Introduction to Sāṃkhya Darśana

Sāṃkhya is the oldest of orthodox philosophical systems in Hinduism. Sāṃkhya is a strongly dualistic philosophy, that postulates everything in reality and stems from Puruṣa and Prakṛti. There are many living souls and they possess consciousness. Sage Kapila is the founder of the Sāṃkhya system. Āsuri and Pañcaśikha are the commentaries on the Sāṃkhya. Īśvarakṛṣṇa’s Sāṃkhyakārika is the earliest authoritative commentary. Metaphysically Sāṃkhya is dualistic realism, in so far as it necessitates assumptions, matter and spirit as the two ultimate realities, independent of each other. One of the distinctive features of the Sāṃkhya is its refusal to accept God as a necessary metaphysical principle. The Sāṃkhya has unfolded an elaborate theory of evolution to explain the fact of change in the universe. The Sāṃkhya is derived from the word ‘Saṃkhya’-meaning, number. Sāṃkhya thinkers maintain two ultimate realities Prakṛti and Puruṣa. Prakṛti consists of varying levels of three dispositions and categories of qualities. They are Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Sattva has the function of manifestation. Rajas have the function of activity and Tamas has the function of restraint.

Sattva makes objects obvious to consciousness, Rajas makes the objects move and act while Tamas serves as inactivity, resistance and restraint. Sattva represents knowledge, Rajas represents motion and Tamas represents ignorance and lack of activity. In the Sāṃkhya system Prakṛti is the fundamental element of the changing phenomena of the world. In the process of evolution twenty four principles emerge and they form the basis of the manifold world. Sāṃkhya supposes Prakṛti as the ultimate cause of the universe. It advocates the dualism of Puruṣa and Prakṛti, the two eternal realities. Besides Puruṣa and Prakṛti there are twenty three other principles produced by Prakṛti. Prakṛti, the first cause of the universe, is one and complex. It is complex because it is constituted of the guṇas everything except Prakṛti which is causative. Prakṛti is the root cause out of which everything else evolves. Twenty five principles are described in Sāṃkhyakārikā. Prakṛti is the Mūlaprakṛti, because it is the cause of the whole universe. It is non -evolute because, it being infinite, comes from nothing else. The seven Prakṛti vikṛtis are Mahat, Ahaṃkāra and the five Tanmātras. They are sound, touch, form, taste and smell. Each evolves from the former and the evolvement of the latter. They are both cause and effects. The five Tanmātras evolves from the sixteen principles. Manas, the five Tanmātras-hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting, and smelling, the five organs of actions, their activities-speaking, grasping, and walking, excreting and procreating and the five Prāṇas are mere evolutes. These sixteen principles are only effects. Puruṣa being an eternal entity is neither an evolutes nor an evolving because it is not born out of anything else and it doesn’t produce anything else.

Sāṃkhyakārikā gives the order of the evolution of the principles thus:-

prakṛtermahāṃstato'haṃkārastasmādgaṇaśca ṣoḍaśakaḥ
tasmādapi ṣoḍaśakāt pañcabhyaḥ pañca bhūtāni || ^[1]

Mahat evolves out of Prakṛti from Mahat, Ahaṃkāra evolves from it, the five Tanmātras (sound, touch, form, taste, smell), from the five Tanmātras evolve the five Mahābhūtas (space, wind, fire, water, earth). Prakṛti and its effects consist of the three guṇas. They are of a general nature, the objects of knowledge insentient but productive. Puruṣa is the opposite of the same. Sāṃkhya as the dualistic system of thought which accepts the reality of Puruṣa and Prakṛti. Puruṣa the first of the twenty five principles of Sāṃkhya, is proposed as a sentient being against Prakṛti which is insentient. There cannot be creation unless there is a sentient being. Prakṛti is only a medium of Puruṣa who is a passive witness of the activities of Prakṛti.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Sāṃkhyakārika -22.