A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1Dasgupta, Surendranath
Religion
A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1
Dasgupta, Surendranath
Hindu philosophy; India -- Religion
modamâna lead directly to the separation of the prak@rti from the purus'a.
The twenty-eight sense defects are the eleven defects of the eleven senses
and seventeen kinds of defects of the understanding corresponding to the
absence of siddhis and the presence of tustis. The viparyyayas, tu@stis
and the defects of the organs are hindrances in the way of the
achievement of the Sâ@mkhya goal.]
221
(revised edition of _@Sa@s@titantra_) [Footnote ref 1]. Probably the
earlier @Sa@s@titantra was lost even before Vâcaspati's time.
If we believe the @Sa@s@titantra referred to in the _Ahirbudhnya
Sa@mhitâ_ to be in all essential parts the same work which was
composed by Kapila and based faithfully on his teachings, then it
has to be assumed that Kapila's Sâ@mkhya was theistic [Footnote ref 2]. It
seems probable that his disciple Âsuri tried to popularise it. But it
seems that a great change occurred when Pañcas'ikha the disciple of
Âsuri came to deal with it. For we know that his doctrine
differed from the traditional one in many important respects. It
is said in _Sâ@mkhya kârikâ_ (70) that the literature was divided by
him into many parts (_tena bahudhâk@rtam tantram_). The exact
meaning of this reference is difficult to guess. It might mean that
the original _@Sa@s@titantra_ was rewritten by him in various treatises.
It is a well-known fact that most of the schools of Vai@s@navas
accepted the form of cosmology which is the same in most essential
parts as the Sâ@mkhya cosmology. This justifies the assumption
that Kapila's doctrine was probably theistic. But there are
a few other points of difference between the Kapila and the
Pâtañjala Sâ@mkhya (Yoga). The only supposition that may
be ventured is that Pañcas'ikha probably modified Kapila's
work in an atheistic way and passed it as Kapila's work. If this
supposition is held reasonable, then we have three strata of
Sâ@mkhya, first a theistic one, the details of which are lost, but
which is kept in a modified form by the Pâtañjala school of Sâ@mkhya,
second an atheistic one as represented by Pañcas'ikha, and
a third atheistic modification as the orthodox Sâ@mkhya system.
An important change in the Sâ@mkhya doctrine seems to have
been introduced by Vijñâna Bhik@su (sixteenth century A.D.) by his
treatment of gu@nas as types of reals. I have myself accepted this
interpretation of Sâ@mkhya as the most rational and philosophical
one, and have therefore followed it in giving a connected system
of the accepted Kapila and the Pâtañjala school of Sâ@mkhya. But
it must be pointed out that originally the notion of gu@nas was
applied to different types of good and bad mental states, and then
they were supposed in some mysterious way by mutual increase
and decrease to form the objective world on the one hand and the
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[Footnote 1: _Tarkarahasyadîpikâ_, p. 109.]
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