhya and [[Yoga]] are mentioned together for first time in chapter 6.13 of the Shvetashvatra Upanishad,<ref name="Burley2"/> as ''samkhya-yoga-adhigamya'' (literally, "to be understood by proper reasoning and spiritual discipline").<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 6-7</ref> [[Bhagavad Gita]] identifies Samkhya with understanding or knowledge.<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=34}}</ref> The three gunas are also mentioned in the Gita, though they are not used in the same sense as in classical Samkhya.<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=37}}</ref> The Gita integrates Samkhya thought with the devotion ([[bhakti]]) of theistic schools and the impersonal [[Brahman]] of [[Vedanta]].<ref name="King1">{{harvnb|King|1999|page=63}}</ref>
According to Ruzsa, about 2,000 years ago "Sāṅkhya became the representative philosophy of Hindu thought in Hindu circles",{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}} influencing all strands of the Hindu tradition and Hindu texts.{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}}
===Vedic influences===
The ideas that were developed and assimilated into the classical Samkhya text, the ''[[Samkhyakarika|Sāṅkhyakārikā]]'', are visible in earlier Hindu scriptures such as the Vedas, the [[Upanishads]] and the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]''.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Larson|1998|p=75}} The earliest mention of dualism is in the ''[[Rigveda]]'', a text that was compiled in the second millennium BCE.,{{sfn|Singh|2008|page=185}} in various chapters.
{{Quote box |width=26em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote=[[Nasadiya Sukta]] (Hymn of non-Eternity, origin of universe):
There was neither non-existence nor existence then;<br />
Neither the realm of space, nor the sky which is beyond;<br />
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?
There was neither death nor immortality then;<br />
No distinguishing sign of night nor of day;<br />
That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse;<br />
Other than that there was nothing beyond.
Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;<br />
Without distinctive marks, this all was water;<br />
That which, becoming, by the void was covered;<br />
That One by force of heat came into being;
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?<br />
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?<br/>
Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.<br/>
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whether God's will created it, or whether He was mute;<br />
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not;<br />
Only He who is its overseer in highest heaven knows,<br />
Only He knows, or perhaps He does not know.
|source =—''[[Rigveda]]'' 10.129 (Abridged, Tr: Kramer / Christian)<ref name=3translations>
*Original Sanskrit: [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१०.१२९ Rigveda 10.129] Wikisource;
*'''Translation 1''': {{cite book|author=[[Max Muller]]|title=A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature|date=1859|publisher=Williams and Norgate, London|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofancient00mluoft#page/564/mode/2up|pages=559–565}}
*'''Translation 2''': {{cite book|author=Kenneth Kramer|title=World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative Religions|date=1986|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=0-8091-2781-4|page=21}}
*'''Translation 3''': {{cite book|author=David Christian|title=Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History|date=2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95067-2|pages=17–18}}</ref> This hymn is one of the roots of the Samkhya.<ref name=lbprigveda/>}}
At a mythical level, dualism is found in the [[Indra]]–[[Vritra]] myth of chapter 1.32 of the Rigveda.{{sfn|Larson|1998|page=79}} Enumeration, the etymological root of the word Samkhya, is found in numerous chapters of the Rigveda, such as 1.164, 10.90 and 10.129.<ref name=lbprigveda>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 5-6, 109-110, 180</ref> Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state that the likely roots of philosophical premises, spirit-matter dualism, meditative themes and religious cosmology in Samkhya philosophy are in the hymns of 1.164 (Riddle Hymns) and 10.129 (Nasadiya Hymns).<ref name=lbprigveda/> However these hymns present only the outline of ideas, not specific Samkhya theories and these theories developed in a much later period.<ref name=lbprigveda/>
The Riddle hymns of the Rigveda, famous for their numerous enumerations, structural language symmetry within the verses and the chapter, enigmatic word play with [[anagram]]s that symbolically portray parallelism in rituals and the cosmos, nature and the inner life of man.<ref name=jamison1164>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-359</ref> This hymn includes enumeration (counting) as well as a series of dual concepts cited by early Upanishads . For example, the hymns 1.164.2 - 1.164-3 mention "seven" multiple times, which in the context of other chapters of Rigveda have been interpreted as referring to both seven priests at a ritual and seven constellations in the sky, the entire hymn is a riddle that paints a ritual as well as the sun, moon, earth, three seasons, the transitory nature of living beings, the passage of time and spirit.<ref name=jamison1164/><ref>William Mahony (1997), The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791435809, pages 245-250</ref>
{{Quote|
<poem>
Seven to the one-wheeled chariot yoke the Courser; bearing seven names the single Courser draws it.
Three-naved the wheel is, sound and undecaying, whereon are resting all these worlds of being.
The seven [priests] who on the seven-wheeled car are mounted have horses, seven in tale, who draw them onward.
Seven Sisters utter songs of praise together, in whom the names of the seven Cows are treasured.
Who hath beheld him as he [Sun/Agni] sprang to being, seen how the boneless One [spirit] supports the bony [body]?
Where is the blood of earth, the life, the spirit? Who will approach the one who knows, to ask this?
</poem>
|Rigveda 1.164.2 - 1.164.4|<ref>Original Sanskrit: सप्त युञ्जन्ति रथमेकचक्रमेको अश्वो वहति सप्तनामा । त्रिनाभि चक्रमजरमनर्वं यत्रेमा विश्वा भुवनाधि तस्थुः ॥२॥ इमं रथमधि ये सप्त तस्थुः सप्तचक्रं सप्त वहन्त्यश्वाः । सप्त स्वसारो अभि सं नवन्ते यत्र गवां निहिता सप्त नाम ॥३॥ [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१.१६४ Wikisource]<br />English Translation 1: Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-359<br />English Translation 2: [[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref>}}
The chapter 1.164 asks a number of metaphysical questions, such as "what is the One in the form of the Unborn that created the six realms of the world?".<ref>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-355</ref><ref>[[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda 1.164.6]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref> Dualistic philosophical speculations then follow in chapter 1.164 of the Rigveda, particularly in the well studied "allegory of two birds" hymn (1.164.20 - 1.164.22), a hymn that is referred to in the [[Mundaka Upanishad]] and other texts .<ref name=jamison1164/><ref name=lbprigveda295>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 5, 295-296</ref><ref>Ram Nidumolu (2013), Two Birds in a Tree, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN 978-1609945770, page 189</ref> The two birds in this hymn have been interpreted to mean various forms of dualism: "the sun and the moon", the "two seekers of different kinds of knowledge", and "the body and the atman".<ref>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, page 352</ref><ref>Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (2005), Logos of Phenomenology and Phenomenology of The Logos, Springer, ISBN 978-1402037061, pages 186-193 with footnote 7</ref>
{{Quote|
<poem>
Two Birds with fair wings, knit with bonds of friendship, embrace the same tree.
One of the twain eats the sweet fig; the other not eating keeps watch.
Where those fine Birds hymn ceaselessly their portion of life eternal, and the sacred synods,
There is the Universe's mighty Keeper, who, wise, hath entered into me the simple.
The tree on which the fine Birds eat the sweetness, where they all rest and procreate their offspring,
Upon its top they say the fig is sweetest, he who does not know the Father will not reach it.
</poem>
|Rigveda 1.164.20 - 1.164.22|<ref>Original Sanskrit: द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परि षस्वजाते । तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभि चाकशीति ॥२०॥ यत्रा सुपर्णा अमृतस्य भागमनिमेषं विदथाभिस्वरन्ति । इनो विश्वस्य भुवनस्य गोपाः स मा धीरः पाकमत्रा विवेश ॥२१॥ यस्मिन्वृक्षे मध्वदः सुपर्णा निविशन्ते सुवते चाधि विश्वे । तस्येदाहुः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वग्रे तन्नोन्नशद्यः पितरं न वेद ॥२२॥ [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१.१६४ Wikisource]<br />English Translation 1: Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, page 356<br />English Translation 2: [[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda 1.164 -22]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref>}}
The emphasis of duality between existence (sat) and non-existence (asat) in the [[Nasadiya Sukta]] of the ''Rigveda'' is similar to the vyakta–[[avyakta]] (manifest–unmanifest) polarity in Samkhya. The hymns about Puruṣa may also have influenced Samkhya.{{sfn|Larson|1998|pp=59, 79–81}} The Samkhya notion of buddhi or mahat is similar to the notion of [[hiranyagarbha]], which appears in both the ''Rigveda'' and the ''[[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]]''.{{sfn|Larson|1998|p=82}}
===Upanishadic influences===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=Higher than the senses, stand the objects of senses. Higher than objects of senses, stands mind. Higher than mind, stands intellect. Higher than intellect, stands the great self. Higher than the great self, stands ''Avyaktam''. Higher than ''Avyaktam'', stands Purusha. Higher than this, there is nothing. He is the final goal and the highest point. In all beings, dwells this Purusha, as Atman (soul), invisible, concealed. He is only seen by the keenest thought, by the sublest of those thinkers who see into the subtle.|salign = right
|source =—Katha Upanishad 3.10-13<ref>[[Paul Deussen]], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814684, pages 288-289</ref><ref>Michele Marie Desmarais (2008), Changing minds: Mind, Consciousness and Identity in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120833364, page 25</ref>}}
The oldest of the [[Mukhya Upanishads|major Upanishads]] (c. 900–600 BCE) contain speculations along the lines of classical Samkhya philosophy.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} The concept of [[ahamkara]] in Samkhya can be traced back to the notion of ahamkara in chapters 1.2 and 1.4 of the [[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]] and chapter 7.25 of the ''[[Chāndogya Upaniṣad]]''.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} Satkaryavada, the theory of causation in Samkhya, can be traced to the verses in sixth chapter which emphasize the primacy of sat (being) and describe creation from it. The idea that the three gunas or attributes influence creation is found in both Chandogya and [[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=82–84}}</ref> Upanishadic sages [[Yajnavalkya]] and [[Uddalaka Aruni]] developed the idea that pure consciousness was the innermost essence of a human being. The purusha of Samkhya could have evolved from this idea. The enumeration of [[tattva]]s in Samkhya is also found in [[Taittiriya Upanishad]], [[Aitareya Upanishad]] and Yajnavalkya–Maitri dialogue in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=88–90}}</ref>
===Buddhist and Jainist influences===
[[Buddhism]] and [[Jainism]] had developed in eastern India by the 5th century BCE. It is probable that these schools of thought and the earliest schools of Samkhya influenced each other. A prominent similarity between Buddhism and Samkhya is the greater emphasis on suffering ([[dukkha]]) as the foundation for their respective soteriological theories, than other Indian philosophies.<ref name=larson9193/> However, suffering appears central to Samkhya in its later literature, which suggests a likely Buddhism influence. Elaide, however, presents the alternate theory that Samkhya and Buddhism developed their soteriological theories over time, benefitting from their mutual influence.<ref name=larson9193/>
Likewise, the Jain doctrine of plurality of individual souls ([[jiva]]) could have influenced the concept of multiple purushas in Samkhya. However Hermann Jacobi, an Indologist, thinks that there is little reason to assume that Samkhya notion of Purushas was solely dependent on the notion of jiva in Jainism. It is more likely, that Samkhya was moulded by many ancient theories of soul in various Vedic and non-Vedic schools.<ref name=larson9193>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=91–93}}</ref>
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=This declared to you is the Yoga of the wisdom of Samkhya. Hear, now, of the integrated wisdom with which, Partha, you will cast off the bonds of karma. |salign = right
|source =—Bhagavad Gita 2.39<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=39}}</ref>}}
Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state it to be likely that early Samkhya doctrines found in oldest Upanishads (~700-800 BCE) provided the contextual foundations and influenced Buddhist and Jaina doctrines, and these became contemporaneous, sibling intellectual movements with Samkhya and other schools of Hindu philosophy.<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 2-8, 114-116</ref> This is evidenced, for example, by the references to Samkhya in ancient and medieval era Jaina literature.<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 6-7, 74-88, 113-122, 315-318</ref>
==Source material==
===Texts===
The earliest surviving authoritative text on classical Samkhya philosophy is the ''[[Samkhyakarika|Samkhya Karika]]'' (c. 200 CE{{sfn|Bagchi|1989}} or 350–450 CE<ref name="King1"/>) of Iśvarakṛṣṇa.<ref name="King1"/> There were probably other texts in early centuries CE, however none of them are available today.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=4}}</ref> Iśvarakṛṣṇa in his ''Kārikā'' describes a succession of the disciples from Kapila, through ''Āsuri and ''Pañcaśikha to himself. The text also refers to an earlier work of Samkhya philosophy called Ṣaṣṭitantra (science of sixty topics) which is now lost.<ref name="King1"/> The text was imported and translated into Chinese about the middle of the 6th century CE.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=147–149}}</ref> The records of [[Al Biruni]], the Persian visitor to India in the early 11th century, suggests Samkhyakarika was an established and definitive text in India in his times.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=150–151}}</ref>
''Samkhyakarika'' includes distilled statements on epistemology, metaphysics and soteriology of the Samkhya school. For example, the fourth to sixth verses of the text states it epistemic premises,<ref name=henrysamkhya/>
{{Quote|
Perception, inference and right affirmation are admitted to be threefold proof; for they (are by all acknowledged, and) comprise every mode of demonstration. It is from proof that belief of that which is to be proven results.
Perception is ascertainment of particular objects. Inference, which is of three sorts, premises an argument, and deduces that which is argued by it. Right affirmation is true revelation (''Apta vacana'' and ''Sruti'', testimony of reliable source and the Vedas).
Sensible objects become known by perception; but it is by inference or reasoning that acquaintance with things transcending the senses is obtained. A truth which is neither to be directly perceived, nor to be inferred from reasoning, is deduced from ''Apta vacana'' and ''Sruti''.
|Samkhya Karika Verse 4–6|<ref name=henrysamkhya>[http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/37/1837_SankhyaKarikaHTColebrook.pdf Samkhyakarika of Iswara Krishna] Henry Colebrook (Translator), Oxford University Press, pages 18-27;<br> Sanskrit Original [https://archive.org/stream/SamkhyaKarikaGaudapada/sankhya_karika_gaudapada#page/n0/mode/2up Samkhya karika with Gaudapada Bhasya], Ashubodh Vidyabushanam, Kozhikode, Kerala</ref>}}
The most popular commentary on the Samkhyakarika was the Gauḍapāda Bhāṣya attributed to [[Gaudapada|Gauḍapāda]], the proponent of [[Advaita Vedanta]] school of philosophy. Richard King, Professor of Religious Studies, thinks it is unlikely that Gauḍapāda could have authored both texts, given the differences between the two philosophies. Other important commentaries on the karika were ''Yuktidīpīka'' (c. 6th century CE) and [[Vachaspati Misra|''Vācaspati''’s]] ''Sāṁkhyatattvakaumudī'' (c. 10th century CE).<ref>{{harvnb|King|1999|page=64}}</ref>
The ''[[Samkhyapravachana Sutra|Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra]]'' (c. 14th century CE) renewed interest in Samkhya in the medieval era. It is considered the second most important work of Samkhya after the karika.<ref>{{harvnb|Eliade|Trask|White|2009|page=370}}</ref> Commentaries on this text were written by Anirruddha (''Sāṁkhyasūtravṛtti'', c. 15th century CE), Vijñānabhikṣu (''Sāṁkhyapravacanabhāṣya'', c. 16th century CE), Mahādeva (vṛttisāra, c. 17th century CE) and Nāgeśa (''Laghusāṁkhyasūtravṛtti'').<ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|1923|pages=253–56}}</ref> According to [[Surendranath Dasgupta]], scholar of Indian philosophy, [[Charaka Samhita]], an ancient Indian medical treatise, also contains thoughts from an early Samkhya school.<ref>{{harvnb|Dasgupta|1922|pages=213–7}}</ref>
===Other sources===
The 13th century text ''Sarvadarsanasangraha'' contains 16 chapters, each devoted to a separate school of Indian philosophy. The 13th chapter in this book contains a description of the Samkhya philosophy.<ref>Cowell and Gough, p. 22.</ref>
===Lost textual references===
In his ''Studies in Samkhya Philosophy'', K.C. Bhattacharya writes: {{Quote|Much of Samkhya literature appears to have been lost, and there seems to be no continuity of tradition from ancient times to the age of the commentators...The interpretation of all ancient systems requires a constructive effort; but, while in the case of some systems where we have a large volume of literature and a continuity of tradition, the construction is mainly of the nature of translation of ideas into modern concepts, here in Samkhya the construction at many places involves supplying of missing links from one's imagination. It is risky work, but unless one does it one cannot be said to understand Samkhya as a philosophy. It is a task that one is obliged to undertake. It is a fascinating task because Samkhya is a bold constructive philosophy.<ref>{{cite book|title=Studies in Samkhya Philosophy, Volume 1|author=K.C. Bhattacharya|pages=127|year=1956}}</ref>}}
==Philosophy==
=== Epistemology ===
[[File:3 Pramana Epistemology Samkhya Yoga Hindu schools.svg|thumb|The Samkhya school considers perception, inference and reliable testimony as three reliable means to knowledge.<ref name="Lpage9"/><ref name=eliottjag/>]]
Samkhya considered ''Pratyakṣa'' or ''Dṛṣṭam'' (direct sense perception), ''Anumāna'' (inference), and ''Śabda'' or ''Āptavacana'' (verbal testimony of the sages or shāstras) to be the only valid means of knowledge or ''pramana''.<ref name="Lpage9">{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=9}}</ref> Unlike few other schools, Samkhya did not consider the following three ''pramanas'' as epistemically proper: ''Upamāṇa'' (comparison and analogy), ''Arthāpatti'' (postulation, deriving from circumstances) or ''Anupalabdi'' (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof) .<ref name=eliottjag/>
*'''''Pratyakṣa''''' (प्रत्यक्षाय) means perception. It is of two types in Hindu texts: external and internal. External perception is described as that arising from the interaction of five senses and worldly objects, while internal perception is described by this school as that of inner sense, the mind.<ref name=kamal>MM Kamal (1998), The Epistemology of the Carvaka Philosophy, Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 46(2): 13-16</ref><ref>B Matilal (1992), Perception: An Essay in Indian Theories of Knowledge, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198239765</ref> The ancient and medieval Indian texts identify four requirements for correct perception:<ref name=kpmat/> ''Indriyarthasannikarsa'' (direct experience by one's sensory organ(s) with the object, whatever is being studied), ''Avyapadesya'' (non-verbal; correct perception is not through [[hearsay]], according to ancient Indian scholars, where one's sensory organ relies on accepting or rejecting someone else's perception), ''Avyabhicara'' (does not wander; correct perception does not change, nor is it the result of deception because one's sensory organ or means of observation is drifting, defective, suspect) and ''Vyavasayatmaka'' (definite; correct perception excludes judgments of doubt, either because of one's failure to observe all the details, or because one is mixing inference with observation and observing what one wants to observe, or not observing what one does not want to observe).<ref name=kpmat>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 160-168</ref> Some ancient scholars proposed "unusual perception" as ''pramana'' and called it internal perception, a proposal contested by other Indian scholars. The internal perception concepts included ''pratibha'' (intuition), ''samanyalaksanapratyaksa'' (a form of induction from perceived specifics to a universal), and ''jnanalaksanapratyaksa'' (a form of perception of prior processes and previous states of a 'topic of study' by observing its current state).<ref>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 168-169</ref> Further, some schools considered and refined rules of accepting uncertain knowledge from ''Pratyakṣa-pranama'', so as to contrast ''nirnaya'' (definite judgment, conclusion) from ''anadhyavasaya'' (indefinite judgment).<ref>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 170-172</ref>
*'''''Anumāṇa''''' (अनुमान) means inference. It is described as reaching a new conclusion and truth from one or more observations and previous truths by applying reason.<ref>W Halbfass (1991), Tradition and Reflection, State University of New York Press, ISBN 0-7914-0362-9, page 26-27</ref> Observing smoke and inferring fire is an example of ''Anumana''.<ref name=kamal/> In all except one Hindu philosophies,<ref>Carvaka school is the exception</ref> this is a valid and useful means to knowledge. The method of inference is explained by Indian texts as consisting of three parts: ''pratijna'' (hypothesis), ''hetu'' (a reason), and ''drshtanta'' (examples).<ref name=jl4647>James Lochtefeld, "Anumana" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A-M, Rosen Publishing. ISBN 0-8239-2287-1, page 46-47</ref> The hypothesis must further be broken down into two parts, state the ancient Indian scholars: ''sadhya'' (that idea which needs to proven or disproven) and ''paksha'' (the object on which the ''sadhya'' is predicated). The inference is conditionally true if ''sapaksha'' (positive examples as evidence) are present, and if ''vipaksha'' (negative examples as counter-evidence) are absent. For rigor, the Indian philosophies also state further epistemic steps. For example, they demand ''Vyapti'' - the requirement that the ''hetu'' (reason) must necessarily and separately account for the inference in "all" cases, in both ''sapaksha'' and ''vipaksha''.<ref name=jl4647/><ref>Karl Potter (2002), Presuppositions of India's Philosophies, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0779-0</ref> A conditionally proven hypothesis is called a ''nigamana'' (conclusion).<ref>Monier Williams (1893), Indian Wisdom - Religious, Philosophical and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindus, Luzac & Co, London, page 61</ref>
*'''''Śabda''''' (शब्द) means relying on word, testimony of past or present reliable experts.<ref name=eliottjag>
*Eliott Deutsche (2000), in Philosophy of Religion : Indian Philosophy Vol 4 (Editor: Roy Perrett), Routledge, ISBN 978-0815336112, pages 245-248;
*John A. Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791430675, page 238</ref><ref name=dpsb>DPS Bhawuk (2011), Spirituality and Indian Psychology (Editor: Anthony Marsella), Springer, ISBN 978-1-4419-8109-7, page 172</ref> Hiriyanna explains ''Sabda-pramana'' as a concept which means reliable expert testimony. The schools which consider it epistemically valid suggest that a human being needs to know numerous facts, and with the limited time and energy available, he can learn only a fraction of those facts and truths directly.<ref name=mhir>M. Hiriyanna (2000), The Essentials of Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120813304, page 43</ref> He must cooperate with others to rapidly acquire and share knowledge and thereby enrich each other's lives. This means of gaining proper knowledge is either spoken or written, but through ''Sabda'' (words).<ref name=mhir/> The reliability of the source is important, and legitimate knowledge can only come from the ''Sabda'' of reliable sources.<ref name=eliottjag/><ref name=mhir/> The disagreement between the schools has been on how to establish reliability. Some schools, such as [[Carvaka]], state that this is never possible, and therefore ''Sabda'' is not a proper ''pramana''. Other schools debate means to establish reliability.<ref>P. Billimoria (1988), Śabdapramāṇa: Word and Knowledge, Studies of Classical India Volume 10, Springer, ISBN 978-94-010-7810-8, pages 1-30</ref>
===Dualism===
While [[Western philosophy|Western philosophical traditions]], as exemplified by [[Rene Descartes|Descartes]], equate mind with the conscious self and theorize on consciousness on the basis of mind/body dualism; Samkhya provides an alternate viewpoint, intimately related to [[substance dualism]], by drawing a metaphysical line between consciousness and matter — where matter includes both body and mind.<ref>{{harvnb|Haney|2002|page=17}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Isaac|Dangwal|1997|page=339}}</ref>
The Samkhya system espouses [[Consciousness–matter dualism|dualism between consciousness and matter]] by postulating two "irreducible, innate and independent realities: puruṣa and [[prakṛti]]. While the prakṛti is a single entity, the Samkhya admits a plurality of the puruṣas in this world. Unintelligent, unmanifest, uncaused, ever-active, imperceptible and eternal prakṛti is alone the final source of the world of objects which is implicitly and potentially contained in its bosom. The puruṣa is considered as the conscious principle, a passive enjoyer (''bhokta'') and the prakṛti is the enjoyed (''bhogya''). Samkhya believes that the puruṣa cannot be regarded as the source of inanimate world, because an intelligent principle cannot transform itself into the unconscious world. It is a pluralistic spiritualism, atheistic realism and uncompromising dualism.<ref name="Sharma">{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|pages=149–68}}</ref>
====Puruṣa====
[[Purusha|Puruṣa]] is the transcendental self or pure consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable through other agencies, above any experience by mind or senses and beyond any words or explanations. It remains pure, "nonattributive consciousness". puruṣa is neither produced nor does it produce. It is held that unlike [[Advaita Vedanta]] and like [[Purva-Mīmāṃsā]], Samkhya believes in plurality of the puruṣas.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|pages=155–7}}</ref>
====Prakṛti====
[[File:Evolution in Samkhya.jpg|thumb|160px|Elements in Samkhya philosophy]]
Prakṛti is the first cause of the manifest material universe — of everything except the puruṣa. Prakṛti accounts for whatever is physical, both mind and matter-cum-energy or force. Since it is the first principle (''tattva'') of the universe, it is called the ''pradhāna,'' but, as it is the unconscious and unintelligent principle, it is also called the ''jaDa.'' It is composed of three essential characteristics (''triguna''s). These are:
*[[Sattva]] – poise, fineness, lightness, illumination, and joy;
*[[Rajas]] – dynamism, activity, excitation, and pain;
*[[Tamas (philosophy)|Tamas]] – inertia, coarseness, heaviness, obstruction, and sloth.<ref name="Sharma"/><ref>{{harvnb|Hiriyanna|1993|pages=270–2}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Chattopadhyaya|1986|pages=109–110}}</ref>
All physical events are considered to be manifestations of the evolution of ''prakṛti,'' or primal nature (from which all physical bodies are derived). Each sentient being or [[Jiva]] is a fusion of puruṣa and prakṛti, whose soul/puruṣa is limitless and unrestricted by its physical body. ''[[Samsara|Samsāra]]'' or bondage arises when the puruṣa does not have the discriminate knowledge and so is misled as to its own identity, confusing itself with the Ego/ahamkāra, which is actually an attribute of ''prakṛti.'' The spirit is liberated when the discriminate knowledge of the difference between conscious puruṣa and unconscious prakṛti is realized by the puruṣa.
The unconscious primordial materiality, prakṛti, contains 23 components including intellect ([[buddhi]],mahat), ego ([[ahamkara]]) and mind ([[Manas (early Buddhism)|manas]]); the intellect, mind and ego are all seen as forms of unconscious matter.<ref>{{harvnb|Haney|2002|page=42}}</ref> Thought processes and mental events are conscious only to the extent they receive illumination from Purusha. In Samkhya, consciousness is compared to light which illuminates the material configurations or 'shapes' assumed by the mind. So intellect, after receiving cognitive structures form the mind and illumination from pure consciousness, creates thought structures that appear to be conscious.<ref name="Isaac">{{harvnb|Isaac|Dangwal|1997|page=342}}</ref> Ahamkara, the ego or the phenomenal self, appropriates all mental experiences to itself and thus, personalizes the objective activities of mind and intellect by assuming possession of them.<ref>{{harvnb|Leaman|2000|page=68}}</ref> But consciousness is itself independent of the thought structures it illuminates.<ref name="Isaac"/>
By including mind in the realm of matter, Samkhya avoids one of the most serious pitfalls of Cartesian dualism, the violation of physical conservation laws. Because mind is an evolute of matter, mental events are granted causal efficacy and are therefore able to initiate bodily motions.<ref>{{harvnb|Leaman|2000|page=248}}</ref>
=== Evolution ===
The idea of evolution in Samkhya revolves around the interaction of prakṛti and Purusha. Prakṛti remains unmanifested as long as the three gunas are in equilibrium. This equilibrium of the gunas is disturbed when prakṛti comes into proximity with consciousness or Purusha. The disequilibrium of the gunas triggers an evolution that leads to the manifestation of the world from an unmanifested prakṛti.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=11}}</ref> The metaphor of movement of iron in the proximity of a magnet is used to describe this process.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|page=229}}</ref>
Some evolutes of prakṛti can cause further evolution and are labelled evolvents. For example, intellect while itself created out of prakṛti causes the evolution of ego-sense or ahamkara and is therefore an evolvent. While, other evolutes like the five elements do not cause further evolution.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|page=221}}</ref> It is important to note that an evolvent is defined as a principle which behaves as the material cause for the evolution of another principle. So, in definition, while the five elements are the material cause of all living beings, they cannot be called evolvents because living beings are not separate from the five elements in essence.<ref name="CG223">{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|pages=223}}</ref>
The intellect is the first evolute of prakṛti and is called mahat or the great one. It causes the evolution of ego-sense or self-consciousness. Evolution from self-consciousness is affected by the dominance of gunas. So dominance of sattva causes the evolution of the five organs of perception, five organs of action and the mind. Dominance of [[Tamas (Hinduism)|tamas]] triggers the evolution of five subtle elements– sound, touch, sight, taste, smell from self-consciousness. These five subtle elements are themselves evolvents and cause the creation of the five gross elements space, air, fire, water and earth. Rajas is cause of action in the evolutes.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|pages=222}}</ref> Purusha is pure consciousness absolute, eternal and subject to no change. It is neither a product of evolution, nor the cause of any evolute.<ref name="CG223"/>
Evolution in Samkhya is thought to be purposeful. The two primary purposes of evolution of prakṛti are the enjoyment and the liberation of Purusha.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=12}}</ref> The 23 evolutes of prakṛti are categorized as follows:<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=8}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center; width: auto;"
|-
! {{rh}} | Primordial matter
| prakṛti
| Root evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | Internal instruments
| Intellect (Buddhi or Mahat), Ego-sense (Ahamkāra), Mind (Manas)
| Evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | External instruments
| Five [[Sense organs#Traditional senses|Sense organs]] (Jnānendriyas), Five [[Human Body – 96 Constituent principles or Tatwas of Siddha Medicine#Five Motor Organs .285 - Kanmenthiriyam.29|Organs of action]] (Karmendriyas)
| Evolute
|-
! {{rh}} | Subtle elements
| Sound (Shabda), Touch (Sparsha), Form (Rupa), Taste (Rasa), Smell (Gandha)
| Evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | [[Mahābhūta|Gross elements]]
| Ether (Ākāsh), Air (Vāyu), Fire (Agni), Water (Jala), Earth (Prithvi)
| Evolute
|}
===Liberation or mokṣa===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=The Supreme Good is mokṣa which consists in the permanent impossibility of the incidence of pain... in the realisation of the Self as Self pure and simple. |salign = right
|source =—Samkhyakarika I.3<ref>{{harvnb|Sinha|2012|page=App. VI,1}}</ref>}}
Samkhya school considers [[moksha]] as a natural quest of every soul. The [[Samkhyakarika]] states,
{{Quote|
<poem>
As the unconscious milk functions for the sake of nourishment of the calf,
so the Prakriti functions for the sake of moksha of the spirit.
</poem>
|Samkhya karika|Verse 57<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 273</ref><ref name=colebrookesktrans>Original Sanskrit: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/IshvarakRiShNasAnkyakArikA.pdf Samkhya karika] Compiled and indexed by Ferenc Ruzsa (2015), Sanskrit Documents Archives;<br />[http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/37/1837_SankhyaKarikaHTColebrook.pdf Samkhya karika] by Iswara Krishna, Henry Colebrooke (Translator), Oxford University Press, page 169</ref>}}
Samkhya regards ignorance ([[Avidya (Hinduism)|avidyā]]) as the root cause of suffering and bondage (''[[Samsara]]''). Samkhya states that the way out of this suffering is through knowledge (viveka). Mokṣa (liberation), states Samkhya school, results from knowing the difference between prakṛti (avyakta-vyakta) and puruṣa (jña).<ref name="Lpage9"/>
Puruṣa, the eternal pure consciousness, due to ignorance, identifies itself with products of prakṛti such as intellect (buddhi) and ego (ahamkara). This results in endless transmigration and suffering. However, once the realization arises that puruṣa is distinct from prakṛti, is more than empirical ego, and that puruṣa is deepest conscious self within, the [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Self]] gains isolation (''kaivalya'') and freedom (''moksha'').<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=13}}</ref>
Other forms of Samkhya teach that Mokṣa is attained by one's own development of the higher faculties of discrimination achieved by meditation and other yogic practices. Moksha is described by Samkhya scholars as a state of liberation, where ''Sattva'' [[guna]] predominates.<ref name="Gerald James Larson 2011 pages 36-47"/>
=== Causality ===
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2012}}
The Samkhya system is based on [[Satkaryavada|Sat-kārya-vāda]] or the theory of causation. According to Satkāryavāda, the effect is pre-existent in the cause. There is only an apparent or illusory change in the makeup of the cause and not a material one, when it becomes effect. Since, effects cannot come from nothing, the original cause or ground of everything is seen as prakṛti.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=10}}</ref>
More specifically, Samkhya system follows the ''prakṛti-Parināma Vāda''. ''[[Parinama-vada (Hindu thought)|Parināma]]'' denotes that the effect is a real transformation of the cause. The cause under consideration here is prakṛti or more precisely Moola-prakṛti (Primordial Matter). The Samkhya system is therefore an exponent of an evolutionary theory of matter beginning with primordial matter. In evolution, prakṛti is transformed and differentiated into multiplicity of objects. Evolution is followed by dissolution. In dissolution the physical existence, all the worldly objects mingle back into prakṛti, which now remains as the undifferentiated, primordial substance. This is how the cycles of evolution and dissolution follow each other. But this theory is very different from the modern theories of science in the sense that prakṛti evolves for each Jeeva separately, giving individual bodies and minds to each and after liberation these elements of prakṛti merges into the Moola prakṛti. Another uniqueness of Sāmkhya is that not only physical entities but even mind, ego and intelligence are regarded as forms of Unconsciousness, quite distinct from pure consciousness.
Samkhya theorizes that prakṛti is the source of the perceived world of becoming. It is pure potentiality that evolves itself successively into twenty four [[tattva]]s or principles. The evolution itself is possible because prakṛti is always in a state of tension among its constituent strands or gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. In a state of equilibrium of three gunas, when the three together are one, "unmanifest" prakṛti which is unknowable. A guna is an entity that can change, either increase or decrease, therefore, pure consciousness is called nirguna or without any modification.
The evolution obeys [[causality]] relationships, with primal Nature itself being the material cause of all physical creation. The cause and effect theory of Samkhya is called ''Satkārya-vāda'' (theory of existent causes), and holds that nothing can really be created from or destroyed into nothingness – all evolution is simply the transformation of primal Nature from one form to another.
Samkhya [[esoteric cosmology|cosmology]] describes how life emerges in the universe; the relationship between Purusha and prakṛti is crucial to [[Patanjali]]'s yoga system. The strands of Samkhya thought can be traced back to the [[Veda|Vedic]] speculation of creation. It is also frequently mentioned in the [[Mahabharata]] and [[Yogavasishta]].
== Atheism ==
{{Atheism sidebar}}
Samkhya accepts the notion of higher selves or perfected beings but rejects the notion of God. Classical Samkhya argues against the existence of God on [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] grounds. Samkhya theorists argue that an unchanging God cannot be the source of an ever-changing world and that God was only a necessary metaphysical assumption demanded by circumstances.<ref>{{harvnb|Rajadhyaksha|1959|page=95}}</ref> The Sutras of Samkhya have no explicit role for a separate God distinct from the puruṣa. Such a distinct God is inconceivable and self-contradictory and some commentaries speak plainly on this subject.
=== Arguments against Ishvara's existence ===
According to Sinha, the following arguments were given by the Samkhya philosophers against the idea of an eternal, self-caused, creator God:<ref name="Sinha"/>
* If the existence of [[Karma (Hinduism)|karma]] is assumed, the proposition of God as a moral governor of the universe is unnecessary. For, if God enforces the consequences of actions then he can do so without karma. If however, he is assumed to be within the law of karma, then karma itself would be the giver of consequences and there would be no need of a God.
* Even if karma is denied, God still cannot be the enforcer of consequences. Because the motives of an enforcer God would be either egoistic or altruistic. Now, God's motives cannot be assumed to be altruistic because an altruistic God would not create a world so full of suffering. If his motives are assumed to be egoistic, then God must be thought to have desire, as agency or authority cannot be established in the absence of desire. However, assuming that God has desire would contradict God's eternal freedom which necessitates no compulsion in actions. Moreover, desire, according to Samkhya, is an attribute of prakṛti and cannot be thought to grow in God. The testimony of the [[Vedas]], according to Samkhya, also confirms this notion.
* Despite arguments to the contrary, if God is still assumed to contain unfulfilled desires, this would cause him to suffer pain and other similar human experiences. Such a worldly God would be no better than Samkhya's notion of higher self.
* Furthermore, there is no proof of the existence of God. He is not the object of perception, there exists no general proposition that can prove him by inference and the testimony of the Vedas speak of prakṛti as the origin of the world, not God.
Therefore, Samkhya maintained that the various cosmological, ontological and teleological arguments could not prove God.
===Textual references===
The ''Sankhya-tattva-kaumudi'' commenting on Karika 57 argues that a perfect God can have no need to create a world (for Himself) and if God's motive is kindness (for others), Samkhya questions whether it is reasonable to call into existence beings who while non-existent had no suffering.
The ''{{IAST |Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra}}'' in verse no. 1.92 directly states that existence of "Ishvara (God) is unproved". Hence there is no philosophical place for a creationist God in this system. It is also argued by commentators of this text that the existence of Ishvara cannot be proved and hence cannot be admitted to exist.<ref name="Sinha">{{harvnb|Sinha|2012|pages=xiii-iv}}</ref>
These commentaries of Samkhya postulate that a benevolent deity ought to create only happy creatures, not a mixed world like the real world.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} A majority of modern academic scholars are of view that the concept of Ishvara was incorporated into the ''nirishvara'' (atheistic) Samkhya viewpoint only after it became associated with the [[Yoga]], the [[Pasupata]] and the [[Bhagavata]] schools of philosophy. This theistic Samkhya philosophy is described in the [[Mahabharata]], the [[Puranas]] and the [[Bhagavad Gita]]<ref>{{harvnb|Karmarkar|1962|pages=90–1}}</ref>
==Reception==
The Advaita Vedanta philosopher [[Adi Shankara]] considered Samkhya philosophy as propounded in Samkhyakarika to be inconsistent with the teachings in the Vedas, and considered the dualism in Samkhya to be non-Vedic.<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 67-70</ref> In contrast, ancient Samkhya philosophers in India claimed Vedic authority for their views.<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 213</ref>
== Influence on other schools ==
===On Indian philosophies===
With the publication of previously unknown editions of ''Yuktidipika'' about mid 20th century, scholars<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence/> have suggested what they call as "a tempting hypothesis", but uncertain, that Samkhya tradition may be the oldest school of Indian philosophy.<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 10-11</ref> The [[Vaisheshika]] atomism, [[Nyaya]] epistemology and [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] ontology may all have roots in the early Samkhya school of thought; but these schools likely developed in parallel with an evolving Samkhya tradition, as sibling intellectual movements.<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence/>
=== On Yoga ===
[[File:Siddhasana.svg|thumb|[[Yoga]] is closely related to Samkhya in its philosophical foundations.]]
The Yoga school derives its [[ontology]] and [[epistemology]] from Samkhya and adds to it the concept of [[Isvara]].<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|2008|page=33}}</ref> However, scholarly opinion on the actual relationship between Yoga and Samkhya is divided. While, [[Jakob Wilhelm Hauer]] and [[Georg Feuerstein]] believe that Yoga was tradition common to many Indian schools and its association with Samkhya was artificially foisted upon by commentators such as [[Vyasa]]. [[Johannes Bronkhorst]] and Eric Frauwallner think that Yoga never had a philosophical system separate from Samkhya. Bronkhorst further adds that the first mention of Yoga as a separate school of thought is no earlier than [[Adi Shankara|Śankara]]'s (c. 788–820 CE)<ref>{{harvnb|Isayeva|1993|page=84}}</ref> Brahmasūtrabhaśya.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|2008|pages=30–32}}</ref>
=== On Tantra ===
The dualistic metaphysics of various [[Tantra|Tantric]] traditions illustrates the strong influence of Samkhya on Tantra. [[Shaiva Siddhanta]] was identical to Samkhya in its philosophical approach, barring the addition of a transcendent theistic reality.<ref>{{harvnb|Flood|2006|page=69}}</ref> Knut A. Jacobsen, Professor of Religious Studies, notes the influence of Samkhya on [[Srivaishnavism]]. According to him, this Tantric system borrows the abstract dualism of Samkhya and modifies it into a personified male–female dualism of [[Vishnu]] and [[Sri Lakshmi]].<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobsen|2008|pages=129–130}}</ref> Dasgupta speculates that the Tantric image of a wild [[Kali]] standing on a slumbering [[Shiva]] was inspired from the Samkhyan conception of prakṛti as a dynamic agent and Purusha as a passive witness. However, Samkhya and Tantra differed in their view on liberation. While Tantra sought to unite the male and female ontological realities, Samkhya held a withdrawal of consciousness from matter as the ultimate goal.<ref>{{harvnb|Kripal|1998|pages=148–149}}</ref>
According to Bagchi, the Samkhya Karika (in karika 70) identifies Sāmkhya as a [[Tantra]],<ref>{{harvnb|Bagchi|1989|page=6}}</ref> and its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the [[Tantras]] as a body of literature, as well as Tantra [[sadhana]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bagchi|1989|page=10}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Advaita Vedanta]] of [[Adi Shankara]]
* [[Darshanas]]
* [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|Dualism]]
* [[Hinduism]]
* [[Linga sarira]]
* [[Ratha Kalpana]]
* [[Khyativada]]
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}
== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}
==Sources==
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{{refend}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Mikel Burley|title=Classical Samkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3B9AgAAQBAJ|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-15978-9}}
*{{cite book |author=Jeaneane D. Fowler|title=Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C&pg=PA160|year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-898723-93-6|chapter=Chapter Six: '''Samkhya'''}}
* {{cite book|last1=Hulin|first1=Michel|title=Sāṃkhya Literature|date=1978|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3447018999}}
* {{cite book | author=Gerald James Larson|title=Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ih2aGLp4d1gC |year=2001 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0503-3}}
* {{cite book | last = Müeller | first = Max | authorlink= Max Müller |year = 1919 | title = Six Systems of Indian Philosophy | url=https://archive.org/stream/sixsystemsofindi005498mbp#page/n7/mode/2up }}
== External links ==
* {{cite IEP |url-id=sankhya |title=Samkhya}}
* [http://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/xhome.htm Bibliography of scholarly works: see [S] for Samkhya] by Karl Potter, University of Washington
* [https://faculty.franklin.uga.edu/kirkland/sites/faculty.franklin.uga.edu.kirkland/files/YOGA.pdf Samkhya and Yoga: An Introduction], Russell Kirkland, University of Georgia
* [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1398096 Classical Sāmkhya and the Phenomenological Ontology of Jean-Paul Sartre], Gerald J. Larson, Philosophy East and West
* [http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~djones/documents/Samkhya.pdf PDF file of Ishwarkrishna's Sankhyakarika], in English
* [http://www.ochs.org.uk/lectures/by-topic/251 Lectures on Samkhya], The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford University
{{Hindudharma}}
{{Indian Philosophy}}
[[Category:Philosophical traditions]]
[[Category:Ancient philosophical schools and traditions]]
[[Category:Philosophical schools and traditions]]
[[Category:Hindu philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Hindu philosophy]]
[[Category:Samkhya]]
[[Category:Indian philosophy]]
[[Category:Āstika]]' |
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{{Hindu philosophy}}
'''Samkhya''' or '''Sankhya''' ({{lang-sa|[[:wikt:सांख्य|सांख्य]]}}, [[IAST]]: ''{{IAST|sāṃkhya}}'') is one of the six [[Āstika and nāstika|āstika]] (orthodox) schools of [[Hindu philosophy]].<ref>Knut Jacobsen, Theory and Practice of Yoga, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120832329, pages 100-101</ref><ref>"Samkhya", American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition (2011), Quote: "'''Samkhya is a system of Hindu philosophy based on a dualism involving the ultimate principles of soul and matter.'''"</ref><ref>"Samkhya", Webster’s College Dictionary (2010), Random House, ISBN 978-0375407413, Quote: "'''Samkhya is a system of Hindu philosophy stressing the reality and duality of spirit and matter'''."</ref> It is most related to the [[Yoga (philosophy)|Yoga]] school of [[Hinduism]], and it was influential on other schools of Indian philosophy.<ref name=royper>Roy Perrett, Indian Ethics: Classical traditions and contemporary challenges, Volume 1 (Editor: P Bilimoria et al), Ashgate, ISBN 978-0754633013, pages 149-158</ref> Sāmkhya is an enumerationist philosophy whose [[epistemology]] accepts three of six [[pramana]]s (proofs) as the only reliable means of gaining knowledge. These include ''pratyakṣa'' (perception), ''anumāṇa'' (inference) and ''śabda'' (''āptavacana'', word/testimony of reliable sources).<ref name="Lpage9"/><ref name=eliottjag/><ref name=jag>John A. Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791430675, page 238</ref> Sometimes described as one of the [[rationalism|rationalist]] school of [[Indian philosophy]], this ancient school's reliance on reason was neither exclusive nor strong.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 43-46</ref><ref>David Kalupahana (1995), Ethics in Early Buddhism, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0824817022, page 8, Quote: The rational argument is identified with the method of '''Samkhya, a rationalist school,''' upholding the view that "nothing comes out of nothing" or that "being cannot be non-being".</ref>
Samkhya is strongly [[dualism|dualist]].<ref>{{harvnb|Michaels|2004|page=264}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Sen Gupta|1986|page=6}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|Moore|1957|page=89}}</ref> Sāmkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities; [[purusha|puruṣa]] (consciousness) and [[prakṛti]] (matter). [[Jiva]] (a living being) is that state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakṛti in some form.<ref name=sambri/> This fusion, state the Samkhya scholars, led to the emergence of ''buddhi'' ("intellect") and ''ahaṅkāra'' (ego consciousness). The universe is described by this school as one created by purusa-prakṛti entities infused with various permutations and combinations of variously enumerated elements, senses, feelings, activity and mind.<ref name=sambri>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/520526/Samkhya Samkhya - Hinduism] Encyclopedia Britannica (2014)</ref> During the state of imbalance, one of more constituents overwhelm the others, creating a form of bondage, particularly of the mind. The end of this imbalance, bondage is called liberation, or [[kaivalya]], by the Samkhya school.<ref name="Gerald James Larson 2011 pages 36-47">Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 36-47</ref>
The existence of God or supreme being is not directly asserted, nor considered relevant by the Samkhya philosophers. Sāṃkhya [[teleology|denies]] the [[Four causes#Final cause|final cause]] of [[Ishvara]] (God).{{sfn|Dasgupta|1922|page=258}} While the Samkhya school considers the [[Vedas]] as a reliable source of knowledge, it is an atheistic philosophy according to [[Paul Deussen]] and other scholars.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, page 39</ref><ref name=lpfl>Lloyd Pflueger, Person Purity and Power in Yogasutra, in Theory and Practice of Yoga (Editor: Knut Jacobsen), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120832329, pages 38-39</ref> A key difference between Samkhya and Yoga schools, state scholars,<ref name=lpfl/><ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, page 39, 41</ref> is that Yoga school accepts a "personal, yet essentially inactive, deity" or "personal god".<ref>Kovoor T. Behanan (2002), Yoga: Its Scientific Basis, Dover, ISBN 978-0486417929, pages 56-58</ref>
Samkhya is known for its theory of [[guṇa]]s (qualities, innate tendencies).<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 154-206</ref> Guṇa, it states, are of three types: ''sattva'' being good, compassionate, illuminating, positive, and constructive; ''rajas'' is one of activity, chaotic, passion, impulsive, potentially good or bad; and ''tamas'' being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destructive, lethargic, negative. Everything, all life formhhhvggggggggggggggghhhhs and human beings, state Samkhya scholars, have these three guṇas, but in different proportions. The interplay of these guṇas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life.<ref name=jamesg>James G. Lochtefeld, Guna, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, Vol. 1, Rosen Publishing, ISBN 9780823931798, page 265</ref><ref>T Bernard (1999), ''Hindu Philosophy'', Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1373-1, pages 74–76</ref> The Samkhya theory of guṇas was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies, including [[Buddhism]].<ref>Alex Wayman (1962), Buddhist Dependent Origination and the Samkhya gunas, Ethnos, Volume 27, Issue 1-4, pages 14-22, {{doi|10.1080/00141844.1962.9980914}}</ref> Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.<ref name=royper/>
==Etymology==
''Samkhya'' (सांख्य), also referred to as ''Sankhya'', ''Sāṃkhya'', or ''Sāṅkhya'', is a [[Sanskrit grammar|Sanskrit word]] that, depending on the context, means "to reckon, count, enumerate, calculate, deliberate, reason, reasoning by numeric enumeration, relating to number, rational."<ref>[http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/tamil/index.html saMkhya] Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Germany</ref> In the context of ancient Indian philosophies, ''Samkhya'' refers to the philosophical school in Hinduism based on systematic enumeration and rational examination.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 47-48</ref>
== Historical development ==
The word ''samkhya'' means ''empirical'' or ''relating to numbers''.<ref name="harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664">{{harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664}}</ref> Although the term had been used in the general sense of ''metaphysical knowledge'' before,<ref>{{harvnb|Bhattacharyya|1975|pages=419–20}}</ref> in technical usage it refers to the Samkhya school of thought that evolved into a cohesive philosophical system in early centuries CE.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=4, 38, 288}}</ref> The Samkhya system is called so because "it 'enumerates' twenty five ''Tattvas'' or true principles; and its chief object is to effect the final emancipation of the twenty-fifth Tattva, i.e. the puruṣa or soul."<ref name="harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664"/>
===Origins===
[[File:Amsuman and Kapila.jpg|thumb|King Amsuman and the yogic sage [[Kapila]].]]
Some 19th and 20th century scholars suggested that Samkhya may have non-Vedic origins. Richard Garbe stated in 1898, "The origin of the Sankhya system appears in the proper light only when we understand that in those regions of India which were little influenced by Brahmanism the first attempt had been made to solve the riddles of the world and of our existence merely by means of reason. For the Sankhya philosophy is, in its essence, not only atheistic but also inimical to the Veda."<ref>{{cite book|title=Aniruddha's Commentary and the original parts of Vedantin Mahadeva's commentary on the Sankhya Sutras Translated, with an introduction to the age and origin of the Sankhya system|author=Richard Garbe|pages=xx-xxi|year=1892}}</ref> Dandekar, similarly wrote in 1968, "The origin of the Sankhya is to be traced to the pre-Vedic non-Aryan thought complex".<ref>{{cite book|title='God in Indian Philosophy' in Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute|author=R.N. Dandekar|pages=444|year=1968}}</ref>
Some scholars disagreed with this view. Arthur Keith, for example in 1925, stated, "Samkhya owes its origin to the Vedic-Upanisadic-epic heritage is quite evident,"<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 31-32</ref> and "Samkhya is most naturally derived out of the speculations in the Vedas, Brahmanas and the Upanishads."<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 29</ref>
Johnston in 1937, analyzed then available Hindu and Buddhist texts for the origins of Samkhya, then wrote "the origin lay in the analysis of the individual undertaken in the [[Brahmanas]] and earliest [[Upanishads]], at first with a view to assuring the efficacy of the sacrificial rites and later in order to discover the meaning of salvation in the religious sense and the methods of attaining it. Here – in [[Kaushitaki Upanishad]] and [[Chandogya Upanishad]] – the germ are to be found (of) two of the main ideas of classical Samkhya."<ref>EH Johnston (1937), Early Samkhya: An Essay on its Historical Development according to the Texts, The Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Volume XV, pages 80-81</ref>
More recent scholarship offers another perspective. Ruzsa in 2006,{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}} for example, states, "Sāṅkhya has a very long history. Its roots go deeper than textual traditions allow us to see. The ancient Buddhist Aśvaghoṣa (in his Buddha-Carita) describes Arāḍa Kālāma, the teacher of the young Buddha (ca. 420 B.C.E.) as following an archaic form of Sāṅkhya."{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}}
[[A. K. Warder|Anthony Warder]] in 2009, summarizes that Samkhya and [[Mīmāṃsā]] schools appear to have been established before Sramana traditions in India (~500 BCE), and he traces Samkhya origins to be Vedic. Samkhya, writes Warder, "has indeed been suggested to be non-Brahmanical and even anti-Vedic in origin, but there is no tangible evidence for that except that it is very different than most Vedic speculation – but that is (itself) quite inconclusive. Speculations in the direction of the Samkhya can be found in the early Upanishads."<ref>Anthony Kennedy Warder (2009), A Course in Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120812444, pages 63-65</ref>
Mikel Burley in 2012, writes Richard Garbe's 19th century view on Samkhya's origin are weak and implausible.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 37-38</ref> Burley states that India's religio-cultural heritage is complicated, and likely experienced a non-linear development.<ref name=burleyorigins/> Samkhya is not necessarily non-Vedic nor pre-Vedic, nor a "reaction to Brahmanic hegemony", states Burley.<ref name=burleyorigins/> It is most plausibly, in its origins a lineage that grew and evolved from a combination of ascetic traditions and Vedic "''guru'' (teacher) and disciples". Burley suggests the link between Samkhya and Yoga as likely root of this evolutionary origin during the Vedic era of India.<ref name=burleyorigins>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 37-39</ref>
Between 1938 and 1969, two previously unknown manuscript editions of ''Yuktidipika'' were discovered and published.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> ''Yuktidipika'' is an ancient review and has emerged as the most important commentary on ''Samkhyakarika'' – itself an ancient key text of the Samkhya school.<ref name=larsonyukti/> This discovery and recent scholarship<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> by Paul Hacker and others suggests Samkhya with well established [[epistemology]], [[ontology]] and [[cosmology]] existed earlier than previously thought, sometime in the 1st millennium BCE and that many more ancient scholars contributed to the origins of Samkhya in ancient India, than were previously known. However, almost nothing is preserved about the centuries when these ancient Samkhya scholars lived.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state that the newly discovered literature hints, but does not conclusively prove, that Samkhya may be the oldest school of Indian philosophy, one that evolved over time and influenced major schools, as well as Buddhism and [[Jainism]].<ref name=larsonbhatpotter>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 3-11</ref> These scholars place the earliest references to Samkhya ideas in the Vedic period literature of India (~1500 BCE to ~400 BCE).<ref name=larsonyukti>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 3-4</ref>
===Founders===
Sage Kapila is traditionally credited as a founder of the Samkhya school.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|page=149}}</ref> However, it is unclear in which century of 1st millennium BCE Kapila lived.<ref name=geraldl>Gerald James Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya, The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 107-109</ref> Kapila appears in [[Rigveda]], but context suggests that the word means "reddish-brown color". Both Kapila as a "seer" and the term ''Samkhya'' appear in hymns of section 5.2 in [[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]] (~300 BCE), suggesting Kapila's and Samkhya philosophy's origins may predate it. Numerous other ancient Indian texts mention Kapila; for example, Baudhayana Grhyasutra in chapter IV.16.1 describes a system of rules for ascetic life credited to Kapila, called ''Kapila Sannyasa Vidha''.<ref name=geraldl/> A 6th century CE Chinese translation and other texts consistently state Kapila as an [[Sannyasa|ascetic]] and the founder of the school, mention Asuri as the inheritor of the teaching, and a much later scholar named Pancasikha as the scholar who systematized it and then helped widely disseminate its ideas. Isvarakrsna is identified in these texts as the one who summarized and simplified Samkhya theories of Pancasikha, many centuries later (roughly 4th or 5th century CE), in the form that was then translated into Chinese by Paramartha in the 6th century CE.<ref name=geraldl/>
===Emergence as a distinct philosophy===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=In the beginning this was Self alone, in the shape of a person (puruṣa). He looking around saw nothing but his Self ([[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]]). He first said, "This is I", therefore he became I by name.|salign = right
|source =—Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.1<ref>Max Muller, [https://ia800307.us.archive.org/22/items/SacredBooksEastVariousOrientalScholarsWithIndex.50VolsMaxMuller/15.SacredBooksEast.VarOrSch.v15.Muller.Hindu.Mull.Upanishads.p2.KathMundTait..Mait.Oxf.1884._text.pdf Brihadaranyaka Upanishad], Oxford University Press, page 85</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|1953|page=163}}</ref>}}
The early texts of the Vedic period,<ref>such as Rg Veda 1.164, 10.90 and 10.129; see GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, page 5</ref> contain references to elements of Samkhya philosophy. However, the Samkhya ideas had not distilled and congealed into a distinct, complete philosophy.<ref name=larsonyukti/> The early, proto-Samkhya phase was followed by early Upanishads, about 800 to 700 BCE, wherein ascetic spirituality and monastic (''sramana'' and ''yati'') traditions came in vogue in India. It is in this period, state Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter, that ancient scholars combined proto-Samkhya ideas with a systematic methodology of reasoning (epistemology) and began distilling concepts of spiritual knowledge (''vidya, jnana, viveka''), making Samkhya a more emerging, comprehensive philosophy.<ref name=larsonchandogya>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 4-5</ref> These developing ideas are found in texts such as the [[Chandogya Upanishad]].<ref name=larsonchandogya/>
Sometime about the 5th century BCE, Samkhya thought from various sources started coalescing into a distinct, complete philosophy.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} Philosophical texts such as the [[Katha Upanishad]] in verses 3.10-13 and 6.7-11 describe a well defined concept of puruṣa and other concepts of Samkhya,<ref name=pauldeussen>[[Paul Deussen]], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814684, pages 273, 288-289, 298-299</ref> The ''Shvetashvatara Upanishad'' in chapter 6.13 describes Samkhya with Yoga philosophy, and Bhagavad Gita in book 2 provides axiological implications of Samkhya, therewith providing textual evidence of Samkhyan terminology and concepts.<ref name="Burley2">{{harvnb|Burley|2006|pages=15–18}}</ref> Katha Upanishad conceives the Purusha (cosmic spirit, consciousness) as same as the individual soul ([[Ātman (Hinduism)|Ātman]], Self).<ref name=pauldeussen/><ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=96}}</ref> The ''Mokshadharma'' chapter of [[Shanti Parva]] (Book of Peace) in the Mahabharata epic, composed between 400 BCE to 400 CE, explains Samkhya ideas along with other extant philosophies, and then lists numerous scholars in recognition of their philosophical contributions to various Indian traditions, and therein at least three Samkhya scholars can be recognized – Kapila, Asuri and Pancasikha.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/><ref>Mircea Eliade et al (2009), Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691142036, pages 392-393</ref> The 12th chapter of the Buddhist text ''Buddhacarita'' suggests Samkhya philosophical tools of reliable reasoning were well formed by about 5th century BCE.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/>
Samkhya and [[Yoga]] are mentioned together for first time in chapter 6.13 of the Shvetashvatra Upanishad,<ref name="Burley2"/> as ''samkhya-yoga-adhigamya'' (literally, "to be understood by proper reasoning and spiritual discipline").<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 6-7</ref> [[Bhagavad Gita]] identifies Samkhya with understanding or knowledge.<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=34}}</ref> The three gunas are also mentioned in the Gita, though they are not used in the same sense as in classical Samkhya.<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=37}}</ref> The Gita integrates Samkhya thought with the devotion ([[bhakti]]) of theistic schools and the impersonal [[Brahman]] of [[Vedanta]].<ref name="King1">{{harvnb|King|1999|page=63}}</ref>
According to Ruzsa, about 2,000 years ago "Sāṅkhya became the representative philosophy of Hindu thought in Hindu circles",{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}} influencing all strands of the Hindu tradition and Hindu texts.{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}}
===Vedic influences===
The ideas that were developed and assimilated into the classical Samkhya text, the ''[[Samkhyakarika|Sāṅkhyakārikā]]'', are visible in earlier Hindu scriptures such as the Vedas, the [[Upanishads]] and the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]''.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Larson|1998|p=75}} The earliest mention of dualism is in the ''[[Rigveda]]'', a text that was compiled in the second millennium BCE.,{{sfn|Singh|2008|page=185}} in various chapters.
{{Quote box |width=26em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote=[[Nasadiya Sukta]] (Hymn of non-Eternity, origin of universe):
There was neither non-existence nor existence then;<br />
Neither the realm of space, nor the sky which is beyond;<br />
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?
There was neither death nor immortality then;<br />
No distinguishing sign of night nor of day;<br />
That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse;<br />
Other than that there was nothing beyond.
Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;<br />
Without distinctive marks, this all was water;<br />
That which, becoming, by the void was covered;<br />
That One by force of heat came into being;
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?<br />
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?<br/>
Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.<br/>
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whether God's will created it, or whether He was mute;<br />
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not;<br />
Only He who is its overseer in highest heaven knows,<br />
Only He knows, or perhaps He does not know.
|source =—''[[Rigveda]]'' 10.129 (Abridged, Tr: Kramer / Christian)<ref name=3translations>
*Original Sanskrit: [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१०.१२९ Rigveda 10.129] Wikisource;
*'''Translation 1''': {{cite book|author=[[Max Muller]]|title=A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature|date=1859|publisher=Williams and Norgate, London|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofancient00mluoft#page/564/mode/2up|pages=559–565}}
*'''Translation 2''': {{cite book|author=Kenneth Kramer|title=World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative Religions|date=1986|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=0-8091-2781-4|page=21}}
*'''Translation 3''': {{cite book|author=David Christian|title=Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History|date=2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95067-2|pages=17–18}}</ref> This hymn is one of the roots of the Samkhya.<ref name=lbprigveda/>}}
At a mythical level, dualism is found in the [[Indra]]–[[Vritra]] myth of chapter 1.32 of the Rigveda.{{sfn|Larson|1998|page=79}} Enumeration, the etymological root of the word Samkhya, is found in numerous chapters of the Rigveda, such as 1.164, 10.90 and 10.129.<ref name=lbprigveda>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 5-6, 109-110, 180</ref> Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state that the likely roots of philosophical premises, spirit-matter dualism, meditative themes and religious cosmology in Samkhya philosophy are in the hymns of 1.164 (Riddle Hymns) and 10.129 (Nasadiya Hymns).<ref name=lbprigveda/> However these hymns present only the outline of ideas, not specific Samkhya theories and these theories developed in a much later period.<ref name=lbprigveda/>
The Riddle hymns of the Rigveda, famous for their numerous enumerations, structural language symmetry within the verses and the chapter, enigmatic word play with [[anagram]]s that symbolically portray parallelism in rituals and the cosmos, nature and the inner life of man.<ref name=jamison1164>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-359</ref> This hymn includes enumeration (counting) as well as a series of dual concepts cited by early Upanishads . For example, the hymns 1.164.2 - 1.164-3 mention "seven" multiple times, which in the context of other chapters of Rigveda have been interpreted as referring to both seven priests at a ritual and seven constellations in the sky, the entire hymn is a riddle that paints a ritual as well as the sun, moon, earth, three seasons, the transitory nature of living beings, the passage of time and spirit.<ref name=jamison1164/><ref>William Mahony (1997), The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791435809, pages 245-250</ref>
{{Quote|
<poem>
Seven to the one-wheeled chariot yoke the Courser; bearing seven names the single Courser draws it.
Three-naved the wheel is, sound and undecaying, whereon are resting all these worlds of being.
The seven [priests] who on the seven-wheeled car are mounted have horses, seven in tale, who draw them onward.
Seven Sisters utter songs of praise together, in whom the names of the seven Cows are treasured.
Who hath beheld him as he [Sun/Agni] sprang to being, seen how the boneless One [spirit] supports the bony [body]?
Where is the blood of earth, the life, the spirit? Who will approach the one who knows, to ask this?
</poem>
|Rigveda 1.164.2 - 1.164.4|<ref>Original Sanskrit: सप्त युञ्जन्ति रथमेकचक्रमेको अश्वो वहति सप्तनामा । त्रिनाभि चक्रमजरमनर्वं यत्रेमा विश्वा भुवनाधि तस्थुः ॥२॥ इमं रथमधि ये सप्त तस्थुः सप्तचक्रं सप्त वहन्त्यश्वाः । सप्त स्वसारो अभि सं नवन्ते यत्र गवां निहिता सप्त नाम ॥३॥ [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१.१६४ Wikisource]<br />English Translation 1: Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-359<br />English Translation 2: [[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref>}}
The chapter 1.164 asks a number of metaphysical questions, such as "what is the One in the form of the Unborn that created the six realms of the world?".<ref>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-355</ref><ref>[[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda 1.164.6]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref> Dualistic philosophical speculations then follow in chapter 1.164 of the Rigveda, particularly in the well studied "allegory of two birds" hymn (1.164.20 - 1.164.22), a hymn that is referred to in the [[Mundaka Upanishad]] and other texts .<ref name=jamison1164/><ref name=lbprigveda295>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 5, 295-296</ref><ref>Ram Nidumolu (2013), Two Birds in a Tree, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN 978-1609945770, page 189</ref> The two birds in this hymn have been interpreted to mean various forms of dualism: "the sun and the moon", the "two seekers of different kinds of knowledge", and "the body and the atman".<ref>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, page 352</ref><ref>Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (2005), Logos of Phenomenology and Phenomenology of The Logos, Springer, ISBN 978-1402037061, pages 186-193 with footnote 7</ref>
{{Quote|
<poem>
Two Birds with fair wings, knit with bonds of friendship, embrace the same tree.
One of the twain eats the sweet fig; the other not eating keeps watch.
Where those fine Birds hymn ceaselessly their portion of life eternal, and the sacred synods,
There is the Universe's mighty Keeper, who, wise, hath entered into me the simple.
The tree on which the fine Birds eat the sweetness, where they all rest and procreate their offspring,
Upon its top they say the fig is sweetest, he who does not know the Father will not reach it.
</poem>
|Rigveda 1.164.20 - 1.164.22|<ref>Original Sanskrit: द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परि षस्वजाते । तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभि चाकशीति ॥२०॥ यत्रा सुपर्णा अमृतस्य भागमनिमेषं विदथाभिस्वरन्ति । इनो विश्वस्य भुवनस्य गोपाः स मा धीरः पाकमत्रा विवेश ॥२१॥ यस्मिन्वृक्षे मध्वदः सुपर्णा निविशन्ते सुवते चाधि विश्वे । तस्येदाहुः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वग्रे तन्नोन्नशद्यः पितरं न वेद ॥२२॥ [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१.१६४ Wikisource]<br />English Translation 1: Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, page 356<br />English Translation 2: [[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda 1.164 -22]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref>}}
The emphasis of duality between existence (sat) and non-existence (asat) in the [[Nasadiya Sukta]] of the ''Rigveda'' is similar to the vyakta–[[avyakta]] (manifest–unmanifest) polarity in Samkhya. The hymns about Puruṣa may also have influenced Samkhya.{{sfn|Larson|1998|pp=59, 79–81}} The Samkhya notion of buddhi or mahat is similar to the notion of [[hiranyagarbha]], which appears in both the ''Rigveda'' and the ''[[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]]''.{{sfn|Larson|1998|p=82}}
===Upanishadic influences===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=Higher than the senses, stand the objects of senses. Higher than objects of senses, stands mind. Higher than mind, stands intellect. Higher than intellect, stands the great self. Higher than the great self, stands ''Avyaktam''. Higher than ''Avyaktam'', stands Purusha. Higher than this, there is nothing. He is the final goal and the highest point. In all beings, dwells this Purusha, as Atman (soul), invisible, concealed. He is only seen by the keenest thought, by the sublest of those thinkers who see into the subtle.|salign = right
|source =—Katha Upanishad 3.10-13<ref>[[Paul Deussen]], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814684, pages 288-289</ref><ref>Michele Marie Desmarais (2008), Changing minds: Mind, Consciousness and Identity in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120833364, page 25</ref>}}
The oldest of the [[Mukhya Upanishads|major Upanishads]] (c. 900–600 BCE) contain speculations along the lines of classical Samkhya philosophy.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} The concept of [[ahamkara]] in Samkhya can be traced back to the notion of ahamkara in chapters 1.2 and 1.4 of the [[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]] and chapter 7.25 of the ''[[Chāndogya Upaniṣad]]''.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} Satkaryavada, the theory of causation in Samkhya, can be traced to the verses in sixth chapter which emphasize the primacy of sat (being) and describe creation from it. The idea that the three gunas or attributes influence creation is found in both Chandogya and [[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=82–84}}</ref> Upanishadic sages [[Yajnavalkya]] and [[Uddalaka Aruni]] developed the idea that pure consciousness was the innermost essence of a human being. The purusha of Samkhya could have evolved from this idea. The enumeration of [[tattva]]s in Samkhya is also found in [[Taittiriya Upanishad]], [[Aitareya Upanishad]] and Yajnavalkya–Maitri dialogue in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=88–90}}</ref>
===Buddhist and Jainist influences===
[[Buddhism]] and [[Jainism]] had developed in eastern India by the 5th century BCE. It is probable that these schools of thought and the earliest schools of Samkhya influenced each other. A prominent similarity between Buddhism and Samkhya is the greater emphasis on suffering ([[dukkha]]) as the foundation for their respective soteriological theories, than other Indian philosophies.<ref name=larson9193/> However, suffering appears central to Samkhya in its later literature, which suggests a likely Buddhism influence. Elaide, however, presents the alternate theory that Samkhya and Buddhism developed their soteriological theories over time, benefitting from their mutual influence.<ref name=larson9193/>
Likewise, the Jain doctrine of plurality of individual souls ([[jiva]]) could have influenced the concept of multiple purushas in Samkhya. However Hermann Jacobi, an Indologist, thinks that there is little reason to assume that Samkhya notion of Purushas was solely dependent on the notion of jiva in Jainism. It is more likely, that Samkhya was moulded by many ancient theories of soul in various Vedic and non-Vedic schools.<ref name=larson9193>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=91–93}}</ref>
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=This declared to you is the Yoga of the wisdom of Samkhya. Hear, now, of the integrated wisdom with which, Partha, you will cast off the bonds of karma. |salign = right
|source =—Bhagavad Gita 2.39<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=39}}</ref>}}
Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state it to be likely that early Samkhya doctrines found in oldest Upanishads (~700-800 BCE) provided the contextual foundations and influenced Buddhist and Jaina doctrines, and these became contemporaneous, sibling intellectual movements with Samkhya and other schools of Hindu philosophy.<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 2-8, 114-116</ref> This is evidenced, for example, by the references to Samkhya in ancient and medieval era Jaina literature.<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 6-7, 74-88, 113-122, 315-318</ref>
==Source material==
===Texts===
The earliest surviving authoritative text on classical Samkhya philosophy is the ''[[Samkhyakarika|Samkhya Karika]]'' (c. 200 CE{{sfn|Bagchi|1989}} or 350–450 CE<ref name="King1"/>) of Iśvarakṛṣṇa.<ref name="King1"/> There were probably other texts in early centuries CE, however none of them are available today.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=4}}</ref> Iśvarakṛṣṇa in his ''Kārikā'' describes a succession of the disciples from Kapila, through ''Āsuri and ''Pañcaśikha to himself. The text also refers to an earlier work of Samkhya philosophy called Ṣaṣṭitantra (science of sixty topics) which is now lost.<ref name="King1"/> The text was imported and translated into Chinese about the middle of the 6th century CE.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=147–149}}</ref> The records of [[Al Biruni]], the Persian visitor to India in the early 11th century, suggests Samkhyakarika was an established and definitive text in India in his times.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=150–151}}</ref>
''Samkhyakarika'' includes distilled statements on epistemology, metaphysics and soteriology of the Samkhya school. For example, the fourth to sixth verses of the text states it epistemic premises,<ref name=henrysamkhya/>
{{Quote|
Perception, inference and right affirmation are admitted to be threefold proof; for they (are by all acknowledged, and) comprise every mode of demonstration. It is from proof that belief of that which is to be proven results.
Perception is ascertainment of particular objects. Inference, which is of three sorts, premises an argument, and deduces that which is argued by it. Right affirmation is true revelation (''Apta vacana'' and ''Sruti'', testimony of reliable source and the Vedas).
Sensible objects become known by perception; but it is by inference or reasoning that acquaintance with things transcending the senses is obtained. A truth which is neither to be directly perceived, nor to be inferred from reasoning, is deduced from ''Apta vacana'' and ''Sruti''.
|Samkhya Karika Verse 4–6|<ref name=henrysamkhya>[http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/37/1837_SankhyaKarikaHTColebrook.pdf Samkhyakarika of Iswara Krishna] Henry Colebrook (Translator), Oxford University Press, pages 18-27;<br> Sanskrit Original [https://archive.org/stream/SamkhyaKarikaGaudapada/sankhya_karika_gaudapada#page/n0/mode/2up Samkhya karika with Gaudapada Bhasya], Ashubodh Vidyabushanam, Kozhikode, Kerala</ref>}}
The most popular commentary on the Samkhyakarika was the Gauḍapāda Bhāṣya attributed to [[Gaudapada|Gauḍapāda]], the proponent of [[Advaita Vedanta]] school of philosophy. Richard King, Professor of Religious Studies, thinks it is unlikely that Gauḍapāda could have authored both texts, given the differences between the two philosophies. Other important commentaries on the karika were ''Yuktidīpīka'' (c. 6th century CE) and [[Vachaspati Misra|''Vācaspati''’s]] ''Sāṁkhyatattvakaumudī'' (c. 10th century CE).<ref>{{harvnb|King|1999|page=64}}</ref>
The ''[[Samkhyapravachana Sutra|Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra]]'' (c. 14th century CE) renewed interest in Samkhya in the medieval era. It is considered the second most important work of Samkhya after the karika.<ref>{{harvnb|Eliade|Trask|White|2009|page=370}}</ref> Commentaries on this text were written by Anirruddha (''Sāṁkhyasūtravṛtti'', c. 15th century CE), Vijñānabhikṣu (''Sāṁkhyapravacanabhāṣya'', c. 16th century CE), Mahādeva (vṛttisāra, c. 17th century CE) and Nāgeśa (''Laghusāṁkhyasūtravṛtti'').<ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|1923|pages=253–56}}</ref> According to [[Surendranath Dasgupta]], scholar of Indian philosophy, [[Charaka Samhita]], an ancient Indian medical treatise, also contains thoughts from an early Samkhya school.<ref>{{harvnb|Dasgupta|1922|pages=213–7}}</ref>
===Other sources===
The 13th century text ''Sarvadarsanasangraha'' contains 16 chapters, each devoted to a separate school of Indian philosophy. The 13th chapter in this book contains a description of the Samkhya philosophy.<ref>Cowell and Gough, p. 22.</ref>
===Lost textual references===
In his ''Studies in Samkhya Philosophy'', K.C. Bhattacharya writes: {{Quote|Much of Samkhya literature appears to have been lost, and there seems to be no continuity of tradition from ancient times to the age of the commentators...The interpretation of all ancient systems requires a constructive effort; but, while in the case of some systems where we have a large volume of literature and a continuity of tradition, the construction is mainly of the nature of translation of ideas into modern concepts, here in Samkhya the construction at many places involves supplying of missing links from one's imagination. It is risky work, but unless one does it one cannot be said to understand Samkhya as a philosophy. It is a task that one is obliged to undertake. It is a fascinating task because Samkhya is a bold constructive philosophy.<ref>{{cite book|title=Studies in Samkhya Philosophy, Volume 1|author=K.C. Bhattacharya|pages=127|year=1956}}</ref>}}
==Philosophy==
=== Epistemology ===
[[File:3 Pramana Epistemology Samkhya Yoga Hindu schools.svg|thumb|The Samkhya school considers perception, inference and reliable testimony as three reliable means to knowledge.<ref name="Lpage9"/><ref name=eliottjag/>]]
Samkhya considered ''Pratyakṣa'' or ''Dṛṣṭam'' (direct sense perception), ''Anumāna'' (inference), and ''Śabda'' or ''Āptavacana'' (verbal testimony of the sages or shāstras) to be the only valid means of knowledge or ''pramana''.<ref name="Lpage9">{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=9}}</ref> Unlike few other schools, Samkhya did not consider the following three ''pramanas'' as epistemically proper: ''Upamāṇa'' (comparison and analogy), ''Arthāpatti'' (postulation, deriving from circumstances) or ''Anupalabdi'' (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof) .<ref name=eliottjag/>
*'''''Pratyakṣa''''' (प्रत्यक्षाय) means perception. It is of two types in Hindu texts: external and internal. External perception is described as that arising from the interaction of five senses and worldly objects, while internal perception is described by this school as that of inner sense, the mind.<ref name=kamal>MM Kamal (1998), The Epistemology of the Carvaka Philosophy, Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 46(2): 13-16</ref><ref>B Matilal (1992), Perception: An Essay in Indian Theories of Knowledge, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198239765</ref> The ancient and medieval Indian texts identify four requirements for correct perception:<ref name=kpmat/> ''Indriyarthasannikarsa'' (direct experience by one's sensory organ(s) with the object, whatever is being studied), ''Avyapadesya'' (non-verbal; correct perception is not through [[hearsay]], according to ancient Indian scholars, where one's sensory organ relies on accepting or rejecting someone else's perception), ''Avyabhicara'' (does not wander; correct perception does not change, nor is it the result of deception because one's sensory organ or means of observation is drifting, defective, suspect) and ''Vyavasayatmaka'' (definite; correct perception excludes judgments of doubt, either because of one's failure to observe all the details, or because one is mixing inference with observation and observing what one wants to observe, or not observing what one does not want to observe).<ref name=kpmat>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 160-168</ref> Some ancient scholars proposed "unusual perception" as ''pramana'' and called it internal perception, a proposal contested by other Indian scholars. The internal perception concepts included ''pratibha'' (intuition), ''samanyalaksanapratyaksa'' (a form of induction from perceived specifics to a universal), and ''jnanalaksanapratyaksa'' (a form of perception of prior processes and previous states of a 'topic of study' by observing its current state).<ref>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 168-169</ref> Further, some schools considered and refined rules of accepting uncertain knowledge from ''Pratyakṣa-pranama'', so as to contrast ''nirnaya'' (definite judgment, conclusion) from ''anadhyavasaya'' (indefinite judgment).<ref>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 170-172</ref>
*'''''Anumāṇa''''' (अनुमान) means inference. It is described as reaching a new conclusion and truth from one or more observations and previous truths by applying reason.<ref>W Halbfass (1991), Tradition and Reflection, State University of New York Press, ISBN 0-7914-0362-9, page 26-27</ref> Observing smoke and inferring fire is an example of ''Anumana''.<ref name=kamal/> In all except one Hindu philosophies,<ref>Carvaka school is the exception</ref> this is a valid and useful means to knowledge. The method of inference is explained by Indian texts as consisting of three parts: ''pratijna'' (hypothesis), ''hetu'' (a reason), and ''drshtanta'' (examples).<ref name=jl4647>James Lochtefeld, "Anumana" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A-M, Rosen Publishing. ISBN 0-8239-2287-1, page 46-47</ref> The hypothesis must further be broken down into two parts, state the ancient Indian scholars: ''sadhya'' (that idea which needs to proven or disproven) and ''paksha'' (the object on which the ''sadhya'' is predicated). The inference is conditionally true if ''sapaksha'' (positive examples as evidence) are present, and if ''vipaksha'' (negative examples as counter-evidence) are absent. For rigor, the Indian philosophies also state further epistemic steps. For example, they demand ''Vyapti'' - the requirement that the ''hetu'' (reason) must necessarily and separately account for the inference in "all" cases, in both ''sapaksha'' and ''vipaksha''.<ref name=jl4647/><ref>Karl Potter (2002), Presuppositions of India's Philosophies, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0779-0</ref> A conditionally proven hypothesis is called a ''nigamana'' (conclusion).<ref>Monier Williams (1893), Indian Wisdom - Religious, Philosophical and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindus, Luzac & Co, London, page 61</ref>
*'''''Śabda''''' (शब्द) means relying on word, testimony of past or present reliable experts.<ref name=eliottjag>
*Eliott Deutsche (2000), in Philosophy of Religion : Indian Philosophy Vol 4 (Editor: Roy Perrett), Routledge, ISBN 978-0815336112, pages 245-248;
*John A. Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791430675, page 238</ref><ref name=dpsb>DPS Bhawuk (2011), Spirituality and Indian Psychology (Editor: Anthony Marsella), Springer, ISBN 978-1-4419-8109-7, page 172</ref> Hiriyanna explains ''Sabda-pramana'' as a concept which means reliable expert testimony. The schools which consider it epistemically valid suggest that a human being needs to know numerous facts, and with the limited time and energy available, he can learn only a fraction of those facts and truths directly.<ref name=mhir>M. Hiriyanna (2000), The Essentials of Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120813304, page 43</ref> He must cooperate with others to rapidly acquire and share knowledge and thereby enrich each other's lives. This means of gaining proper knowledge is either spoken or written, but through ''Sabda'' (words).<ref name=mhir/> The reliability of the source is important, and legitimate knowledge can only come from the ''Sabda'' of reliable sources.<ref name=eliottjag/><ref name=mhir/> The disagreement between the schools has been on how to establish reliability. Some schools, such as [[Carvaka]], state that this is never possible, and therefore ''Sabda'' is not a proper ''pramana''. Other schools debate means to establish reliability.<ref>P. Billimoria (1988), Śabdapramāṇa: Word and Knowledge, Studies of Classical India Volume 10, Springer, ISBN 978-94-010-7810-8, pages 1-30</ref>
===Dualism===
While [[Western philosophy|Western philosophical traditions]], as exemplified by [[Rene Descartes|Descartes]], equate mind with the conscious self and theorize on consciousness on the basis of mind/body dualism; Samkhya provides an alternate viewpoint, intimately related to [[substance dualism]], by drawing a metaphysical line between consciousness and matter — where matter includes both body and mind.<ref>{{harvnb|Haney|2002|page=17}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Isaac|Dangwal|1997|page=339}}</ref>
The Samkhya system espouses [[Consciousness–matter dualism|dualism between consciousness and matter]] by postulating two "irreducible, innate and independent realities: puruṣa and [[prakṛti]]. While the prakṛti is a single entity, the Samkhya admits a plurality of the puruṣas in this world. Unintelligent, unmanifest, uncaused, ever-active, imperceptible and eternal prakṛti is alone the final source of the world of objects which is implicitly and potentially contained in its bosom. The puruṣa is considered as the conscious principle, a passive enjoyer (''bhokta'') and the prakṛti is the enjoyed (''bhogya''). Samkhya believes that the puruṣa cannot be regarded as the source of inanimate world, because an intelligent principle cannot transform itself into the unconscious world. It is a pluralistic spiritualism, atheistic realism and uncompromising dualism.<ref name="Sharma">{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|pages=149–68}}</ref>
====Puruṣa====
[[Purusha|Puruṣa]] is the transcendental self or pure consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable through other agencies, above any experience by mind or senses and beyond any words or explanations. It remains pure, "nonattributive consciousness". puruṣa is neither produced nor does it produce. It is held that unlike [[Advaita Vedanta]] and like [[Purva-Mīmāṃsā]], Samkhya believes in plurality of the puruṣas.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|pages=155–7}}</ref>
====Prakṛti====
[[File:Evolution in Samkhya.jpg|thumb|160px|Elements in Samkhya philosophy]]
Prakṛti is the first cause of the manifest material universe — of everything except the puruṣa. Prakṛti accounts for whatever is physical, both mind and matter-cum-energy or force. Since it is the first principle (''tattva'') of the universe, it is called the ''pradhāna,'' but, as it is the unconscious and unintelligent principle, it is also called the ''jaDa.'' It is composed of three essential characteristics (''triguna''s). These are:
*[[Sattva]] – poise, fineness, lightness, illumination, and joy;
*[[Rajas]] – dynamism, activity, excitation, and pain;
*[[Tamas (philosophy)|Tamas]] – inertia, coarseness, heaviness, obstruction, and sloth.<ref name="Sharma"/><ref>{{harvnb|Hiriyanna|1993|pages=270–2}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Chattopadhyaya|1986|pages=109–110}}</ref>
All physical events are considered to be manifestations of the evolution of ''prakṛti,'' or primal nature (from which all physical bodies are derived). Each sentient being or [[Jiva]] is a fusion of puruṣa and prakṛti, whose soul/puruṣa is limitless and unrestricted by its physical body. ''[[Samsara|Samsāra]]'' or bondage arises when the puruṣa does not have the discriminate knowledge and so is misled as to its own identity, confusing itself with the Ego/ahamkāra, which is actually an attribute of ''prakṛti.'' The spirit is liberated when the discriminate knowledge of the difference between conscious puruṣa and unconscious prakṛti is realized by the puruṣa.
The unconscious primordial materiality, prakṛti, contains 23 components including intellect ([[buddhi]],mahat), ego ([[ahamkara]]) and mind ([[Manas (early Buddhism)|manas]]); the intellect, mind and ego are all seen as forms of unconscious matter.<ref>{{harvnb|Haney|2002|page=42}}</ref> Thought processes and mental events are conscious only to the extent they receive illumination from Purusha. In Samkhya, consciousness is compared to light which illuminates the material configurations or 'shapes' assumed by the mind. So intellect, after receiving cognitive structures form the mind and illumination from pure consciousness, creates thought structures that appear to be conscious.<ref name="Isaac">{{harvnb|Isaac|Dangwal|1997|page=342}}</ref> Ahamkara, the ego or the phenomenal self, appropriates all mental experiences to itself and thus, personalizes the objective activities of mind and intellect by assuming possession of them.<ref>{{harvnb|Leaman|2000|page=68}}</ref> But consciousness is itself independent of the thought structures it illuminates.<ref name="Isaac"/>
By including mind in the realm of matter, Samkhya avoids one of the most serious pitfalls of Cartesian dualism, the violation of physical conservation laws. Because mind is an evolute of matter, mental events are granted causal efficacy and are therefore able to initiate bodily motions.<ref>{{harvnb|Leaman|2000|page=248}}</ref>
=== Evolution ===
The idea of evolution in Samkhya revolves around the interaction of prakṛti and Purusha. Prakṛti remains unmanifested as long as the three gunas are in equilibrium. This equilibrium of the gunas is disturbed when prakṛti comes into proximity with consciousness or Purusha. The disequilibrium of the gunas triggers an evolution that leads to the manifestation of the world from an unmanifested prakṛti.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=11}}</ref> The metaphor of movement of iron in the proximity of a magnet is used to describe this process.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|page=229}}</ref>
Some evolutes of prakṛti can cause further evolution and are labelled evolvents. For example, intellect while itself created out of prakṛti causes the evolution of ego-sense or ahamkara and is therefore an evolvent. While, other evolutes like the five elements do not cause further evolution.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|page=221}}</ref> It is important to note that an evolvent is defined as a principle which behaves as the material cause for the evolution of another principle. So, in definition, while the five elements are the material cause of all living beings, they cannot be called evolvents because living beings are not separate from the five elements in essence.<ref name="CG223">{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|pages=223}}</ref>
The intellect is the first evolute of prakṛti and is called mahat or the great one. It causes the evolution of ego-sense or self-consciousness. Evolution from self-consciousness is affected by the dominance of gunas. So dominance of sattva causes the evolution of the five organs of perception, five organs of action and the mind. Dominance of [[Tamas (Hinduism)|tamas]] triggers the evolution of five subtle elements– sound, touch, sight, taste, smell from self-consciousness. These five subtle elements are themselves evolvents and cause the creation of the five gross elements space, air, fire, water and earth. Rajas is cause of action in the evolutes.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|pages=222}}</ref> Purusha is pure consciousness absolute, eternal and subject to no change. It is neither a product of evolution, nor the cause of any evolute.<ref name="CG223"/>
Evolution in Samkhya is thought to be purposeful. The two primary purposes of evolution of prakṛti are the enjoyment and the liberation of Purusha.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=12}}</ref> The 23 evolutes of prakṛti are categorized as follows:<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=8}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center; width: auto;"
|-
! {{rh}} | Primordial matter
| prakṛti
| Root evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | Internal instruments
| Intellect (Buddhi or Mahat), Ego-sense (Ahamkāra), Mind (Manas)
| Evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | External instruments
| Five [[Sense organs#Traditional senses|Sense organs]] (Jnānendriyas), Five [[Human Body – 96 Constituent principles or Tatwas of Siddha Medicine#Five Motor Organs .285 - Kanmenthiriyam.29|Organs of action]] (Karmendriyas)
| Evolute
|-
! {{rh}} | Subtle elements
| Sound (Shabda), Touch (Sparsha), Form (Rupa), Taste (Rasa), Smell (Gandha)
| Evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | [[Mahābhūta|Gross elements]]
| Ether (Ākāsh), Air (Vāyu), Fire (Agni), Water (Jala), Earth (Prithvi)
| Evolute
|}
===Liberation or mokṣa===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=The Supreme Good is mokṣa which consists in the permanent impossibility of the incidence of pain... in the realisation of the Self as Self pure and simple. |salign = right
|source =—Samkhyakarika I.3<ref>{{harvnb|Sinha|2012|page=App. VI,1}}</ref>}}
Samkhya school considers [[moksha]] as a natural quest of every soul. The [[Samkhyakarika]] states,
{{Quote|
<poem>
As the unconscious milk functions for the sake of nourishment of the calf,
so the Prakriti functions for the sake of moksha of the spirit.
</poem>
|Samkhya karika|Verse 57<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 273</ref><ref name=colebrookesktrans>Original Sanskrit: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/IshvarakRiShNasAnkyakArikA.pdf Samkhya karika] Compiled and indexed by Ferenc Ruzsa (2015), Sanskrit Documents Archives;<br />[http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/37/1837_SankhyaKarikaHTColebrook.pdf Samkhya karika] by Iswara Krishna, Henry Colebrooke (Translator), Oxford University Press, page 169</ref>}}
Samkhya regards ignorance ([[Avidya (Hinduism)|avidyā]]) as the root cause of suffering and bondage (''[[Samsara]]''). Samkhya states that the way out of this suffering is through knowledge (viveka). Mokṣa (liberation), states Samkhya school, results from knowing the difference between prakṛti (avyakta-vyakta) and puruṣa (jña).<ref name="Lpage9"/>
Puruṣa, the eternal pure consciousness, due to ignorance, identifies itself with products of prakṛti such as intellect (buddhi) and ego (ahamkara). This results in endless transmigration and suffering. However, once the realization arises that puruṣa is distinct from prakṛti, is more than empirical ego, and that puruṣa is deepest conscious self within, the [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Self]] gains isolation (''kaivalya'') and freedom (''moksha'').<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=13}}</ref>
Other forms of Samkhya teach that Mokṣa is attained by one's own development of the higher faculties of discrimination achieved by meditation and other yogic practices. Moksha is described by Samkhya scholars as a state of liberation, where ''Sattva'' [[guna]] predominates.<ref name="Gerald James Larson 2011 pages 36-47"/>
=== Causality ===
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2012}}
The Samkhya system is based on [[Satkaryavada|Sat-kārya-vāda]] or the theory of causation. According to Satkāryavāda, the effect is pre-existent in the cause. There is only an apparent or illusory change in the makeup of the cause and not a material one, when it becomes effect. Since, effects cannot come from nothing, the original cause or ground of everything is seen as prakṛti.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=10}}</ref>
More specifically, Samkhya system follows the ''prakṛti-Parināma Vāda''. ''[[Parinama-vada (Hindu thought)|Parināma]]'' denotes that the effect is a real transformation of the cause. The cause under consideration here is prakṛti or more precisely Moola-prakṛti (Primordial Matter). The Samkhya system is therefore an exponent of an evolutionary theory of matter beginning with primordial matter. In evolution, prakṛti is transformed and differentiated into multiplicity of objects. Evolution is followed by dissolution. In dissolution the physical existence, all the worldly objects mingle back into prakṛti, which now remains as the undifferentiated, primordial substance. This is how the cycles of evolution and dissolution follow each other. But this theory is very different from the modern theories of science in the sense that prakṛti evolves for each Jeeva separately, giving individual bodies and minds to each and after liberation these elements of prakṛti merges into the Moola prakṛti. Another uniqueness of Sāmkhya is that not only physical entities but even mind, ego and intelligence are regarded as forms of Unconsciousness, quite distinct from pure consciousness.
Samkhya theorizes that prakṛti is the source of the perceived world of becoming. It is pure potentiality that evolves itself successively into twenty four [[tattva]]s or principles. The evolution itself is possible because prakṛti is always in a state of tension among its constituent strands or gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. In a state of equilibrium of three gunas, when the three together are one, "unmanifest" prakṛti which is unknowable. A guna is an entity that can change, either increase or decrease, therefore, pure consciousness is called nirguna or without any modification.
The evolution obeys [[causality]] relationships, with primal Nature itself being the material cause of all physical creation. The cause and effect theory of Samkhya is called ''Satkārya-vāda'' (theory of existent causes), and holds that nothing can really be created from or destroyed into nothingness – all evolution is simply the transformation of primal Nature from one form to another.
Samkhya [[esoteric cosmology|cosmology]] describes how life emerges in the universe; the relationship between Purusha and prakṛti is crucial to [[Patanjali]]'s yoga system. The strands of Samkhya thought can be traced back to the [[Veda|Vedic]] speculation of creation. It is also frequently mentioned in the [[Mahabharata]] and [[Yogavasishta]].
== Atheism ==
{{Atheism sidebar}}
Samkhya accepts the notion of higher selves or perfected beings but rejects the notion of God. Classical Samkhya argues against the existence of God on [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] grounds. Samkhya theorists argue that an unchanging God cannot be the source of an ever-changing world and that God was only a necessary metaphysical assumption demanded by circumstances.<ref>{{harvnb|Rajadhyaksha|1959|page=95}}</ref> The Sutras of Samkhya have no explicit role for a separate God distinct from the puruṣa. Such a distinct God is inconceivable and self-contradictory and some commentaries speak plainly on this subject.
=== Arguments against Ishvara's existence ===
According to Sinha, the following arguments were given by the Samkhya philosophers against the idea of an eternal, self-caused, creator God:<ref name="Sinha"/>
* If the existence of [[Karma (Hinduism)|karma]] is assumed, the proposition of God as a moral governor of the universe is unnecessary. For, if God enforces the consequences of actions then he can do so without karma. If however, he is assumed to be within the law of karma, then karma itself would be the giver of consequences and there would be no need of a God.
* Even if karma is denied, God still cannot be the enforcer of consequences. Because the motives of an enforcer God would be either egoistic or altruistic. Now, God's motives cannot be assumed to be altruistic because an altruistic God would not create a world so full of suffering. If his motives are assumed to be egoistic, then God must be thought to have desire, as agency or authority cannot be established in the absence of desire. However, assuming that God has desire would contradict God's eternal freedom which necessitates no compulsion in actions. Moreover, desire, according to Samkhya, is an attribute of prakṛti and cannot be thought to grow in God. The testimony of the [[Vedas]], according to Samkhya, also confirms this notion.
* Despite arguments to the contrary, if God is still assumed to contain unfulfilled desires, this would cause him to suffer pain and other similar human experiences. Such a worldly God would be no better than Samkhya's notion of higher self.
* Furthermore, there is no proof of the existence of God. He is not the object of perception, there exists no general proposition that can prove him by inference and the testimony of the Vedas speak of prakṛti as the origin of the world, not God.
Therefore, Samkhya maintained that the various cosmological, ontological and teleological arguments could not prove God.
===Textual references===
The ''Sankhya-tattva-kaumudi'' commenting on Karika 57 argues that a perfect God can have no need to create a world (for Himself) and if God's motive is kindness (for others), Samkhya questions whether it is reasonable to call into existence beings who while non-existent had no suffering.
The ''{{IAST |Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra}}'' in verse no. 1.92 directly states that existence of "Ishvara (God) is unproved". Hence there is no philosophical place for a creationist God in this system. It is also argued by commentators of this text that the existence of Ishvara cannot be proved and hence cannot be admitted to exist.<ref name="Sinha">{{harvnb|Sinha|2012|pages=xiii-iv}}</ref>
These commentaries of Samkhya postulate that a benevolent deity ought to create only happy creatures, not a mixed world like the real world.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} A majority of modern academic scholars are of view that the concept of Ishvara was incorporated into the ''nirishvara'' (atheistic) Samkhya viewpoint only after it became associated with the [[Yoga]], the [[Pasupata]] and the [[Bhagavata]] schools of philosophy. This theistic Samkhya philosophy is described in the [[Mahabharata]], the [[Puranas]] and the [[Bhagavad Gita]]<ref>{{harvnb|Karmarkar|1962|pages=90–1}}</ref>
==Reception==
The Advaita Vedanta philosopher [[Adi Shankara]] considered Samkhya philosophy as propounded in Samkhyakarika to be inconsistent with the teachings in the Vedas, and considered the dualism in Samkhya to be non-Vedic.<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 67-70</ref> In contrast, ancient Samkhya philosophers in India claimed Vedic authority for their views.<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 213</ref>
== Influence on other schools ==
===On Indian philosophies===
With the publication of previously unknown editions of ''Yuktidipika'' about mid 20th century, scholars<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence/> have suggested what they call as "a tempting hypothesis", but uncertain, that Samkhya tradition may be the oldest school of Indian philosophy.<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 10-11</ref> The [[Vaisheshika]] atomism, [[Nyaya]] epistemology and [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] ontology may all have roots in the early Samkhya school of thought; but these schools likely developed in parallel with an evolving Samkhya tradition, as sibling intellectual movements.<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence/>
=== On Yoga ===
[[File:Siddhasana.svg|thumb|[[Yoga]] is closely related to Samkhya in its philosophical foundations.]]
The Yoga school derives its [[ontology]] and [[epistemology]] from Samkhya and adds to it the concept of [[Isvara]].<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|2008|page=33}}</ref> However, scholarly opinion on the actual relationship between Yoga and Samkhya is divided. While, [[Jakob Wilhelm Hauer]] and [[Georg Feuerstein]] believe that Yoga was tradition common to many Indian schools and its association with Samkhya was artificially foisted upon by commentators such as [[Vyasa]]. [[Johannes Bronkhorst]] and Eric Frauwallner think that Yoga never had a philosophical system separate from Samkhya. Bronkhorst further adds that the first mention of Yoga as a separate school of thought is no earlier than [[Adi Shankara|Śankara]]'s (c. 788–820 CE)<ref>{{harvnb|Isayeva|1993|page=84}}</ref> Brahmasūtrabhaśya.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|2008|pages=30–32}}</ref>
=== On Tantra ===
The dualistic metaphysics of various [[Tantra|Tantric]] traditions illustrates the strong influence of Samkhya on Tantra. [[Shaiva Siddhanta]] was identical to Samkhya in its philosophical approach, barring the addition of a transcendent theistic reality.<ref>{{harvnb|Flood|2006|page=69}}</ref> Knut A. Jacobsen, Professor of Religious Studies, notes the influence of Samkhya on [[Srivaishnavism]]. According to him, this Tantric system borrows the abstract dualism of Samkhya and modifies it into a personified male–female dualism of [[Vishnu]] and [[Sri Lakshmi]].<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobsen|2008|pages=129–130}}</ref> Dasgupta speculates that the Tantric image of a wild [[Kali]] standing on a slumbering [[Shiva]] was inspired from the Samkhyan conception of prakṛti as a dynamic agent and Purusha as a passive witness. However, Samkhya and Tantra differed in their view on liberation. While Tantra sought to unite the male and female ontological realities, Samkhya held a withdrawal of consciousness from matter as the ultimate goal.<ref>{{harvnb|Kripal|1998|pages=148–149}}</ref>
According to Bagchi, the Samkhya Karika (in karika 70) identifies Sāmkhya as a [[Tantra]],<ref>{{harvnb|Bagchi|1989|page=6}}</ref> and its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the [[Tantras]] as a body of literature, as well as Tantra [[sadhana]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bagchi|1989|page=10}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Advaita Vedanta]] of [[Adi Shankara]]
* [[Darshanas]]
* [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|Dualism]]
* [[Hinduism]]
* [[Linga sarira]]
* [[Ratha Kalpana]]
* [[Khyativada]]
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}
== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}
==Sources==
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{{refend}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Mikel Burley|title=Classical Samkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3B9AgAAQBAJ|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-15978-9}}
*{{cite book |author=Jeaneane D. Fowler|title=Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C&pg=PA160|year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-898723-93-6|chapter=Chapter Six: '''Samkhya'''}}
* {{cite book|last1=Hulin|first1=Michel|title=Sāṃkhya Literature|date=1978|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3447018999}}
* {{cite book | author=Gerald James Larson|title=Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ih2aGLp4d1gC |year=2001 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0503-3}}
* {{cite book | last = Müeller | first = Max | authorlink= Max Müller |year = 1919 | title = Six Systems of Indian Philosophy | url=https://archive.org/stream/sixsystemsofindi005498mbp#page/n7/mode/2up }}
== External links ==
* {{cite IEP |url-id=sankhya |title=Samkhya}}
* [http://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/xhome.htm Bibliography of scholarly works: see [S] for Samkhya] by Karl Potter, University of Washington
* [https://faculty.franklin.uga.edu/kirkland/sites/faculty.franklin.uga.edu.kirkland/files/YOGA.pdf Samkhya and Yoga: An Introduction], Russell Kirkland, University of Georgia
* [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1398096 Classical Sāmkhya and the Phenomenological Ontology of Jean-Paul Sartre], Gerald J. Larson, Philosophy East and West
* [http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~djones/documents/Samkhya.pdf PDF file of Ishwarkrishna's Sankhyakarika], in English
* [http://www.ochs.org.uk/lectures/by-topic/251 Lectures on Samkhya], The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford University
{{Hindudharma}}
{{Indian Philosophy}}
[[Category:Philosophical traditions]]
[[Category:Ancient philosophical schools and traditions]]
[[Category:Philosophical schools and traditions]]
[[Category:Hindu philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Hindu philosophy]]
[[Category:Samkhya]]
[[Category:Indian philosophy]]
[[Category:Āstika]]' |
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The existence of God or supreme being is not directly asserted, nor considered relevant by the Samkhya philosophers. Sāṃkhya [[teleology|denies]] the [[Four causes#Final cause|final cause]] of [[Ishvara]] (God).{{sfn|Dasgupta|1922|page=258}} While the Samkhya school considers the [[Vedas]] as a reliable source of knowledge, it is an atheistic philosophy according to [[Paul Deussen]] and other scholars.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, page 39</ref><ref name=lpfl>Lloyd Pflueger, Person Purity and Power in Yogasutra, in Theory and Practice of Yoga (Editor: Knut Jacobsen), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120832329, pages 38-39</ref> A key difference between Samkhya and Yoga schools, state scholars,<ref name=lpfl/><ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, page 39, 41</ref> is that Yoga school accepts a "personal, yet essentially inactive, deity" or "personal god".<ref>Kovoor T. Behanan (2002), Yoga: Its Scientific Basis, Dover, ISBN 978-0486417929, pages 56-58</ref>
-Samkhya is known for its theory of [[guṇa]]s (qualities, innate tendencies).<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 154-206</ref> Guṇa, it states, are of three types: ''sattva'' being good, compassionate, illuminating, positive, and constructive; ''rajas'' is one of activity, chaotic, passion, impulsive, potentially good or bad; and ''tamas'' being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destructive, lethargic, negative. Everything, all life forms and human beings, state Samkhya scholars, have these three guṇas, but in different proportions. The interplay of these guṇas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life.<ref name=jamesg>James G. Lochtefeld, Guna, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, Vol. 1, Rosen Publishing, ISBN 9780823931798, page 265</ref><ref>T Bernard (1999), ''Hindu Philosophy'', Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1373-1, pages 74–76</ref> The Samkhya theory of guṇas was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies, including [[Buddhism]].<ref>Alex Wayman (1962), Buddhist Dependent Origination and the Samkhya gunas, Ethnos, Volume 27, Issue 1-4, pages 14-22, {{doi|10.1080/00141844.1962.9980914}}</ref> Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.<ref name=royper/>
+Samkhya is known for its theory of [[guṇa]]s (qualities, innate tendencies).<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 154-206</ref> Guṇa, it states, are of three types: ''sattva'' being good, compassionate, illuminating, positive, and constructive; ''rajas'' is one of activity, chaotic, passion, impulsive, potentially good or bad; and ''tamas'' being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destructive, lethargic, negative. Everything, all life formhhhvggggggggggggggghhhhs and human beings, state Samkhya scholars, have these three guṇas, but in different proportions. The interplay of these guṇas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life.<ref name=jamesg>James G. Lochtefeld, Guna, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, Vol. 1, Rosen Publishing, ISBN 9780823931798, page 265</ref><ref>T Bernard (1999), ''Hindu Philosophy'', Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1373-1, pages 74–76</ref> The Samkhya theory of guṇas was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies, including [[Buddhism]].<ref>Alex Wayman (1962), Buddhist Dependent Origination and the Samkhya gunas, Ethnos, Volume 27, Issue 1-4, pages 14-22, {{doi|10.1080/00141844.1962.9980914}}</ref> Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.<ref name=royper/>
==Etymology==
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0 => 'Samkhya is known for its theory of [[guṇa]]s (qualities, innate tendencies).<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 154-206</ref> Guṇa, it states, are of three types: ''sattva'' being good, compassionate, illuminating, positive, and constructive; ''rajas'' is one of activity, chaotic, passion, impulsive, potentially good or bad; and ''tamas'' being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destructive, lethargic, negative. Everything, all life formhhhvggggggggggggggghhhhs and human beings, state Samkhya scholars, have these three guṇas, but in different proportions. The interplay of these guṇas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life.<ref name=jamesg>James G. Lochtefeld, Guna, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, Vol. 1, Rosen Publishing, ISBN 9780823931798, page 265</ref><ref>T Bernard (1999), ''Hindu Philosophy'', Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1373-1, pages 74–76</ref> The Samkhya theory of guṇas was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies, including [[Buddhism]].<ref>Alex Wayman (1962), Buddhist Dependent Origination and the Samkhya gunas, Ethnos, Volume 27, Issue 1-4, pages 14-22, {{doi|10.1080/00141844.1962.9980914}}</ref> Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.<ref name=royper/>'
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0 => 'Samkhya is known for its theory of [[guṇa]]s (qualities, innate tendencies).<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 154-206</ref> Guṇa, it states, are of three types: ''sattva'' being good, compassionate, illuminating, positive, and constructive; ''rajas'' is one of activity, chaotic, passion, impulsive, potentially good or bad; and ''tamas'' being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destructive, lethargic, negative. Everything, all life forms and human beings, state Samkhya scholars, have these three guṇas, but in different proportions. The interplay of these guṇas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life.<ref name=jamesg>James G. Lochtefeld, Guna, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, Vol. 1, Rosen Publishing, ISBN 9780823931798, page 265</ref><ref>T Bernard (1999), ''Hindu Philosophy'', Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1373-1, pages 74–76</ref> The Samkhya theory of guṇas was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies, including [[Buddhism]].<ref>Alex Wayman (1962), Buddhist Dependent Origination and the Samkhya gunas, Ethnos, Volume 27, Issue 1-4, pages 14-22, {{doi|10.1080/00141844.1962.9980914}}</ref> Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.<ref name=royper/>'
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{{Hindu philosophy}}
'''Samkhya''' or '''Sankhya''' ({{lang-sa|[[:wikt:सांख्य|सांख्य]]}}, [[IAST]]: ''{{IAST|sāṃkhya}}'') is one of the six [[Āstika and nāstika|āstika]] (orthodox) schools of [[Hindu philosophy]].<ref>Knut Jacobsen, Theory and Practice of Yoga, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120832329, pages 100-101</ref><ref>"Samkhya", American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition (2011), Quote: "'''Samkhya is a system of Hindu philosophy based on a dualism involving the ultimate principles of soul and matter.'''"</ref><ref>"Samkhya", Webster’s College Dictionary (2010), Random House, ISBN 978-0375407413, Quote: "'''Samkhya is a system of Hindu philosophy stressing the reality and duality of spirit and matter'''."</ref> It is most related to the [[Yoga (philosophy)|Yoga]] school of [[Hinduism]], and it was influential on other schools of Indian philosophy.<ref name=royper>Roy Perrett, Indian Ethics: Classical traditions and contemporary challenges, Volume 1 (Editor: P Bilimoria et al), Ashgate, ISBN 978-0754633013, pages 149-158</ref> Sāmkhya is an enumerationist philosophy whose [[epistemology]] accepts three of six [[pramana]]s (proofs) as the only reliable means of gaining knowledge. These include ''pratyakṣa'' (perception), ''anumāṇa'' (inference) and ''śabda'' (''āptavacana'', word/testimony of reliable sources).<ref name="Lpage9"/><ref name=eliottjag/><ref name=jag>John A. Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791430675, page 238</ref> Sometimes described as one of the [[rationalism|rationalist]] school of [[Indian philosophy]], this ancient school's reliance on reason was neither exclusive nor strong.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 43-46</ref><ref>David Kalupahana (1995), Ethics in Early Buddhism, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0824817022, page 8, Quote: The rational argument is identified with the method of '''Samkhya, a rationalist school,''' upholding the view that "nothing comes out of nothing" or that "being cannot be non-being".</ref>
Samkhya is strongly [[dualism|dualist]].<ref>{{harvnb|Michaels|2004|page=264}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Sen Gupta|1986|page=6}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|Moore|1957|page=89}}</ref> Sāmkhya philosophy regards the universe as consisting of two realities; [[purusha|puruṣa]] (consciousness) and [[prakṛti]] (matter). [[Jiva]] (a living being) is that state in which puruṣa is bonded to prakṛti in some form.<ref name=sambri/> This fusion, state the Samkhya scholars, led to the emergence of ''buddhi'' ("intellect") and ''ahaṅkāra'' (ego consciousness). The universe is described by this school as one created by purusa-prakṛti entities infused with various permutations and combinations of variously enumerated elements, senses, feelings, activity and mind.<ref name=sambri>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/520526/Samkhya Samkhya - Hinduism] Encyclopedia Britannica (2014)</ref> During the state of imbalance, one of more constituents overwhelm the others, creating a form of bondage, particularly of the mind. The end of this imbalance, bondage is called liberation, or [[kaivalya]], by the Samkhya school.<ref name="Gerald James Larson 2011 pages 36-47">Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 36-47</ref>
The existence of God or supreme being is not directly asserted, nor considered relevant by the Samkhya philosophers. Sāṃkhya [[teleology|denies]] the [[Four causes#Final cause|final cause]] of [[Ishvara]] (God).{{sfn|Dasgupta|1922|page=258}} While the Samkhya school considers the [[Vedas]] as a reliable source of knowledge, it is an atheistic philosophy according to [[Paul Deussen]] and other scholars.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, page 39</ref><ref name=lpfl>Lloyd Pflueger, Person Purity and Power in Yogasutra, in Theory and Practice of Yoga (Editor: Knut Jacobsen), Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120832329, pages 38-39</ref> A key difference between Samkhya and Yoga schools, state scholars,<ref name=lpfl/><ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, page 39, 41</ref> is that Yoga school accepts a "personal, yet essentially inactive, deity" or "personal god".<ref>Kovoor T. Behanan (2002), Yoga: Its Scientific Basis, Dover, ISBN 978-0486417929, pages 56-58</ref>
Samkhya is known for its theory of [[guṇa]]s (qualities, innate tendencies).<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 154-206</ref> Guṇa, it states, are of three types: ''sattva'' being good, compassionate, illuminating, positive, and constructive; ''rajas'' is one of activity, chaotic, passion, impulsive, potentially good or bad; and ''tamas'' being the quality of darkness, ignorance, destructive, lethargic, negative. Everything, all life formhhhvggggggggggggggghhhhs and human beings, state Samkhya scholars, have these three guṇas, but in different proportions. The interplay of these guṇas defines the character of someone or something, of nature and determines the progress of life.<ref name=jamesg>James G. Lochtefeld, Guna, in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M, Vol. 1, Rosen Publishing, ISBN 9780823931798, page 265</ref><ref>T Bernard (1999), ''Hindu Philosophy'', Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1373-1, pages 74–76</ref> The Samkhya theory of guṇas was widely discussed, developed and refined by various schools of Indian philosophies, including [[Buddhism]].<ref>Alex Wayman (1962), Buddhist Dependent Origination and the Samkhya gunas, Ethnos, Volume 27, Issue 1-4, pages 14-22, {{doi|10.1080/00141844.1962.9980914}}</ref> Samkhya's philosophical treatises also influenced the development of various theories of Hindu ethics.<ref name=royper/>
==Etymology==
''Samkhya'' (सांख्य), also referred to as ''Sankhya'', ''Sāṃkhya'', or ''Sāṅkhya'', is a [[Sanskrit grammar|Sanskrit word]] that, depending on the context, means "to reckon, count, enumerate, calculate, deliberate, reason, reasoning by numeric enumeration, relating to number, rational."<ref>[http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/MWScan/tamil/index.html saMkhya] Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Cologne Digital Sanskrit Lexicon, Germany</ref> In the context of ancient Indian philosophies, ''Samkhya'' refers to the philosophical school in Hinduism based on systematic enumeration and rational examination.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 47-48</ref>
== Historical development ==
The word ''samkhya'' means ''empirical'' or ''relating to numbers''.<ref name="harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664">{{harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664}}</ref> Although the term had been used in the general sense of ''metaphysical knowledge'' before,<ref>{{harvnb|Bhattacharyya|1975|pages=419–20}}</ref> in technical usage it refers to the Samkhya school of thought that evolved into a cohesive philosophical system in early centuries CE.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=4, 38, 288}}</ref> The Samkhya system is called so because "it 'enumerates' twenty five ''Tattvas'' or true principles; and its chief object is to effect the final emancipation of the twenty-fifth Tattva, i.e. the puruṣa or soul."<ref name="harvnb|Apte|1957|page=1664"/>
===Origins===
[[File:Amsuman and Kapila.jpg|thumb|King Amsuman and the yogic sage [[Kapila]].]]
Some 19th and 20th century scholars suggested that Samkhya may have non-Vedic origins. Richard Garbe stated in 1898, "The origin of the Sankhya system appears in the proper light only when we understand that in those regions of India which were little influenced by Brahmanism the first attempt had been made to solve the riddles of the world and of our existence merely by means of reason. For the Sankhya philosophy is, in its essence, not only atheistic but also inimical to the Veda."<ref>{{cite book|title=Aniruddha's Commentary and the original parts of Vedantin Mahadeva's commentary on the Sankhya Sutras Translated, with an introduction to the age and origin of the Sankhya system|author=Richard Garbe|pages=xx-xxi|year=1892}}</ref> Dandekar, similarly wrote in 1968, "The origin of the Sankhya is to be traced to the pre-Vedic non-Aryan thought complex".<ref>{{cite book|title='God in Indian Philosophy' in Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute|author=R.N. Dandekar|pages=444|year=1968}}</ref>
Some scholars disagreed with this view. Arthur Keith, for example in 1925, stated, "Samkhya owes its origin to the Vedic-Upanisadic-epic heritage is quite evident,"<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 31-32</ref> and "Samkhya is most naturally derived out of the speculations in the Vedas, Brahmanas and the Upanishads."<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 29</ref>
Johnston in 1937, analyzed then available Hindu and Buddhist texts for the origins of Samkhya, then wrote "the origin lay in the analysis of the individual undertaken in the [[Brahmanas]] and earliest [[Upanishads]], at first with a view to assuring the efficacy of the sacrificial rites and later in order to discover the meaning of salvation in the religious sense and the methods of attaining it. Here – in [[Kaushitaki Upanishad]] and [[Chandogya Upanishad]] – the germ are to be found (of) two of the main ideas of classical Samkhya."<ref>EH Johnston (1937), Early Samkhya: An Essay on its Historical Development according to the Texts, The Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Volume XV, pages 80-81</ref>
More recent scholarship offers another perspective. Ruzsa in 2006,{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}} for example, states, "Sāṅkhya has a very long history. Its roots go deeper than textual traditions allow us to see. The ancient Buddhist Aśvaghoṣa (in his Buddha-Carita) describes Arāḍa Kālāma, the teacher of the young Buddha (ca. 420 B.C.E.) as following an archaic form of Sāṅkhya."{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}}
[[A. K. Warder|Anthony Warder]] in 2009, summarizes that Samkhya and [[Mīmāṃsā]] schools appear to have been established before Sramana traditions in India (~500 BCE), and he traces Samkhya origins to be Vedic. Samkhya, writes Warder, "has indeed been suggested to be non-Brahmanical and even anti-Vedic in origin, but there is no tangible evidence for that except that it is very different than most Vedic speculation – but that is (itself) quite inconclusive. Speculations in the direction of the Samkhya can be found in the early Upanishads."<ref>Anthony Kennedy Warder (2009), A Course in Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120812444, pages 63-65</ref>
Mikel Burley in 2012, writes Richard Garbe's 19th century view on Samkhya's origin are weak and implausible.<ref>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 37-38</ref> Burley states that India's religio-cultural heritage is complicated, and likely experienced a non-linear development.<ref name=burleyorigins/> Samkhya is not necessarily non-Vedic nor pre-Vedic, nor a "reaction to Brahmanic hegemony", states Burley.<ref name=burleyorigins/> It is most plausibly, in its origins a lineage that grew and evolved from a combination of ascetic traditions and Vedic "''guru'' (teacher) and disciples". Burley suggests the link between Samkhya and Yoga as likely root of this evolutionary origin during the Vedic era of India.<ref name=burleyorigins>Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415648875, pages 37-39</ref>
Between 1938 and 1969, two previously unknown manuscript editions of ''Yuktidipika'' were discovered and published.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> ''Yuktidipika'' is an ancient review and has emerged as the most important commentary on ''Samkhyakarika'' – itself an ancient key text of the Samkhya school.<ref name=larsonyukti/> This discovery and recent scholarship<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> by Paul Hacker and others suggests Samkhya with well established [[epistemology]], [[ontology]] and [[cosmology]] existed earlier than previously thought, sometime in the 1st millennium BCE and that many more ancient scholars contributed to the origins of Samkhya in ancient India, than were previously known. However, almost nothing is preserved about the centuries when these ancient Samkhya scholars lived.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/> Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state that the newly discovered literature hints, but does not conclusively prove, that Samkhya may be the oldest school of Indian philosophy, one that evolved over time and influenced major schools, as well as Buddhism and [[Jainism]].<ref name=larsonbhatpotter>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 3-11</ref> These scholars place the earliest references to Samkhya ideas in the Vedic period literature of India (~1500 BCE to ~400 BCE).<ref name=larsonyukti>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 3-4</ref>
===Founders===
Sage Kapila is traditionally credited as a founder of the Samkhya school.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|page=149}}</ref> However, it is unclear in which century of 1st millennium BCE Kapila lived.<ref name=geraldl>Gerald James Larson and Ram Shankar Bhattacharya, The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 107-109</ref> Kapila appears in [[Rigveda]], but context suggests that the word means "reddish-brown color". Both Kapila as a "seer" and the term ''Samkhya'' appear in hymns of section 5.2 in [[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]] (~300 BCE), suggesting Kapila's and Samkhya philosophy's origins may predate it. Numerous other ancient Indian texts mention Kapila; for example, Baudhayana Grhyasutra in chapter IV.16.1 describes a system of rules for ascetic life credited to Kapila, called ''Kapila Sannyasa Vidha''.<ref name=geraldl/> A 6th century CE Chinese translation and other texts consistently state Kapila as an [[Sannyasa|ascetic]] and the founder of the school, mention Asuri as the inheritor of the teaching, and a much later scholar named Pancasikha as the scholar who systematized it and then helped widely disseminate its ideas. Isvarakrsna is identified in these texts as the one who summarized and simplified Samkhya theories of Pancasikha, many centuries later (roughly 4th or 5th century CE), in the form that was then translated into Chinese by Paramartha in the 6th century CE.<ref name=geraldl/>
===Emergence as a distinct philosophy===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=In the beginning this was Self alone, in the shape of a person (puruṣa). He looking around saw nothing but his Self ([[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]]). He first said, "This is I", therefore he became I by name.|salign = right
|source =—Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.1<ref>Max Muller, [https://ia800307.us.archive.org/22/items/SacredBooksEastVariousOrientalScholarsWithIndex.50VolsMaxMuller/15.SacredBooksEast.VarOrSch.v15.Muller.Hindu.Mull.Upanishads.p2.KathMundTait..Mait.Oxf.1884._text.pdf Brihadaranyaka Upanishad], Oxford University Press, page 85</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|1953|page=163}}</ref>}}
The early texts of the Vedic period,<ref>such as Rg Veda 1.164, 10.90 and 10.129; see GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, page 5</ref> contain references to elements of Samkhya philosophy. However, the Samkhya ideas had not distilled and congealed into a distinct, complete philosophy.<ref name=larsonyukti/> The early, proto-Samkhya phase was followed by early Upanishads, about 800 to 700 BCE, wherein ascetic spirituality and monastic (''sramana'' and ''yati'') traditions came in vogue in India. It is in this period, state Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter, that ancient scholars combined proto-Samkhya ideas with a systematic methodology of reasoning (epistemology) and began distilling concepts of spiritual knowledge (''vidya, jnana, viveka''), making Samkhya a more emerging, comprehensive philosophy.<ref name=larsonchandogya>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 4-5</ref> These developing ideas are found in texts such as the [[Chandogya Upanishad]].<ref name=larsonchandogya/>
Sometime about the 5th century BCE, Samkhya thought from various sources started coalescing into a distinct, complete philosophy.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} Philosophical texts such as the [[Katha Upanishad]] in verses 3.10-13 and 6.7-11 describe a well defined concept of puruṣa and other concepts of Samkhya,<ref name=pauldeussen>[[Paul Deussen]], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814684, pages 273, 288-289, 298-299</ref> The ''Shvetashvatara Upanishad'' in chapter 6.13 describes Samkhya with Yoga philosophy, and Bhagavad Gita in book 2 provides axiological implications of Samkhya, therewith providing textual evidence of Samkhyan terminology and concepts.<ref name="Burley2">{{harvnb|Burley|2006|pages=15–18}}</ref> Katha Upanishad conceives the Purusha (cosmic spirit, consciousness) as same as the individual soul ([[Ātman (Hinduism)|Ātman]], Self).<ref name=pauldeussen/><ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=96}}</ref> The ''Mokshadharma'' chapter of [[Shanti Parva]] (Book of Peace) in the Mahabharata epic, composed between 400 BCE to 400 CE, explains Samkhya ideas along with other extant philosophies, and then lists numerous scholars in recognition of their philosophical contributions to various Indian traditions, and therein at least three Samkhya scholars can be recognized – Kapila, Asuri and Pancasikha.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/><ref>Mircea Eliade et al (2009), Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691142036, pages 392-393</ref> The 12th chapter of the Buddhist text ''Buddhacarita'' suggests Samkhya philosophical tools of reliable reasoning were well formed by about 5th century BCE.<ref name=larsonbhatpotter/>
Samkhya and [[Yoga]] are mentioned together for first time in chapter 6.13 of the Shvetashvatra Upanishad,<ref name="Burley2"/> as ''samkhya-yoga-adhigamya'' (literally, "to be understood by proper reasoning and spiritual discipline").<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 6-7</ref> [[Bhagavad Gita]] identifies Samkhya with understanding or knowledge.<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=34}}</ref> The three gunas are also mentioned in the Gita, though they are not used in the same sense as in classical Samkhya.<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=37}}</ref> The Gita integrates Samkhya thought with the devotion ([[bhakti]]) of theistic schools and the impersonal [[Brahman]] of [[Vedanta]].<ref name="King1">{{harvnb|King|1999|page=63}}</ref>
According to Ruzsa, about 2,000 years ago "Sāṅkhya became the representative philosophy of Hindu thought in Hindu circles",{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}} influencing all strands of the Hindu tradition and Hindu texts.{{sfn|Ruzsa|2006}}
===Vedic influences===
The ideas that were developed and assimilated into the classical Samkhya text, the ''[[Samkhyakarika|Sāṅkhyakārikā]]'', are visible in earlier Hindu scriptures such as the Vedas, the [[Upanishads]] and the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]''.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Larson|1998|p=75}} The earliest mention of dualism is in the ''[[Rigveda]]'', a text that was compiled in the second millennium BCE.,{{sfn|Singh|2008|page=185}} in various chapters.
{{Quote box |width=26em | bgcolor=#FFE0BB |align=right |salign = right
|quote=[[Nasadiya Sukta]] (Hymn of non-Eternity, origin of universe):
There was neither non-existence nor existence then;<br />
Neither the realm of space, nor the sky which is beyond;<br />
What stirred? Where? In whose protection?
There was neither death nor immortality then;<br />
No distinguishing sign of night nor of day;<br />
That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse;<br />
Other than that there was nothing beyond.
Darkness there was at first, by darkness hidden;<br />
Without distinctive marks, this all was water;<br />
That which, becoming, by the void was covered;<br />
That One by force of heat came into being;
Who really knows? Who will here proclaim it?<br />
Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?<br/>
Gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.<br/>
Who then knows whence it has arisen?
Whether God's will created it, or whether He was mute;<br />
Perhaps it formed itself, or perhaps it did not;<br />
Only He who is its overseer in highest heaven knows,<br />
Only He knows, or perhaps He does not know.
|source =—''[[Rigveda]]'' 10.129 (Abridged, Tr: Kramer / Christian)<ref name=3translations>
*Original Sanskrit: [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१०.१२९ Rigveda 10.129] Wikisource;
*'''Translation 1''': {{cite book|author=[[Max Muller]]|title=A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature|date=1859|publisher=Williams and Norgate, London|url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofancient00mluoft#page/564/mode/2up|pages=559–565}}
*'''Translation 2''': {{cite book|author=Kenneth Kramer|title=World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative Religions|date=1986|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=0-8091-2781-4|page=21}}
*'''Translation 3''': {{cite book|author=David Christian|title=Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History|date=2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95067-2|pages=17–18}}</ref> This hymn is one of the roots of the Samkhya.<ref name=lbprigveda/>}}
At a mythical level, dualism is found in the [[Indra]]–[[Vritra]] myth of chapter 1.32 of the Rigveda.{{sfn|Larson|1998|page=79}} Enumeration, the etymological root of the word Samkhya, is found in numerous chapters of the Rigveda, such as 1.164, 10.90 and 10.129.<ref name=lbprigveda>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 5-6, 109-110, 180</ref> Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state that the likely roots of philosophical premises, spirit-matter dualism, meditative themes and religious cosmology in Samkhya philosophy are in the hymns of 1.164 (Riddle Hymns) and 10.129 (Nasadiya Hymns).<ref name=lbprigveda/> However these hymns present only the outline of ideas, not specific Samkhya theories and these theories developed in a much later period.<ref name=lbprigveda/>
The Riddle hymns of the Rigveda, famous for their numerous enumerations, structural language symmetry within the verses and the chapter, enigmatic word play with [[anagram]]s that symbolically portray parallelism in rituals and the cosmos, nature and the inner life of man.<ref name=jamison1164>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-359</ref> This hymn includes enumeration (counting) as well as a series of dual concepts cited by early Upanishads . For example, the hymns 1.164.2 - 1.164-3 mention "seven" multiple times, which in the context of other chapters of Rigveda have been interpreted as referring to both seven priests at a ritual and seven constellations in the sky, the entire hymn is a riddle that paints a ritual as well as the sun, moon, earth, three seasons, the transitory nature of living beings, the passage of time and spirit.<ref name=jamison1164/><ref>William Mahony (1997), The Artful Universe: An Introduction to the Vedic Religious Imagination, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791435809, pages 245-250</ref>
{{Quote|
<poem>
Seven to the one-wheeled chariot yoke the Courser; bearing seven names the single Courser draws it.
Three-naved the wheel is, sound and undecaying, whereon are resting all these worlds of being.
The seven [priests] who on the seven-wheeled car are mounted have horses, seven in tale, who draw them onward.
Seven Sisters utter songs of praise together, in whom the names of the seven Cows are treasured.
Who hath beheld him as he [Sun/Agni] sprang to being, seen how the boneless One [spirit] supports the bony [body]?
Where is the blood of earth, the life, the spirit? Who will approach the one who knows, to ask this?
</poem>
|Rigveda 1.164.2 - 1.164.4|<ref>Original Sanskrit: सप्त युञ्जन्ति रथमेकचक्रमेको अश्वो वहति सप्तनामा । त्रिनाभि चक्रमजरमनर्वं यत्रेमा विश्वा भुवनाधि तस्थुः ॥२॥ इमं रथमधि ये सप्त तस्थुः सप्तचक्रं सप्त वहन्त्यश्वाः । सप्त स्वसारो अभि सं नवन्ते यत्र गवां निहिता सप्त नाम ॥३॥ [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१.१६४ Wikisource]<br />English Translation 1: Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-359<br />English Translation 2: [[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref>}}
The chapter 1.164 asks a number of metaphysical questions, such as "what is the One in the form of the Unborn that created the six realms of the world?".<ref>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, pages 349-355</ref><ref>[[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda 1.164.6]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref> Dualistic philosophical speculations then follow in chapter 1.164 of the Rigveda, particularly in the well studied "allegory of two birds" hymn (1.164.20 - 1.164.22), a hymn that is referred to in the [[Mundaka Upanishad]] and other texts .<ref name=jamison1164/><ref name=lbprigveda295>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 5, 295-296</ref><ref>Ram Nidumolu (2013), Two Birds in a Tree, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN 978-1609945770, page 189</ref> The two birds in this hymn have been interpreted to mean various forms of dualism: "the sun and the moon", the "two seekers of different kinds of knowledge", and "the body and the atman".<ref>Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, page 352</ref><ref>Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (2005), Logos of Phenomenology and Phenomenology of The Logos, Springer, ISBN 978-1402037061, pages 186-193 with footnote 7</ref>
{{Quote|
<poem>
Two Birds with fair wings, knit with bonds of friendship, embrace the same tree.
One of the twain eats the sweet fig; the other not eating keeps watch.
Where those fine Birds hymn ceaselessly their portion of life eternal, and the sacred synods,
There is the Universe's mighty Keeper, who, wise, hath entered into me the simple.
The tree on which the fine Birds eat the sweetness, where they all rest and procreate their offspring,
Upon its top they say the fig is sweetest, he who does not know the Father will not reach it.
</poem>
|Rigveda 1.164.20 - 1.164.22|<ref>Original Sanskrit: द्वा सुपर्णा सयुजा सखाया समानं वृक्षं परि षस्वजाते । तयोरन्यः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वत्त्यनश्नन्नन्यो अभि चाकशीति ॥२०॥ यत्रा सुपर्णा अमृतस्य भागमनिमेषं विदथाभिस्वरन्ति । इनो विश्वस्य भुवनस्य गोपाः स मा धीरः पाकमत्रा विवेश ॥२१॥ यस्मिन्वृक्षे मध्वदः सुपर्णा निविशन्ते सुवते चाधि विश्वे । तस्येदाहुः पिप्पलं स्वाद्वग्रे तन्नोन्नशद्यः पितरं न वेद ॥२२॥ [https://sa.wikisource.org/wiki/ऋग्वेद:_सूक्तं_१.१६४ Wikisource]<br />English Translation 1: Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton (2014), The Rigveda, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0199370184, page 356<br />English Translation 2: [[Wikisource:The Rig Veda/Mandala 1/Hymn 164|Rigveda 1.164 -22]] Ralph Griffith (Translator), Wikisource</ref>}}
The emphasis of duality between existence (sat) and non-existence (asat) in the [[Nasadiya Sukta]] of the ''Rigveda'' is similar to the vyakta–[[avyakta]] (manifest–unmanifest) polarity in Samkhya. The hymns about Puruṣa may also have influenced Samkhya.{{sfn|Larson|1998|pp=59, 79–81}} The Samkhya notion of buddhi or mahat is similar to the notion of [[hiranyagarbha]], which appears in both the ''Rigveda'' and the ''[[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]]''.{{sfn|Larson|1998|p=82}}
===Upanishadic influences===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=Higher than the senses, stand the objects of senses. Higher than objects of senses, stands mind. Higher than mind, stands intellect. Higher than intellect, stands the great self. Higher than the great self, stands ''Avyaktam''. Higher than ''Avyaktam'', stands Purusha. Higher than this, there is nothing. He is the final goal and the highest point. In all beings, dwells this Purusha, as Atman (soul), invisible, concealed. He is only seen by the keenest thought, by the sublest of those thinkers who see into the subtle.|salign = right
|source =—Katha Upanishad 3.10-13<ref>[[Paul Deussen]], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120814684, pages 288-289</ref><ref>Michele Marie Desmarais (2008), Changing minds: Mind, Consciousness and Identity in Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120833364, page 25</ref>}}
The oldest of the [[Mukhya Upanishads|major Upanishads]] (c. 900–600 BCE) contain speculations along the lines of classical Samkhya philosophy.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} The concept of [[ahamkara]] in Samkhya can be traced back to the notion of ahamkara in chapters 1.2 and 1.4 of the [[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]] and chapter 7.25 of the ''[[Chāndogya Upaniṣad]]''.{{sfn|Burley|2006|pp=15–16}} Satkaryavada, the theory of causation in Samkhya, can be traced to the verses in sixth chapter which emphasize the primacy of sat (being) and describe creation from it. The idea that the three gunas or attributes influence creation is found in both Chandogya and [[Shvetashvatara Upanishad]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=82–84}}</ref> Upanishadic sages [[Yajnavalkya]] and [[Uddalaka Aruni]] developed the idea that pure consciousness was the innermost essence of a human being. The purusha of Samkhya could have evolved from this idea. The enumeration of [[tattva]]s in Samkhya is also found in [[Taittiriya Upanishad]], [[Aitareya Upanishad]] and Yajnavalkya–Maitri dialogue in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=88–90}}</ref>
===Buddhist and Jainist influences===
[[Buddhism]] and [[Jainism]] had developed in eastern India by the 5th century BCE. It is probable that these schools of thought and the earliest schools of Samkhya influenced each other. A prominent similarity between Buddhism and Samkhya is the greater emphasis on suffering ([[dukkha]]) as the foundation for their respective soteriological theories, than other Indian philosophies.<ref name=larson9193/> However, suffering appears central to Samkhya in its later literature, which suggests a likely Buddhism influence. Elaide, however, presents the alternate theory that Samkhya and Buddhism developed their soteriological theories over time, benefitting from their mutual influence.<ref name=larson9193/>
Likewise, the Jain doctrine of plurality of individual souls ([[jiva]]) could have influenced the concept of multiple purushas in Samkhya. However Hermann Jacobi, an Indologist, thinks that there is little reason to assume that Samkhya notion of Purushas was solely dependent on the notion of jiva in Jainism. It is more likely, that Samkhya was moulded by many ancient theories of soul in various Vedic and non-Vedic schools.<ref name=larson9193>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=91–93}}</ref>
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=This declared to you is the Yoga of the wisdom of Samkhya. Hear, now, of the integrated wisdom with which, Partha, you will cast off the bonds of karma. |salign = right
|source =—Bhagavad Gita 2.39<ref>{{harvnb|Fowler|2012|page=39}}</ref>}}
Larson, Bhattacharya and Potter state it to be likely that early Samkhya doctrines found in oldest Upanishads (~700-800 BCE) provided the contextual foundations and influenced Buddhist and Jaina doctrines, and these became contemporaneous, sibling intellectual movements with Samkhya and other schools of Hindu philosophy.<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 2-8, 114-116</ref> This is evidenced, for example, by the references to Samkhya in ancient and medieval era Jaina literature.<ref>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 6-7, 74-88, 113-122, 315-318</ref>
==Source material==
===Texts===
The earliest surviving authoritative text on classical Samkhya philosophy is the ''[[Samkhyakarika|Samkhya Karika]]'' (c. 200 CE{{sfn|Bagchi|1989}} or 350–450 CE<ref name="King1"/>) of Iśvarakṛṣṇa.<ref name="King1"/> There were probably other texts in early centuries CE, however none of them are available today.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=4}}</ref> Iśvarakṛṣṇa in his ''Kārikā'' describes a succession of the disciples from Kapila, through ''Āsuri and ''Pañcaśikha to himself. The text also refers to an earlier work of Samkhya philosophy called Ṣaṣṭitantra (science of sixty topics) which is now lost.<ref name="King1"/> The text was imported and translated into Chinese about the middle of the 6th century CE.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=147–149}}</ref> The records of [[Al Biruni]], the Persian visitor to India in the early 11th century, suggests Samkhyakarika was an established and definitive text in India in his times.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|pages=150–151}}</ref>
''Samkhyakarika'' includes distilled statements on epistemology, metaphysics and soteriology of the Samkhya school. For example, the fourth to sixth verses of the text states it epistemic premises,<ref name=henrysamkhya/>
{{Quote|
Perception, inference and right affirmation are admitted to be threefold proof; for they (are by all acknowledged, and) comprise every mode of demonstration. It is from proof that belief of that which is to be proven results.
Perception is ascertainment of particular objects. Inference, which is of three sorts, premises an argument, and deduces that which is argued by it. Right affirmation is true revelation (''Apta vacana'' and ''Sruti'', testimony of reliable source and the Vedas).
Sensible objects become known by perception; but it is by inference or reasoning that acquaintance with things transcending the senses is obtained. A truth which is neither to be directly perceived, nor to be inferred from reasoning, is deduced from ''Apta vacana'' and ''Sruti''.
|Samkhya Karika Verse 4–6|<ref name=henrysamkhya>[http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/37/1837_SankhyaKarikaHTColebrook.pdf Samkhyakarika of Iswara Krishna] Henry Colebrook (Translator), Oxford University Press, pages 18-27;<br> Sanskrit Original [https://archive.org/stream/SamkhyaKarikaGaudapada/sankhya_karika_gaudapada#page/n0/mode/2up Samkhya karika with Gaudapada Bhasya], Ashubodh Vidyabushanam, Kozhikode, Kerala</ref>}}
The most popular commentary on the Samkhyakarika was the Gauḍapāda Bhāṣya attributed to [[Gaudapada|Gauḍapāda]], the proponent of [[Advaita Vedanta]] school of philosophy. Richard King, Professor of Religious Studies, thinks it is unlikely that Gauḍapāda could have authored both texts, given the differences between the two philosophies. Other important commentaries on the karika were ''Yuktidīpīka'' (c. 6th century CE) and [[Vachaspati Misra|''Vācaspati''’s]] ''Sāṁkhyatattvakaumudī'' (c. 10th century CE).<ref>{{harvnb|King|1999|page=64}}</ref>
The ''[[Samkhyapravachana Sutra|Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra]]'' (c. 14th century CE) renewed interest in Samkhya in the medieval era. It is considered the second most important work of Samkhya after the karika.<ref>{{harvnb|Eliade|Trask|White|2009|page=370}}</ref> Commentaries on this text were written by Anirruddha (''Sāṁkhyasūtravṛtti'', c. 15th century CE), Vijñānabhikṣu (''Sāṁkhyapravacanabhāṣya'', c. 16th century CE), Mahādeva (vṛttisāra, c. 17th century CE) and Nāgeśa (''Laghusāṁkhyasūtravṛtti'').<ref>{{harvnb|Radhakrishnan|1923|pages=253–56}}</ref> According to [[Surendranath Dasgupta]], scholar of Indian philosophy, [[Charaka Samhita]], an ancient Indian medical treatise, also contains thoughts from an early Samkhya school.<ref>{{harvnb|Dasgupta|1922|pages=213–7}}</ref>
===Other sources===
The 13th century text ''Sarvadarsanasangraha'' contains 16 chapters, each devoted to a separate school of Indian philosophy. The 13th chapter in this book contains a description of the Samkhya philosophy.<ref>Cowell and Gough, p. 22.</ref>
===Lost textual references===
In his ''Studies in Samkhya Philosophy'', K.C. Bhattacharya writes: {{Quote|Much of Samkhya literature appears to have been lost, and there seems to be no continuity of tradition from ancient times to the age of the commentators...The interpretation of all ancient systems requires a constructive effort; but, while in the case of some systems where we have a large volume of literature and a continuity of tradition, the construction is mainly of the nature of translation of ideas into modern concepts, here in Samkhya the construction at many places involves supplying of missing links from one's imagination. It is risky work, but unless one does it one cannot be said to understand Samkhya as a philosophy. It is a task that one is obliged to undertake. It is a fascinating task because Samkhya is a bold constructive philosophy.<ref>{{cite book|title=Studies in Samkhya Philosophy, Volume 1|author=K.C. Bhattacharya|pages=127|year=1956}}</ref>}}
==Philosophy==
=== Epistemology ===
[[File:3 Pramana Epistemology Samkhya Yoga Hindu schools.svg|thumb|The Samkhya school considers perception, inference and reliable testimony as three reliable means to knowledge.<ref name="Lpage9"/><ref name=eliottjag/>]]
Samkhya considered ''Pratyakṣa'' or ''Dṛṣṭam'' (direct sense perception), ''Anumāna'' (inference), and ''Śabda'' or ''Āptavacana'' (verbal testimony of the sages or shāstras) to be the only valid means of knowledge or ''pramana''.<ref name="Lpage9">{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=9}}</ref> Unlike few other schools, Samkhya did not consider the following three ''pramanas'' as epistemically proper: ''Upamāṇa'' (comparison and analogy), ''Arthāpatti'' (postulation, deriving from circumstances) or ''Anupalabdi'' (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof) .<ref name=eliottjag/>
*'''''Pratyakṣa''''' (प्रत्यक्षाय) means perception. It is of two types in Hindu texts: external and internal. External perception is described as that arising from the interaction of five senses and worldly objects, while internal perception is described by this school as that of inner sense, the mind.<ref name=kamal>MM Kamal (1998), The Epistemology of the Carvaka Philosophy, Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 46(2): 13-16</ref><ref>B Matilal (1992), Perception: An Essay in Indian Theories of Knowledge, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198239765</ref> The ancient and medieval Indian texts identify four requirements for correct perception:<ref name=kpmat/> ''Indriyarthasannikarsa'' (direct experience by one's sensory organ(s) with the object, whatever is being studied), ''Avyapadesya'' (non-verbal; correct perception is not through [[hearsay]], according to ancient Indian scholars, where one's sensory organ relies on accepting or rejecting someone else's perception), ''Avyabhicara'' (does not wander; correct perception does not change, nor is it the result of deception because one's sensory organ or means of observation is drifting, defective, suspect) and ''Vyavasayatmaka'' (definite; correct perception excludes judgments of doubt, either because of one's failure to observe all the details, or because one is mixing inference with observation and observing what one wants to observe, or not observing what one does not want to observe).<ref name=kpmat>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 160-168</ref> Some ancient scholars proposed "unusual perception" as ''pramana'' and called it internal perception, a proposal contested by other Indian scholars. The internal perception concepts included ''pratibha'' (intuition), ''samanyalaksanapratyaksa'' (a form of induction from perceived specifics to a universal), and ''jnanalaksanapratyaksa'' (a form of perception of prior processes and previous states of a 'topic of study' by observing its current state).<ref>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 168-169</ref> Further, some schools considered and refined rules of accepting uncertain knowledge from ''Pratyakṣa-pranama'', so as to contrast ''nirnaya'' (definite judgment, conclusion) from ''anadhyavasaya'' (indefinite judgment).<ref>Karl Potter (1977), Meaning and Truth, in Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 2, Princeton University Press, Reprinted in 1995 by Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0309-4, pages 170-172</ref>
*'''''Anumāṇa''''' (अनुमान) means inference. It is described as reaching a new conclusion and truth from one or more observations and previous truths by applying reason.<ref>W Halbfass (1991), Tradition and Reflection, State University of New York Press, ISBN 0-7914-0362-9, page 26-27</ref> Observing smoke and inferring fire is an example of ''Anumana''.<ref name=kamal/> In all except one Hindu philosophies,<ref>Carvaka school is the exception</ref> this is a valid and useful means to knowledge. The method of inference is explained by Indian texts as consisting of three parts: ''pratijna'' (hypothesis), ''hetu'' (a reason), and ''drshtanta'' (examples).<ref name=jl4647>James Lochtefeld, "Anumana" in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Vol. 1: A-M, Rosen Publishing. ISBN 0-8239-2287-1, page 46-47</ref> The hypothesis must further be broken down into two parts, state the ancient Indian scholars: ''sadhya'' (that idea which needs to proven or disproven) and ''paksha'' (the object on which the ''sadhya'' is predicated). The inference is conditionally true if ''sapaksha'' (positive examples as evidence) are present, and if ''vipaksha'' (negative examples as counter-evidence) are absent. For rigor, the Indian philosophies also state further epistemic steps. For example, they demand ''Vyapti'' - the requirement that the ''hetu'' (reason) must necessarily and separately account for the inference in "all" cases, in both ''sapaksha'' and ''vipaksha''.<ref name=jl4647/><ref>Karl Potter (2002), Presuppositions of India's Philosophies, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0779-0</ref> A conditionally proven hypothesis is called a ''nigamana'' (conclusion).<ref>Monier Williams (1893), Indian Wisdom - Religious, Philosophical and Ethical Doctrines of the Hindus, Luzac & Co, London, page 61</ref>
*'''''Śabda''''' (शब्द) means relying on word, testimony of past or present reliable experts.<ref name=eliottjag>
*Eliott Deutsche (2000), in Philosophy of Religion : Indian Philosophy Vol 4 (Editor: Roy Perrett), Routledge, ISBN 978-0815336112, pages 245-248;
*John A. Grimes, A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791430675, page 238</ref><ref name=dpsb>DPS Bhawuk (2011), Spirituality and Indian Psychology (Editor: Anthony Marsella), Springer, ISBN 978-1-4419-8109-7, page 172</ref> Hiriyanna explains ''Sabda-pramana'' as a concept which means reliable expert testimony. The schools which consider it epistemically valid suggest that a human being needs to know numerous facts, and with the limited time and energy available, he can learn only a fraction of those facts and truths directly.<ref name=mhir>M. Hiriyanna (2000), The Essentials of Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120813304, page 43</ref> He must cooperate with others to rapidly acquire and share knowledge and thereby enrich each other's lives. This means of gaining proper knowledge is either spoken or written, but through ''Sabda'' (words).<ref name=mhir/> The reliability of the source is important, and legitimate knowledge can only come from the ''Sabda'' of reliable sources.<ref name=eliottjag/><ref name=mhir/> The disagreement between the schools has been on how to establish reliability. Some schools, such as [[Carvaka]], state that this is never possible, and therefore ''Sabda'' is not a proper ''pramana''. Other schools debate means to establish reliability.<ref>P. Billimoria (1988), Śabdapramāṇa: Word and Knowledge, Studies of Classical India Volume 10, Springer, ISBN 978-94-010-7810-8, pages 1-30</ref>
===Dualism===
While [[Western philosophy|Western philosophical traditions]], as exemplified by [[Rene Descartes|Descartes]], equate mind with the conscious self and theorize on consciousness on the basis of mind/body dualism; Samkhya provides an alternate viewpoint, intimately related to [[substance dualism]], by drawing a metaphysical line between consciousness and matter — where matter includes both body and mind.<ref>{{harvnb|Haney|2002|page=17}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Isaac|Dangwal|1997|page=339}}</ref>
The Samkhya system espouses [[Consciousness–matter dualism|dualism between consciousness and matter]] by postulating two "irreducible, innate and independent realities: puruṣa and [[prakṛti]]. While the prakṛti is a single entity, the Samkhya admits a plurality of the puruṣas in this world. Unintelligent, unmanifest, uncaused, ever-active, imperceptible and eternal prakṛti is alone the final source of the world of objects which is implicitly and potentially contained in its bosom. The puruṣa is considered as the conscious principle, a passive enjoyer (''bhokta'') and the prakṛti is the enjoyed (''bhogya''). Samkhya believes that the puruṣa cannot be regarded as the source of inanimate world, because an intelligent principle cannot transform itself into the unconscious world. It is a pluralistic spiritualism, atheistic realism and uncompromising dualism.<ref name="Sharma">{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|pages=149–68}}</ref>
====Puruṣa====
[[Purusha|Puruṣa]] is the transcendental self or pure consciousness. It is absolute, independent, free, imperceptible, unknowable through other agencies, above any experience by mind or senses and beyond any words or explanations. It remains pure, "nonattributive consciousness". puruṣa is neither produced nor does it produce. It is held that unlike [[Advaita Vedanta]] and like [[Purva-Mīmāṃsā]], Samkhya believes in plurality of the puruṣas.<ref>{{harvnb|Sharma|1997|pages=155–7}}</ref>
====Prakṛti====
[[File:Evolution in Samkhya.jpg|thumb|160px|Elements in Samkhya philosophy]]
Prakṛti is the first cause of the manifest material universe — of everything except the puruṣa. Prakṛti accounts for whatever is physical, both mind and matter-cum-energy or force. Since it is the first principle (''tattva'') of the universe, it is called the ''pradhāna,'' but, as it is the unconscious and unintelligent principle, it is also called the ''jaDa.'' It is composed of three essential characteristics (''triguna''s). These are:
*[[Sattva]] – poise, fineness, lightness, illumination, and joy;
*[[Rajas]] – dynamism, activity, excitation, and pain;
*[[Tamas (philosophy)|Tamas]] – inertia, coarseness, heaviness, obstruction, and sloth.<ref name="Sharma"/><ref>{{harvnb|Hiriyanna|1993|pages=270–2}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Chattopadhyaya|1986|pages=109–110}}</ref>
All physical events are considered to be manifestations of the evolution of ''prakṛti,'' or primal nature (from which all physical bodies are derived). Each sentient being or [[Jiva]] is a fusion of puruṣa and prakṛti, whose soul/puruṣa is limitless and unrestricted by its physical body. ''[[Samsara|Samsāra]]'' or bondage arises when the puruṣa does not have the discriminate knowledge and so is misled as to its own identity, confusing itself with the Ego/ahamkāra, which is actually an attribute of ''prakṛti.'' The spirit is liberated when the discriminate knowledge of the difference between conscious puruṣa and unconscious prakṛti is realized by the puruṣa.
The unconscious primordial materiality, prakṛti, contains 23 components including intellect ([[buddhi]],mahat), ego ([[ahamkara]]) and mind ([[Manas (early Buddhism)|manas]]); the intellect, mind and ego are all seen as forms of unconscious matter.<ref>{{harvnb|Haney|2002|page=42}}</ref> Thought processes and mental events are conscious only to the extent they receive illumination from Purusha. In Samkhya, consciousness is compared to light which illuminates the material configurations or 'shapes' assumed by the mind. So intellect, after receiving cognitive structures form the mind and illumination from pure consciousness, creates thought structures that appear to be conscious.<ref name="Isaac">{{harvnb|Isaac|Dangwal|1997|page=342}}</ref> Ahamkara, the ego or the phenomenal self, appropriates all mental experiences to itself and thus, personalizes the objective activities of mind and intellect by assuming possession of them.<ref>{{harvnb|Leaman|2000|page=68}}</ref> But consciousness is itself independent of the thought structures it illuminates.<ref name="Isaac"/>
By including mind in the realm of matter, Samkhya avoids one of the most serious pitfalls of Cartesian dualism, the violation of physical conservation laws. Because mind is an evolute of matter, mental events are granted causal efficacy and are therefore able to initiate bodily motions.<ref>{{harvnb|Leaman|2000|page=248}}</ref>
=== Evolution ===
The idea of evolution in Samkhya revolves around the interaction of prakṛti and Purusha. Prakṛti remains unmanifested as long as the three gunas are in equilibrium. This equilibrium of the gunas is disturbed when prakṛti comes into proximity with consciousness or Purusha. The disequilibrium of the gunas triggers an evolution that leads to the manifestation of the world from an unmanifested prakṛti.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=11}}</ref> The metaphor of movement of iron in the proximity of a magnet is used to describe this process.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|page=229}}</ref>
Some evolutes of prakṛti can cause further evolution and are labelled evolvents. For example, intellect while itself created out of prakṛti causes the evolution of ego-sense or ahamkara and is therefore an evolvent. While, other evolutes like the five elements do not cause further evolution.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|page=221}}</ref> It is important to note that an evolvent is defined as a principle which behaves as the material cause for the evolution of another principle. So, in definition, while the five elements are the material cause of all living beings, they cannot be called evolvents because living beings are not separate from the five elements in essence.<ref name="CG223">{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|pages=223}}</ref>
The intellect is the first evolute of prakṛti and is called mahat or the great one. It causes the evolution of ego-sense or self-consciousness. Evolution from self-consciousness is affected by the dominance of gunas. So dominance of sattva causes the evolution of the five organs of perception, five organs of action and the mind. Dominance of [[Tamas (Hinduism)|tamas]] triggers the evolution of five subtle elements– sound, touch, sight, taste, smell from self-consciousness. These five subtle elements are themselves evolvents and cause the creation of the five gross elements space, air, fire, water and earth. Rajas is cause of action in the evolutes.<ref>{{harvnb|Cowell|Gough|1882|pages=222}}</ref> Purusha is pure consciousness absolute, eternal and subject to no change. It is neither a product of evolution, nor the cause of any evolute.<ref name="CG223"/>
Evolution in Samkhya is thought to be purposeful. The two primary purposes of evolution of prakṛti are the enjoyment and the liberation of Purusha.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=12}}</ref> The 23 evolutes of prakṛti are categorized as follows:<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=8}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center; width: auto;"
|-
! {{rh}} | Primordial matter
| prakṛti
| Root evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | Internal instruments
| Intellect (Buddhi or Mahat), Ego-sense (Ahamkāra), Mind (Manas)
| Evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | External instruments
| Five [[Sense organs#Traditional senses|Sense organs]] (Jnānendriyas), Five [[Human Body – 96 Constituent principles or Tatwas of Siddha Medicine#Five Motor Organs .285 - Kanmenthiriyam.29|Organs of action]] (Karmendriyas)
| Evolute
|-
! {{rh}} | Subtle elements
| Sound (Shabda), Touch (Sparsha), Form (Rupa), Taste (Rasa), Smell (Gandha)
| Evolvent
|-
! {{rh}} | [[Mahābhūta|Gross elements]]
| Ether (Ākāsh), Air (Vāyu), Fire (Agni), Water (Jala), Earth (Prithvi)
| Evolute
|}
===Liberation or mokṣa===
{{Quote box |width=20em | bgcolor=#c6dbf7 |align=right |quote=The Supreme Good is mokṣa which consists in the permanent impossibility of the incidence of pain... in the realisation of the Self as Self pure and simple. |salign = right
|source =—Samkhyakarika I.3<ref>{{harvnb|Sinha|2012|page=App. VI,1}}</ref>}}
Samkhya school considers [[moksha]] as a natural quest of every soul. The [[Samkhyakarika]] states,
{{Quote|
<poem>
As the unconscious milk functions for the sake of nourishment of the calf,
so the Prakriti functions for the sake of moksha of the spirit.
</poem>
|Samkhya karika|Verse 57<ref>Gerald James Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 273</ref><ref name=colebrookesktrans>Original Sanskrit: [http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_z_misc_major_works/IshvarakRiShNasAnkyakArikA.pdf Samkhya karika] Compiled and indexed by Ferenc Ruzsa (2015), Sanskrit Documents Archives;<br />[http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/transclusions/18/37/1837_SankhyaKarikaHTColebrook.pdf Samkhya karika] by Iswara Krishna, Henry Colebrooke (Translator), Oxford University Press, page 169</ref>}}
Samkhya regards ignorance ([[Avidya (Hinduism)|avidyā]]) as the root cause of suffering and bondage (''[[Samsara]]''). Samkhya states that the way out of this suffering is through knowledge (viveka). Mokṣa (liberation), states Samkhya school, results from knowing the difference between prakṛti (avyakta-vyakta) and puruṣa (jña).<ref name="Lpage9"/>
Puruṣa, the eternal pure consciousness, due to ignorance, identifies itself with products of prakṛti such as intellect (buddhi) and ego (ahamkara). This results in endless transmigration and suffering. However, once the realization arises that puruṣa is distinct from prakṛti, is more than empirical ego, and that puruṣa is deepest conscious self within, the [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Self]] gains isolation (''kaivalya'') and freedom (''moksha'').<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=13}}</ref>
Other forms of Samkhya teach that Mokṣa is attained by one's own development of the higher faculties of discrimination achieved by meditation and other yogic practices. Moksha is described by Samkhya scholars as a state of liberation, where ''Sattva'' [[guna]] predominates.<ref name="Gerald James Larson 2011 pages 36-47"/>
=== Causality ===
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2012}}
The Samkhya system is based on [[Satkaryavada|Sat-kārya-vāda]] or the theory of causation. According to Satkāryavāda, the effect is pre-existent in the cause. There is only an apparent or illusory change in the makeup of the cause and not a material one, when it becomes effect. Since, effects cannot come from nothing, the original cause or ground of everything is seen as prakṛti.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|1998|page=10}}</ref>
More specifically, Samkhya system follows the ''prakṛti-Parināma Vāda''. ''[[Parinama-vada (Hindu thought)|Parināma]]'' denotes that the effect is a real transformation of the cause. The cause under consideration here is prakṛti or more precisely Moola-prakṛti (Primordial Matter). The Samkhya system is therefore an exponent of an evolutionary theory of matter beginning with primordial matter. In evolution, prakṛti is transformed and differentiated into multiplicity of objects. Evolution is followed by dissolution. In dissolution the physical existence, all the worldly objects mingle back into prakṛti, which now remains as the undifferentiated, primordial substance. This is how the cycles of evolution and dissolution follow each other. But this theory is very different from the modern theories of science in the sense that prakṛti evolves for each Jeeva separately, giving individual bodies and minds to each and after liberation these elements of prakṛti merges into the Moola prakṛti. Another uniqueness of Sāmkhya is that not only physical entities but even mind, ego and intelligence are regarded as forms of Unconsciousness, quite distinct from pure consciousness.
Samkhya theorizes that prakṛti is the source of the perceived world of becoming. It is pure potentiality that evolves itself successively into twenty four [[tattva]]s or principles. The evolution itself is possible because prakṛti is always in a state of tension among its constituent strands or gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. In a state of equilibrium of three gunas, when the three together are one, "unmanifest" prakṛti which is unknowable. A guna is an entity that can change, either increase or decrease, therefore, pure consciousness is called nirguna or without any modification.
The evolution obeys [[causality]] relationships, with primal Nature itself being the material cause of all physical creation. The cause and effect theory of Samkhya is called ''Satkārya-vāda'' (theory of existent causes), and holds that nothing can really be created from or destroyed into nothingness – all evolution is simply the transformation of primal Nature from one form to another.
Samkhya [[esoteric cosmology|cosmology]] describes how life emerges in the universe; the relationship between Purusha and prakṛti is crucial to [[Patanjali]]'s yoga system. The strands of Samkhya thought can be traced back to the [[Veda|Vedic]] speculation of creation. It is also frequently mentioned in the [[Mahabharata]] and [[Yogavasishta]].
== Atheism ==
{{Atheism sidebar}}
Samkhya accepts the notion of higher selves or perfected beings but rejects the notion of God. Classical Samkhya argues against the existence of God on [[Metaphysics|metaphysical]] grounds. Samkhya theorists argue that an unchanging God cannot be the source of an ever-changing world and that God was only a necessary metaphysical assumption demanded by circumstances.<ref>{{harvnb|Rajadhyaksha|1959|page=95}}</ref> The Sutras of Samkhya have no explicit role for a separate God distinct from the puruṣa. Such a distinct God is inconceivable and self-contradictory and some commentaries speak plainly on this subject.
=== Arguments against Ishvara's existence ===
According to Sinha, the following arguments were given by the Samkhya philosophers against the idea of an eternal, self-caused, creator God:<ref name="Sinha"/>
* If the existence of [[Karma (Hinduism)|karma]] is assumed, the proposition of God as a moral governor of the universe is unnecessary. For, if God enforces the consequences of actions then he can do so without karma. If however, he is assumed to be within the law of karma, then karma itself would be the giver of consequences and there would be no need of a God.
* Even if karma is denied, God still cannot be the enforcer of consequences. Because the motives of an enforcer God would be either egoistic or altruistic. Now, God's motives cannot be assumed to be altruistic because an altruistic God would not create a world so full of suffering. If his motives are assumed to be egoistic, then God must be thought to have desire, as agency or authority cannot be established in the absence of desire. However, assuming that God has desire would contradict God's eternal freedom which necessitates no compulsion in actions. Moreover, desire, according to Samkhya, is an attribute of prakṛti and cannot be thought to grow in God. The testimony of the [[Vedas]], according to Samkhya, also confirms this notion.
* Despite arguments to the contrary, if God is still assumed to contain unfulfilled desires, this would cause him to suffer pain and other similar human experiences. Such a worldly God would be no better than Samkhya's notion of higher self.
* Furthermore, there is no proof of the existence of God. He is not the object of perception, there exists no general proposition that can prove him by inference and the testimony of the Vedas speak of prakṛti as the origin of the world, not God.
Therefore, Samkhya maintained that the various cosmological, ontological and teleological arguments could not prove God.
===Textual references===
The ''Sankhya-tattva-kaumudi'' commenting on Karika 57 argues that a perfect God can have no need to create a world (for Himself) and if God's motive is kindness (for others), Samkhya questions whether it is reasonable to call into existence beings who while non-existent had no suffering.
The ''{{IAST |Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra}}'' in verse no. 1.92 directly states that existence of "Ishvara (God) is unproved". Hence there is no philosophical place for a creationist God in this system. It is also argued by commentators of this text that the existence of Ishvara cannot be proved and hence cannot be admitted to exist.<ref name="Sinha">{{harvnb|Sinha|2012|pages=xiii-iv}}</ref>
These commentaries of Samkhya postulate that a benevolent deity ought to create only happy creatures, not a mixed world like the real world.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} A majority of modern academic scholars are of view that the concept of Ishvara was incorporated into the ''nirishvara'' (atheistic) Samkhya viewpoint only after it became associated with the [[Yoga]], the [[Pasupata]] and the [[Bhagavata]] schools of philosophy. This theistic Samkhya philosophy is described in the [[Mahabharata]], the [[Puranas]] and the [[Bhagavad Gita]]<ref>{{harvnb|Karmarkar|1962|pages=90–1}}</ref>
==Reception==
The Advaita Vedanta philosopher [[Adi Shankara]] considered Samkhya philosophy as propounded in Samkhyakarika to be inconsistent with the teachings in the Vedas, and considered the dualism in Samkhya to be non-Vedic.<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, pages 67-70</ref> In contrast, ancient Samkhya philosophers in India claimed Vedic authority for their views.<ref>Gerald Larson (2011), Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805033, page 213</ref>
== Influence on other schools ==
===On Indian philosophies===
With the publication of previously unknown editions of ''Yuktidipika'' about mid 20th century, scholars<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence/> have suggested what they call as "a tempting hypothesis", but uncertain, that Samkhya tradition may be the oldest school of Indian philosophy.<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence>GJ Larson, RS Bhattacharya and K Potter (2014), The Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume 4, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0691604411, pages 10-11</ref> The [[Vaisheshika]] atomism, [[Nyaya]] epistemology and [[Buddhism|Buddhist]] ontology may all have roots in the early Samkhya school of thought; but these schools likely developed in parallel with an evolving Samkhya tradition, as sibling intellectual movements.<ref name=larsonbhatpotterinfluence/>
=== On Yoga ===
[[File:Siddhasana.svg|thumb|[[Yoga]] is closely related to Samkhya in its philosophical foundations.]]
The Yoga school derives its [[ontology]] and [[epistemology]] from Samkhya and adds to it the concept of [[Isvara]].<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|2008|page=33}}</ref> However, scholarly opinion on the actual relationship between Yoga and Samkhya is divided. While, [[Jakob Wilhelm Hauer]] and [[Georg Feuerstein]] believe that Yoga was tradition common to many Indian schools and its association with Samkhya was artificially foisted upon by commentators such as [[Vyasa]]. [[Johannes Bronkhorst]] and Eric Frauwallner think that Yoga never had a philosophical system separate from Samkhya. Bronkhorst further adds that the first mention of Yoga as a separate school of thought is no earlier than [[Adi Shankara|Śankara]]'s (c. 788–820 CE)<ref>{{harvnb|Isayeva|1993|page=84}}</ref> Brahmasūtrabhaśya.<ref>{{harvnb|Larson|2008|pages=30–32}}</ref>
=== On Tantra ===
The dualistic metaphysics of various [[Tantra|Tantric]] traditions illustrates the strong influence of Samkhya on Tantra. [[Shaiva Siddhanta]] was identical to Samkhya in its philosophical approach, barring the addition of a transcendent theistic reality.<ref>{{harvnb|Flood|2006|page=69}}</ref> Knut A. Jacobsen, Professor of Religious Studies, notes the influence of Samkhya on [[Srivaishnavism]]. According to him, this Tantric system borrows the abstract dualism of Samkhya and modifies it into a personified male–female dualism of [[Vishnu]] and [[Sri Lakshmi]].<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobsen|2008|pages=129–130}}</ref> Dasgupta speculates that the Tantric image of a wild [[Kali]] standing on a slumbering [[Shiva]] was inspired from the Samkhyan conception of prakṛti as a dynamic agent and Purusha as a passive witness. However, Samkhya and Tantra differed in their view on liberation. While Tantra sought to unite the male and female ontological realities, Samkhya held a withdrawal of consciousness from matter as the ultimate goal.<ref>{{harvnb|Kripal|1998|pages=148–149}}</ref>
According to Bagchi, the Samkhya Karika (in karika 70) identifies Sāmkhya as a [[Tantra]],<ref>{{harvnb|Bagchi|1989|page=6}}</ref> and its philosophy was one of the main influences both on the rise of the [[Tantras]] as a body of literature, as well as Tantra [[sadhana]].<ref>{{harvnb|Bagchi|1989|page=10}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Advaita Vedanta]] of [[Adi Shankara]]
* [[Darshanas]]
* [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|Dualism]]
* [[Hinduism]]
* [[Linga sarira]]
* [[Ratha Kalpana]]
* [[Khyativada]]
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}
== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}
==Sources==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book|last=Apte|first=Vaman Shivaram|title=The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary|year=1957|publisher=Prasad Prakashan|location=Poona|ref=harv}}
* {{citation |last = Bagchi |first = P.C. |title = Evolution of the Tantras, ''Studies on the Tantras'' |publisher = Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture |year = 1989 |location = Kolkata |isbn = 81-85843-36-8 }}
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{{refend}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Mikel Burley|title=Classical Samkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K3B9AgAAQBAJ|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-15978-9}}
*{{cite book |author=Jeaneane D. Fowler|title=Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C&pg=PA160|year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-898723-93-6|chapter=Chapter Six: '''Samkhya'''}}
* {{cite book|last1=Hulin|first1=Michel|title=Sāṃkhya Literature|date=1978|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3447018999}}
* {{cite book | author=Gerald James Larson|title=Classical Sāṃkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ih2aGLp4d1gC |year=2001 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0503-3}}
* {{cite book | last = Müeller | first = Max | authorlink= Max Müller |year = 1919 | title = Six Systems of Indian Philosophy | url=https://archive.org/stream/sixsystemsofindi005498mbp#page/n7/mode/2up }}
== External links ==
* {{cite IEP |url-id=sankhya |title=Samkhya}}
* [http://faculty.washington.edu/kpotter/xhome.htm Bibliography of scholarly works: see [S] for Samkhya] by Karl Potter, University of Washington
* [https://faculty.franklin.uga.edu/kirkland/sites/faculty.franklin.uga.edu.kirkland/files/YOGA.pdf Samkhya and Yoga: An Introduction], Russell Kirkland, University of Georgia
* [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1398096 Classical Sāmkhya and the Phenomenological Ontology of Jean-Paul Sartre], Gerald J. Larson, Philosophy East and West
* [http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~djones/documents/Samkhya.pdf PDF file of Ishwarkrishna's Sankhyakarika], in English
* [http://www.ochs.org.uk/lectures/by-topic/251 Lectures on Samkhya], The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, Oxford University
{{Hindudharma}}
{{Indian Philosophy}}
[[Category:Philosophical traditions]]
[[Category:Ancient philosophical schools and traditions]]
[[Category:Philosophical schools and traditions]]
[[Category:Hindu philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Hindu philosophy]]
[[Category:Samkhya]]
[[Category:Indian philosophy]]
[[Category:Āstika]]' |
Whether or not the change was made through a Tor exit node (tor_exit_node ) | 0 |
Unix timestamp of change (timestamp ) | 1480659066 |