Thirty-eight Tattvas of Sāṃkhya philosophy

In the 279 chapter the Śāntiparva of Mahābhārata Vṛtra Śuka saṃvāda discusses the thirty eight principles.

vimuktāḥ saptadaśabhirhetubhūtaiśca pañcabhiḥ |
indriyārthairguṇaiścaiva aṣṭābhiśca pitāmaha || ^[1]

Sages of rigid vows freed from the seventeen [ i.e. the five vital airs, mind, understanding, and the ten organs of knowledge and action] from the five short coming of Yoga[ viz., desire, anger, covetousness, fear, and sleep], which form the chief causes[ for subjugating man to repeated rebirth] and from the other eight [ the five objects of the senses and the three qualities] have never to incur rebirth.

There are so many saṃvādas in the Śāntiparva of Mahābhārata Of them the most important one is the Vasiṣṭha Karāla Janaka saṃvāda.

It describes the twenty five principles. They are—

avyaktād vyaktamāpannaṃ vidyāsargaṃ vadanti tam |
mahāntaṃ cāpyahaṅkāramavidyāsargameva ca ||

The manifest is created from the unmanifest. This is called by the learned the Creation of knowledge, the creation of and consciousness.

By Hiranyagarbha, is the creation of Ignorance.^[2]

avidhiśca vidhiścaiva samutpanau tathaikataḥ |
vidyāvidyeti vikhyāte śrutiśāstrārthacintakaiḥ || ^[3]

Allotment of attributes and the destruction thereof, called respectively by the names of Ignorance and knowledge by persons learned in the śrutis, then arose, referring to this, that or the other of the three.

bhūtasargamahaṅkārāt tṛtīyaṃ viddhi pārthiva |
ahaṅkāreṣu sarveṣu caturthaṃ viddhi vaikṛtam || ^[4]

The creation of the elements from consciousness is the third.

In all the kinds of consciousness is the fourth creation which originates from modification of the third.

vāyurjyotirathākāśamāpo'tha pṛthivī tathā |
śabdaḥ sparśaśca rūpaṃ ca raso gandhastathaiva ca || ^[5]

This fourth creation consists of Wind and Light and Ether and water and earth, with their properties of sound, touch, form, taste and scent.

evaṃ yugapadutpannaṃ daśavargamasaṃśayam
  pañcamaṃ viddhi rājendra bhautikaṃ sargamarthavat || ^[6]

This aggregate of ten arose,indeed at the same time. The fifth creation has originated from combinations of the principal elements.

śrotraṃ tvak cakṣuṣī jihvā ghrāṇameva ca pañcamam |
vāk ca hastau ca pādau ca pāyurmeḍhraṃ tathaiva ca || ^[7]

This comprises the ear, the skin, the eyes the tongue and the nose forming the fifth, and speech and the two hands, and the two legs, and the lower canal and the organs of generation.

buddhīndriyāṇi caitāni tathā karmendriyāṇi ca |
sambhūtānīha yugapanmanasā saha pārthiva || ^[8]

The first five of those form the organs of knowledge, and the last five the organs of action. All these with the mind, arose simultaneously.

Here the twenty fifth tattva is Viṣṇu.

pañcaviṃśatimo viṣṇurnistattvastattvasaṃjñitaḥ |
tattvasaṃśrayaṇādetat tattvamāhurmanīṣiṇaḥ || ^[9]

Above the twenty four topics already referred to is the twenty fifth called Viṣṇu. Viṣṇu, on account of the absence of all the qualities, is not a topic though he permeates all the topics; he has been called so by the wise.

evamavyaktaviṣayaṃ kṣaramāhurmanīṣiṇaḥ |
pañcavimaśatimo yo'yaṃ jñānādeva pravartate || ^[10]

In this way the twenty fifth, viz., the wise say, by union with the unmanifest, becomes changed in to destructible. By means of knowledge, however, the indestructible appears in his true nature.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Mahābhārata XII, 279 / 4.

[2]:

Mahābhārata XII, 302, 22.

[3]:

Mahābhārata XII, 23

[4]:

Mahābhārata XII, 24

[5]:

Mahābhārata XII, 25.

[6]:

Mahābhārata XII, 26

[7]:

Śāntiparva 27

[8]:

Śāntiparva 28.

[9]:

Śāntiparva 302 /38.

[10]:

Śāntiparva 302/49