Page 251 of: Yasastilaka and Indian culture (Study)

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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
V. The evidence of Devasena and Somadeva points to the fact that there
may have been some degeneration in the moral tone of the Samkhyas in
their time, but the ethical ideal of the Samkhya school is manifest from the
conception of the Sattvika from of Buddhi, as propounded in Samkhyakarikā
(23). As regards the charge that the Samkhyas are devoid of compassion
for living creatures, it is belied by their view that animal slaughter in
Vedic sacrifices is productive of sin, a point elaborated in the Matharavṛtti.
It is noteworthy that the Jaina Gunaratna Sūri tells us in his commentary
on Haribhadra's Saddarsanasamuccaya (chap. 3) that the Sāṃkhyas are
spiritualists averse to the Vedic cult involving killing of animals, and he
mentions in this connection certain devices adopted by them to avoid
injury to living creatures, similar to those used by the Jaina monks.
Somadeva, on the other hand, classes the Samkhyas with the Buddhists, the
Cārvākas, and the adherents of the Vedic, Saiva, and medical systems, and
advises people to abstain from flesh-eating by rejecting the views of all
these schools (Yasastilaka VII. 24. Vol. II, p. 331):
तच्छाक्य सांख्यचार्वाकवेदवैद्यकपर्दिनाम् । मतं विहाय हातव्यं मांसं श्रेयोऽर्थिभिः सदा ॥
[tacchākya sāṃkhyacārvākavedavaidyakapardinām | mataṃ vihāya hātavyaṃ māṃsaṃ śreyo'rthibhiḥ sadā ||
] Obviously the systems mentioned above permitted the eating of animal
food; and the Samkhya attitude towards flesh-eating may have been similar
to that of the Buddhists, in spite of the repugnance to the slaughter
of animals, common to both schools. Somadeva, as we shall see, condemns
the Buddhists for eating flesh, and this is probably the reason why Devasena
likewise describes the Samkhyas as devoid of compassion for living
creatures.
BARHASPATYAS
The Barhaspatyas, as we have seen, are called Nästikas by
Somadeva; and in Yasastilaka, Book V, Canḍakarman who expounds their
views is described as an exponent of Lokayata doctrines.³ Siddharṣi says in
his Upamiti-bhava-prapañca katha that the Barhaspatyas are the inhabitants
of the Lokāyata City. That the Lokayata was a prominent system in the
tenth century and thereabouts is certain. Siddharṣi includes it among the
principal non-Jaina systems described by him in his allegorical romance (Book
IV); and in the Kudlur Plates of the Ganga king Mārasimha, dated 963 A. D.,
a famous Jaina teacher is described as Lokayata-loka-sammata-matiḥ, 'one
whose talents are appreciated by the adherents of the Lokayata system.' The
1 See Chap. VIII.
2 See Chap. XIII. The Pasupata views on the subject are very similar. See below.
3 'प्रयुक्त लोकायतमतधर्मा' [prayukta lokāyatamatadharmā' ] Vol. II, p. 259.
4 लोकायतमिति प्रोक्तं पुरमत्र तथापरम् । बार्हस्पत्याश्च ते लोका ये वास्तव्याः पुरेऽत्र भोः ॥ [lokāyatamiti proktaṃ puramatra tathāparam | bārhaspatyāśca te lokā ye vāstavyāḥ pure'tra bhoḥ || ] Books TV.