Sankhya
ईश्वरकृष्ण
Ishvarakrishna
Scholars generally place him around the 4th–5th century CE.
Editorial overview
Historical context
Ishvarakrishna is the author of the Sankhya Karika, the oldest surviving systematic text of classical Sankhya. The Karika presents itself as a summary of an earlier, now lost, Sankhya treatise and names the lineage of teachers from Kapila onward. It was translated into Chinese in the 6th century and attracted several Sanskrit commentaries, including the Yuktidipika, the commentary attributed to Gaudapada, and Vachaspati Mishra's Tattva Kaumudi. Almost nothing is known of his life.
Core ideas
- Human life is marked by threefold suffering, and discriminating knowledge is the means to end it
- Two ultimate realities: many conscious purushas and one unconscious prakriti
- Prakriti consists of three gunas (sattva, rajas, tamas) and evolves into twenty-three principles, making twenty-five tattvas in all
- The effect pre-exists in its cause (satkaryavada)
- Liberation (kaivalya) comes when purusha is known as distinct from prakriti's activity
Major works
Concepts
ConceptपुरुषPurusha — pure consciousnessThe conscious witness, distinct from all that changes.Conceptप्रकृतिPrakriti — naturePrimal nature or matter — everything that changes, including the mind.ConceptगुणGunas — the three qualitiesSattva, rajas and tamas — the three strands of all nature.Conceptतत्त्वTattva — principle of reality'Thatness' — a basic category or principle of reality, counted differently by different schools.Conceptबुद्धिBuddhi — intellectThe discerning, deciding faculty — the highest of the inner instruments.Conceptअहङ्कारAhankara — I-maker, egoThe 'I-maker' — the sense of being a separate doer and owner.Conceptमनस्Manas — mindThe mind that receives, coordinates and desires — restless by nature.ConceptविवेकVivekaDiscernment between the real and the unreal, the Self and the not-Self.
Philosophical disagreements
Presented so you can understand each side — not to declare a winner.
With Vedanta
The Brahma Sutras and their Vedanta commentators argue against Sankhya's claim that unconscious prakriti (pradhana) could be the cause of an ordered world, holding that the cause must be conscious Brahman.
Lineage of ideas
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Related thinkers
Traditions