Book Title: Qualities Of Sankhya
Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269584/1

JAIN EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL FOR PRIVATE AND PERSONAL USE ONLY
Page #1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ THE QUALITIES OF SANKHYA By Johannes Bronkhorst, Lausanne* 1. Bhartrhari's commentary on the Mahabhasya contains, in the first Ahnika, the following remark concerning the Sankhya philosophy (CE IV/23,21-23): na hidam sastram kasya cid ekasya sahayabhutam sarvasadharanam | yathaiva sankhyadinam dravyad eva prati pattih rupadisamavayo ghato 'rthantarabhuto veti yasya yo ghatas tasmin ghatasabdam prayunkte 'For this science (of grammar) is common to all and does not side with anyone. For example, according to the Sankhyas and others the understanding derived from a substance is that a vase is a collection of colour(s) and so on, or something else; (the grammarian) uses the word "vase" with regard to that which constitutes a vase for the person with whom he is in discussion).' What interests us in this passage is the passing reference to the Sankhya position, according to which a vase is a collection of colour(s) and so on. A similar statement occurs in the Vakyapadiya (VP III 13,14): sarvamurtyatmabhutanam sabdadinam gune-gune / trayah sattvadidharmas te sarvatra samavasthitah // "Those three characteristics, sattva etc., which are found in each quality from among sound etc. which constitute all corporeal objects, are present everywhere.' The mention of the three characteristics, sattva ete.' - i. e., sattva, rajas, and tamas - leaves no doubt that the system of thought referred to is, again, Sankhya?. Bhartrhari does not stand alone in attributing to Sankhya the position that material objects are collections of the qualities colour, sound, etc. Punyaraja's commentary on the second Kanda of the Vakyapadiya may refer to the same view in the following passage (VPT 63,16f. [ad VP II 135): * I thank Eli Franco and Albrecht Wezler for useful suggestions. 1 = AL 28,11-13; SW 33,22-24; MS 9c5-7. 2 The commentator Helaraja, interestingly, tries to show that sound etc. only seem to constitute corporeal objects (VPP 11/138,21f.): vyatireke 'pi dravyasya samavayava sat tadatmakam iva. WZKS 38 (1994) 309-322 Page #2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 310 J. BRONKHORST vaisesikenavayavinam prati padayitum ghatasabdah prayuktah sankhyair gunasamaharamatram abhimanyate jainasaugataih paramanusamcayamatram iti "The Vaisesika uses the word "vase" to designate the whole; the Sankhyas think that it is used to designate the collection of gunas and nothing else; the Jainas and Buddhists, only a heap of atoms.' There is some ambiguity in this statement in as far as the Sankhyas are concerned: the term guna does not only mean quality in this system of thought; it can also refer to the three constituents (sattva, rajas, tamas) of primary matter. No such ambiguity attaches to Dharmapala's introductory remarks to Aryadeva's Catuhsataka 301 (tr. TILLEMANS 1990: 1/135): "[The Samkhya philosopher] Kapila asserts [the following]: Things such as vases and cloths are established simply as [visual] forms3 ... and other such [properties]; the natures ... , which are the objects of the sense organs, do really exist". Simhasuri, similarly, ascribes to Sankhya the view that vases etc. (ghatadi) are collections of colours etc. (rupadisamuha) All these statements - as well as others from Malla vadin's Dvadasara Nayacakra and Kaiyata's commentary on the Mahabhasya, to be considered below - support Bhartrhari's claims according to which the Sankhyas looked upon material objects as being constituted of 'colour(s) etc.' (rupadi), or of 'sound etc.' (sabdadi). It seems moreover clear that 'colour(s) etc.' and 'sound etc.' in these statements refer to the five qualities colour, taste, smell, touch and sound. 2. It is not easy to reconcile the contents of these statements with classical Sankhya doctrine as presented in the Yuktidipika, the most elaborate commentary on Isvarakrsna's Sankhya Karika. There, it may be recalled, the material world is conceived of as having evolved out of prakrti through a number of intermediate stages. Material objects are considered to consist of the five elements: earth, water, fire, wind and ether. Qualities are not even mentioned among the 25 tattvas which constitute the world. In fact, the elements that do figure among the 25 tattvas possess qualities: ether possesses only sound; wind possesses sound and touch; fire possesses sound, touch and colour; water possesses sound, touch, colour and taste; earth, finally, possesses sound, touch, colour, taste and smell. These five elements are believed to have directly evolved out of five tanmatras, which carry the names of the five qualities without 3 TILLEMANS thus translates the Chinese equivalent of skt. rupa, 'form, colour'. 4 DNC 1/266,9. For Simhasuri's interpretation of this statement, see section 3 below (p. 313f.). Page #3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ The Qualities of Sankhya 311 being qualities themselves. The distinction between tanmatras and qualities is clear from the following passage (YD 118,14-16): sabdagunac chabdatanmatrad akasam ekagunam | sabdasparsagunat sparsatanmatrad dviguno vayuh sabdasparsarupagunad rupatanmatrat trigunam tejah | sabdasparsaruparasagunad rasatanmatrac caturguna apah sabdasparsaruparasagandhagunad gandhatanmatrat pancaguna prthivi | 'From the tanmatra [called] "sound", which has sound as quality, ether [is born), which has [that] one quality. From the tanmatra [called] "touch", which has sound and touch as qualities, wind [is born), which has [these] two qualities. From the tanmatra [called] "colour", which has sound, touch and colour as qualities, fire [is born), which has [these] three qualities. From the tanmatra [called] "taste", which has sound, touch, colour and taste as qualities, water is born), which has [these four qualities. From the tanmatra [called] "smell", which has sound, touch, colour, taste and smell as qualities, earth [is born), which has [these] five qualities. '5 Interestingly, it is not certain that the Yuktidipika correctly represents the position of the Sankhya Karika in this respect. The Sankhya Karika leaves us in doubt whether it distinguishes between the tanmatras and the qualities 'colour', 'sound', 'smell', 'taste' and 'touch'. This can be seen as follows. Recall first that several early texts, such as Asvaghosa's Buddhacarita (XII 18f.) and some portions of the Mahabharata (XII 203,25-29; 294,27-29; 298,10-21; XIV 49,34f.), knew a form of Sankhya in which the five qualities figure among the tattvas; they are here among the final evolutes, and derive from the five elements. Here, then, the qualities do figure among the five fundamental tattvas. It is true that they did not occupy the same position as the tanmatras in classical Sankhya. It is yet conceivable (though not provable, as far as I can see) that the five tanmatras, at one phase of the development of San 5. A similar passage occurs in the Matharavrtti (on SK 22 [MV 37.5-91). The Gaudapadabhasya and the commentary translated into Chinese by Paramartha (see TAKAKUSU 1904) simply derive the elements from one tanmatra each, without mentioning qualities. See further n. 9, below. 6 This has been known at least since STRAUSS 1913; see also FRAUWALLNER 1927. 7 Occasionally one gets the impression that the idea of qualities as constituting the very end of the evolutionary list of tattvas is not completely unknown to classical Sankhya. An example is the following line, quoted YD 117,13f.: upabhogasya sabdadyupalabdhir adih gunapurusopalabdhir antah. Interestingly, YD 64,19ff. states that the qualities sound etc. are pervaded (samanu+gam) by, or have the same nature as (svarupa), the three constituents (here called sukha, duhkha and moha), as does DNC 1/265; SK 38, on the other hand, makes a similar observation regarding the elements (bhuta), using the terms santa, ghora and mudha (YD 119,20f. adds that the tanmatras are not santa, ghora and mudha). Page #4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 312 J. BRONKHORST khya, were the five qualities. This possibility is not contradicted by the Sankhya Karika. That is to say, this text allows, besides the 'orthodox' interpretation, of an interpretation in which the tanmatras are the five qualities. Consider first SK 28ab: rupadisu (v.l. sabdado) pancanam alocanamatram isyate vrttih / 'The function of the five (sense organs] with regard to colour (v.l. sound) etc., is deemed to be mere perception'. Here it is possible to take colour (v.l. sound) etc.' to be the five qualities of those names. SK 34ab, on the other hand, has: buddhindriyani tesam panca visesavisesavisayani / 'Of the [tenfold external organ] the five sense organs have the visesas and the avisesas as objects'. The meanings of visesa and avisesa are explained in SK 38a-c: tanmatrany avisesas tebhyo bhutani panca pancabhyah / ete smrta visesah "The tanmatras are the avisesas. From those five [arise] the five elements; these are known as the visesas'. According to SK 34ab, then, the sense organs have as objects the five elements and the five tanmatras. If it is true that five qualities are the objects (SK 28a, as interpreted above), one might think that the five tanmatras are the five qualities. Nothing in the Sankhya Karika militates against this view, as far as I can see. It would be premature to draw far-reaching consequences from the lack of clarity of the Sankhya Karika. It is not at all certain that it looked upon the tanmatras as qualities. But if it did, this would not be without interest in connection with the various quotations maintaining that in Sankhya material objects are collections of qualities.. 3. We must now consider a passage in Mallavadin's Dvadasara Nayacakra which criticizes the Sankhyas. This passage reads, in the reconstruction of Muni JAMBUVIJAYA (DNC I/268,1f.): 8 Most of the commentaries hasten to add that the tanmatras are not grasped by the sense organs of ordinary mortals (often asmadadi). It is here further to be noted that SK does not appear to justify the translation "subtle elements" or the like for tanmatra. Stanza 39 rather speaks of a subvariety of the visesas that are suksma 'subtle'; these suksma visesas 'subtle elements' are clearly not avisesas, i. e., tanmatras. 9 FRAUWALLNER (1953: 355f.; also 1927: 2 = 141]) claims that in early Sankhya the different tanmatras each had only one quality (cp. YD 91,7 [ekarupani tanmatranity anye | ekottaraniti varsaganyah 1] and 118,12f., also Vacaspati Misra's Tattvakaumudi on SK 22 [sabdatanmatrad akasam sabdagunam sabdatanmatrasahitat sparsatanmatrad vayuh sabdasparsagunah sabdasparsatanmatrasahitad rupatanmatrat tejah sabdasparsarupagunam | sabdasparsarupatanmatrasahitad rasatanmatradapah sabdasparsaruparasagunah sabdasparsaruparasatanmatrasahitad gandhatanmatrac chabdasparsaruparasagandhaguna prthivi jayata iti) and similar statements in the Candrika and Jayamangala). This position is of course but one step removed from the above tentative suggestion that the five qualities once occupied the place of the tanmatras. Page #5 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ The Qualities of Sankhya 313 atha katham ekakaranatva pratisedhanantaram sabdai kagunapravrtti viyad abhyu pagamyate na pravartetaivam asamdruteh purusavad vandhyaputravad va | 'But how can the Sankhyas) accept that ether is produced from the single quality sound, immediately after rejecting [the possibility] that something has one single cause? It cannot be produced in this way, because [ether] is not a collection, just as a soul (purusa) or the son of a barren woman is not a collection).' The commentator Simhasuri cites in connection with the term asamdruteh 'because ether is not a collection', the following phrase from the Mahabhasya: gunasamdravo dravyam 'a material object is a collection of qualities'. We shall pay further attention to this phrase below (p. 317). Here it is sufficient to note that Simhasuri is most probably correct in attributing to Mallavadin the belief that the Sankhyas looked upon the material objects as collections of qualities. WEZLER (1985b: 3ff.) interprets the above passage in the light of the YD passage cited in section 2 above (p. 317). To quote his own words (p. 5): "The gist of Mallavadin's counterargument is hence that ether cannot originate in the manner asserted by the Samkhyas because it does not correspond to their definition of dravya, i. e. because it is not a dravya or rather because its cause, the sabdaguna sabdatanmatra, is not a dravya just like the soul or the son of a barren woman". This interpretation is not, however, free from difficulties. First of all, the words sabdai kagunapravrtti viyat in the above passage translate most naturally as 'ether is produced from the single quality sound'. The alternative translation 'ether is produced from the sabdatanmatra] which has sound as its only quality is decidedly more artificial. Moreover, if the latter interpretation had been intended by Mallavadin, his remark 'immediately after rejecting [the possibility) that something may have one single cause' (ekakaranatva pratisedhanantaram) would be besides the point. As can be seen from the YD passage cited above (p. 31!), each of the elements, not only ether, is there presented as deriving from a single cause, viz., from the corresponding tanmatra. It will hardly be necessary to point out that Mallavadin's passage allows of an interpretation in the light of what we have discussed in section 1 above. The material world is constituted of the qualities sound etc.; these qualities are accordingly the causes of all material objects. Ether has but one quality, sound, and therefore but one cause. This, however, goes against the rule that every product must have more than one single cause. WEZLER's interpretation of Mallavadin's passage can, in view of the above, be replaced by one that does more justice to its precise wording. Interestingly, WEZLER's interpretation appears to coincide with the one offered by Mallavadin's commentator Simhasuri. This can be deduced from some phrases in the latter's Nyayagamanusarini. Page #6 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 314 J. BRONKHORST Consider first the following passage (DNC I/268,4-6): yady anekatmakaikakaranatvam isyate evam ekakaranatvapratisedhanantaram ... katham sabdaikagunapravrtti viyad abhyu pagamyate. The difficulty connected with ekakaranatva pratisedhanantaram, pointed out above, is here avoided by superimposing a different interpretation on this term. The "rejection of [the possibility) that something may have a single cause' becomes here the requirement that something has a single cause which has a multiple nature. This requirement fits, of course, the different tanmatras which are single causes of the corresponding elements, but have several qualities. Simhasuri is equally careful to avoid the difficulty presented by the word sabdaikagunapravrtti. He cites an unfindable Dhatupathalo in order to interpret the problematic gunao as "number". The aim of this procedure seems, once again, to force the orthodox version of Sankhya upon a recalcitrant text. It appears, then, possible that Simhasuri, unlike Mallavadin, is acquainted with a form of Sankhya in which tanmatras, and not qualities (guna), figure in the list of evolutes, or perhaps one in which tanmatras and gunas had come to be differentiated. Be it noted that another passage of his Nyayagamanusarini (11/470,13) enumerates mahat, ahamkara and the tanmatras, three evolutes which succeed each other in classical Sankhya. If our interpretations of Mallavadin and Simhasuri are correct, we have stumbled upon an interesting difference between these two authors. Mallavadin, it appears, was not yet acquainted with Sankhya in its 'classical' form. Simhasuri, on the other hand, was no longer aware of the earlier form of Sankhya known to Mallavadin, and felt obliged to reinterpret the latter's words so as to arrive at an understanding that was in agreement with the form of Sankhya that he knew. 4. The conclusion we have to draw from the preceding sections is that a number of classical authors appear to have known the Sankhya system of thought in a form which was in at least some points different from the classical system as it has been handed down to us. The Sankhya known to Bhartrhari, Mallavadin and others had, we have been led to believe, the qualities sound, colour, taste, touch and smell among its evolutes. Interestingly, this position is primarily known to us through texts that were no school-texts of the Sankhyas, most notably a number of passages in the Mahabharata. We have seen, however, that the Sankhya Karika itself may have held a similar position. 10 See DNC 1/268n. 3 and WEZLER 1985b: 27n. 14. Page #7 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ The Qualities of Sankhya 315 It seems probable that Bhartrhari and the other authors we have discussed found the position they attributed to the Sankhyas in one or more texts belonging to that school. And there can hardly be any doubt that that text - or one of those texts - is the one called varsagana tantra by Simhasuri, and which FRAUWALLNER (1958: 94 [= 233]) identifies as the Sastitantra of Vrsaganall. This text was known to Dignaga and Mallavadin, as FRAUWALLNER has shown. If indeed Bhartrhari was acquainted with it, its date of composition must precede him, too. How is it possible that Simhasuri who, like Mallavadin, knew the Sastitantra, gives evidence of being acquainted with a different version of Sankhya? FRAUWALLNER 1958 may provide the elements for an answer. Already Dignaga's commentator Jinendrabuddhi, FRAUWALLNER argues (p. 109 [= 248] and 113 [= 252]), knew at least two, possibly three commentaries on the Sastitantra. It is not impossible that one of these commentators was, or was close to, the author of the Yoga Bhasya (p. 114f. [= 253f.]). It is not our task at present to take position with regard to FRAUWALLNER's conclusions, which contain inevitably a speculative element. Be it however noted that Simhasuri's deviation from Mallavadin in the interpretation of Sankhya doctrine fits in very well with the assumption that Sankhya philosophy evolved - and therefore changed - through the reinterpretation(s) by its commentators of its classical text, which may have been called sastitantra. This assumption would, of course, agree very well with the hypothesis presented in section 2 above, according to which the Sankhya Karika would still precede the modification which finds expression in its commentaries. 5. The above reflections suggest that a major change took place in Sankhya doctrine, perhaps some time in the 5th century of our era. What could possibly have been the reason of this change? Why should Sankhya abandon the idea that material objects are nothing but collections of qualities? These questions do not, at present, allow of a certain and indubitable answer. There are simply no texts from the period that might provide such an answer. It is yet very tempting to suspect a connection with the satkaryavada, the doctrine according to which effects (or products) pre-exist in their causes. This doctrine of classical Sankhya 11 For the authorship of this text, see OBERHAMMER-16. The name of its author may rather have been Varsaganya, see CHAKRAVARTI 1951:137f., LARSON 1987: 624n. 21 and WEZLER 1985a: 14n. 6. Page #8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 316 J. BRONKHORST is already known to Aryadevall and Mallavadin (DNC 1/271).13 It must therefore have co-existed with the view that material objects are nothing but collections of qualities for at least some time. Yet the two are strange bedfellows. In order to accomodate the doctrine of satkaryavada, classical Sankhya views the world as a continuous series of modifications parinama) of substrates which do not lose their essence.14 The Yuktidipika defines parinama in the following stanza (YD 75,6f.): jahad dharmantaram purvam upadatte yada param/ tattvad apracyuto dharmi parinamah sa ucyate // When the substrate (dharmin), without abandoning its essence, drops the earlier property (dharma) and accepts the next one, that is called modification (parinama).' Essential in this definition is that the substrate remains in each modification, without abandoning its essence. That is to say, material objects are more than mere collections of properties; there is necessarily something more to them, viz. the all-important substrate 15 12 E.g., Catuhsataka XI (LANG 1986, esp. p. 106f.); see further HONDA 1974. 13 Several authors (FRANCO 1991: 127; JOHNSTON 1937: 25; LARSON 1969: 165; LIEBENTHAL 1934: 9n. 11) have drawn attention to the fact that satkaryavada is without clear precedents in the earlier literature, and must be a relatively late development in Sankhya. Regarding the origin of this doctrine we may recall LIEBENTHAL's question, "ob nicht vielleicht satkarya selbst nur ein Aspekt einer Diskussion mit Madhyamika-Buddhisten ist" (1934: 4). 14 The ultimate substrate is, of course, known by the name prakrti or pradhana. 15 This is how we must read YD 51,17f.: asmakan tu kara pamatrasyaiva samghatad akarantaraparigrahad va kriyagunanam pracitir vyaktivise so bhavatiti bruvatam adosah "But [this] reproach is not valid for us because what we teach is that a particular manifest thing originates as the accumulation of movements and qualities on account of the cause and nothing but the cause having coagulated or having assumed another shape" (WEZLER 1985b: 22). This passage occurs in a discussion about the question whether the effect pre-exists in its cause, the famous satkaryavada. The opponent argues that if the effect were there, it should be observable, which it is not; and if it is not observable, one should be able to infer it on the basis of its movements and qualities, which, again, is not the case. Here the author of the Yuktidipika responds that one can only search for the movements and qualities of an effect as distinct from those of the cause, if one assumes that cause and effect themselves are distinct, which Sankhya denies; cf. YD 51,15-17: karyakaranaprthaktvavadinas tatkriyagunanam prthaktvam anumatum yuktam ity atas tantvavasthane patakriyagunagrahanad anumanabhava ity ayam upalambhah savakasah syat | 'For him who holds that effect and cause are separate, it is appropriate to infer that their movements and qualities are separate. For this reason the reproach can be made that, in the state of a mere] thread (and no cloth), no [cloth can be inferred on the basis of the observation of the movements and qualities of [that] cloth (precisely because Page #9 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ The Qualities of Sankhya 317 The Yoga Bhasya offers a similar definition of parinama at the very end of its commentary on YS III 13 (Ybh. 255,7f.): avasthitasya dravyasya parvadharmanivrttau dharmantarotpattih parinama iti I 'parinama is the production of a new property in a substance which remains the same, while the earlier property is destroyed'. It is true that the Yuktidipika finds fault with this definition, but its criticism concerns the use of the terms 'production' (utpatti) and 'destruction' (nivrtti)16, certainly not the part which states that the substance remains the same. Is it conceivable that Sankhya changed its view about the nature of material objects under pressure from the satkaryavada? 6. To conclude this article we have to consider two statements that occur in the Mahabhasya. This text, whose author is called Patanjali, is one of the very few texts of early India that can rather precisely be dated: it belongs almost certainly to the middle of the second century B.C.E. The first statement that interests us is gunasamdravo dravyam (Mbh. II/366,26); the second one reads gunasamudayo dravyam (II/ 200,13f). Both phrases are practically synonymous, and state that material objects are collections of qualities. There is no reason to believe that they express the opinion of the author of the Mahabhasya, yet they prove that this view existed in his days. Mbh. II/198,5 specifies what is meant by gunas: sound (sabda), touch (sparsa), colour (rupa), taste (rasa), and smell (gandha). There is no reason to think that the gunas that constitute material objects are different from these five. Can we conclude from these two phrases that some form of Sankhya was known to the author of the Mahabhasya? This would not be without danger, the more so since the Mahabhasya contains, to my knowledge, no clear indications to that effect. What is more, the view of matter as a collection of qualities was not the exclusive property of these latter are not observed)' (or, reading with WEZLER [1985b: 21] patakriyagunagrah, 'no [cloth can] be inferred because no movements and qualities of [that] cloth are observed'). Our phrase follows immediately after this remark. It will be clear that there is no question anywhere in this discussion of objects being nothing but accumulations of movements and qualities. Movements and qualities come in because they distinguish the effect from its cause, not because they constitute either or both of the two. Essentially effect and cause are not distinct, precisely because they are not made up of movements and qualities. Note, to conclude, that the Yuktidipika cites a stanza which describes bodies, as well as vases, etc., as nothing but collections of sattva etc. (YD 133,1f.): tasmat samghatamatratvat sattvadinam ghatadivata brahmanah parijnaya dehanam anavasthitim ||. 16 See HALBFASS 1992: 200f. Page #10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 318 J. BRONKHORST the Sankhyas: the Sarvastivadins held similar views, as has been correctly pointed out by WEZLER (1985b: 32n. 82). And whereas the Mahabhasya contains no clear indication that its author knew the Sankhya doctrine, there is reason to believe that he was acquainted with the teachings of the early Sarvastivadins17. This is not, however, the place to discuss this question in further detail. Appendix A solution to our problem of early Sankhya has been suggested by Nagesa Bhatta, author of the Uddyota, a subcommentary on the Mahabhasya. It occurs in his comments on Kaiyata's Pradipa on the Mahabhasya on P. IV 1,3. Kaiyata states (MP III/447): sattvarajastamamsi gunah | tatparinamarupas ca tadatmaka eva sabdadayah panca gunah | tatsamghatarupam ca ghatadi na tu tadvyatiriktam avayavidravyam astiti sankhyanam siddhantah "The doctrine of the Sankhyas is as follows]: The gunas are sattva, rajas and tamas; the (so-called] five gunas, (viz.) sound etc., are modifications of those [three gunas] and [therefore) identical with these; and vases etc. are collections of those [five gunas), not material wholes different from those [five gunas)'. This statement repeats the position also expressed by Bhartrhari and the other authors studied above. Nagesa comments as follows on the word sankhyanam (ib.): sankhyanam iti | sesvarasankhyanam acaryasya patanjaler ity arthah ! gunasamuho dravyam iti patanjalir iti yogabhasye spastam "Of the Sankhyas" means: of Patanjali, a teacher belonging to the Sankhyas with God. It is clear in the Yoga Bhasya that according to Patanjali a material object is a collection of gunas'. The reference is to the Yoga Bhasya on YS III 44, which reads (Ybh. 299,6): ayutasiddhavayavabhedanugatah samaho dravyam iti patanjalih | 'According to Patanjali's, a material object is an aggregate of different component parts which do not exist separately'. Nagesa interprets this to mean that a material object is a collection of gunas. Is this correct? And what does he mean by guna? The statement from the Yoga Bhasya must be read in context. It is preceded by a discussion, the most important points of which (for our present purposes) are: 17 See BRONKHORST 1987: 56ff. 18 According to HALBFASS (1992: 106n. 8), the reference is to the grammarian Patanjali. This seems doubtful, and is indeed not the opinion of Nagesa, as we have seen. Page #11 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ The Qualities of Sankhya A material object is a collection of samanya(s) and visesa(s) 19. What are samanyas and visesas? The visesas are sound etc. - belonging to earth etc. together with their properties, shape etc. 20. The samanyas are corporeality (which is earth), viscosity (which is water), heat (which is fire), moving forward (which is wind)", and going everywhere (which is ether)22. The text adds that sound etc. are the visesas of a samanya. There can be little doubt that both samanyas and visesas are qualities of some sort23; we may speak, with DASGUPTA (1924: 168), of generic and specific qualities. Material objects are, therefore, aggregates or collections of qualities, which are, moreover, inseparable. We may assume that we have to do here with a development of the preclassical form of Sankhya outlined above". Does this mean that we have to believe, following the lead of Nagesa, that Bhartrhari and the other authors cited at the beginning of this article referred to the Yoga Bhasya, or perhaps to a work by the mysterious Patanjali mentioned there? It seems doubtful. The samanyas in the Yoga Bhasya are never referred to as gunas25; yet Bhartrhari uses this term in connection with 'sound etc.'. AL Bibliography and Abbreviations 319 BRONKHORST 1987 Mahabhasyadipika of Bhartrhari, crit. edd. K.V. ABHYANKAR V.P. LIMAYE. [BORI Post-Graduate and Research Department Series, No. 8]. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1970. JOHANNES BRONKHORST, Three Problems Pertaining to the Mahabhasya. [Post-graduate and Research Department Series, No. 30]. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1987. 19 Ybh. 298,6 samanyavisesasamudayo 'tra dravyam |. 20 Ybh. 297,8 parthivadyah sabdadayo visesah sahakaradibhir dharmaih. 21 FRAUWALLNER (1953: 357, 404) translates pranamita as "Vorwartsbewegung". 22 Ybh. 298,2f. svasamanyam murtir bhumih sneho jalam vahnir usnata vayuh pranami sarvatogatir akasah. Ybh. 339,4ff. (ad YS IV 14) enumerates the same samanyas as murti, sneha, ausnya, pranamitva and avakasadana. 23 Some of the samanyas of the Yoga Bhasya figure among the dharmas of the elements enumerated at YD 118,21f. 24 Buddhist influence cannot be ruled out either; cf. Abhidharmakosa Bhasya I 12: kharah prthividhatuh | sneho 'bdhatuh | usnata tejodhatuh | irana vayudhatuh, the similarity of which with the Yoga Bhasya is undeniable. 25 Except, of course, by Nagesa in the passage cited above. Page #12 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 320 J. BRONKHORST CE IV Mahabhasyadipika of Bhartrhari. Fascicule IV: Ahnika I, crit. ed. J. BRONKHORST. [BORI Post-Graduate and Research Department Series, No. 28). Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1987. PULINBIHARI CHAKRAVARTI, Origin and Development of the Samkhya System of Thought. Repr. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1975. CHAKRAVARTI 1951 DASGUPTA 1924 DNCI SURENDRANATH DASGUPTA, Yoga as Philosophy and Religion. Repr. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1973. Dvadasaram Nayacakram of Acarya Sri Mallavadi Ksamasramana. With the commentary Nyayagamanusa - rini of Sri Simhasuri Gani Vadi Ksamasramana. Pt. I (1-4 Aras), ed. Muni JAMBOVIJAYAJT. Bhavnagar: Sri Jain Atmanand Sabha, 1966. FRANCO 1991 ELI FRANCO, Whatever happened to the Yuktidipika?. WZKS 35 (1991) 123-137. FRAUWALLNER 1927 ERICH FRAUWALLNER, Zur Elementenlehre des Sam khya. WZKM 34 (1927) 1-5 (= Kleine Schriften, edd. G. OBERHAMMER - E. STEINKELLNER. Wiesbaden 1982, p. 140-144). FRAUWALLNER 1953 Id., Geschichte der indischen Philosophie: I. Bd.: Die Philosophie des Veda und des Epos - Der Buddha und der Jina - Das Samkhya und das klassische Yoga System. Salzburg: Otto Muller, 1953. FRAUWALLNER 1958 id, Die Erkenntnislehre des klassischen Samkhya Systems. WZKS 2 (1958) 84-139 (= Kleine Schriften, p. 223-278). HALBFASS 1992 HONDA 1974 JOHNSTON 1937 LANG 1986 WILHELM HALBFASS, On Being and What There Is. Classical Vaisesika and the History of Indian Ontology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992. MEGUMU HONDA, Arya Deva's Critique Against Samkhya. JIBS 23,1 (1974) 491-486 (= 7-12). E.H. JOHNSTON, Early Samkhya. An Essay on its Historical Development according to the Texts. Repr. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1974. KAREN LANG, Aryadeva's Catuhsataka. On the Bodhisattva's Cultivation of Merit and Knowledge. [Indiske Studier VII]. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1986. GERALD JAMES LARSON, Classical Samkhya. An Interpretation of its History and Meaning. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1969. Id.-RAM SHANKAR BHATTACHARYA (edd.), Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Vol. IV: Samkhya. A Dualist Tradition in Indian Philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987 WALTER LIEBENTHAL, Satkarya in der Darstellung seiner buddhistischen Gegner. Die prakrti-pariksa im Tattvasamgraha des Santiraksita zusammen mit der Panjika des Kamalasila ubersetzt und ausfuhrlich interpre LARSON 1969 LARSON 1987 LIEBENTHAL 1934 Page #13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ The Qualities of Sankhya 321 Mbh. MP MS MV P. SK STRAUSS 1913 SW tiert. Beitrage zur indischen Sprachwissenschaft und Religionsgeschichte, Heft IX). Stuttgart - Berlin: W. Kohlhammer, 1934. The Vyakarana-Mahabhasya of Patanjali, ed. F. KIELHORN. Third Edition revised and furnished with additional readings, references and select critical notes by K.V. ABHYANKAR. Vol. I-III. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1962-1972. Vyakarana-Mahabhasya with Kaiyata's Pradipa and Nagesa's Uddyota, ed. VEDAVRATA. Vol. I-V. Rohtak: Harayana-Sahitya-Samsthana, 1962-1963. Mahabhasyadipika of Bhartrhari. Manuscript Reproduced. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1980. Sankhya Karika by Iswara Krishna with a commentary by Mathara Charya, ed. P. VISHNU PRASAD SARMA. The Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, No. 296). Benares: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1922. Paninian Sutra Isvarakrsna, Sankhya Karika: see MV and YD. OTTO STRAUSS, Zur Geschichte des Samkhya. WZKM 27 (1913) 257-275 (= Kleine Schriften, ed. F. WILHELM. Wiesbaden 1983, p. 154-172). Mahabhasya Tika by Bhartrhari. Vol. I, ed. V. SWAMINATHAN. [Hindu Vishvavidyalaya Nepal Rajya Sanskrit Series, Vol. 11). Varanasi: Banaras Hindu University, 1965. J. TAKAKUSU, La Samkhyakarika etudiee a la lumiere de sa version chinoise. BEFE0 4 (1904) 1-65 & 978-1064. Tom J.F. TILLEMANS, Materials for the Study of Aryadeva, Dharmapala and Candrakirti. The Catuhsataka of Aryadeva, Chapters XII and XIII, with the Commentaries of Dharmapala and Candrakirti: Introduction, Translation, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese Texts, Notes. Vol. I-II. (WSTB 24,1-2). Wien: Arbeitskreis fur tibetische und buddhistische Studien Universitat Wien, 1990. Bhartrharis Vakyapadiya. Die Mulakarikas nach den Handschriften hrsg. und mit einem Pada-Index versehen von W. RAU. JAKM XLII/4). Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner - Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellschaft, 1977. Vakyapadiya of Bhartrhari with the Prakirnakaprakasa of Helaraja. Kanda III, Pt. ii, crit. ed. K.A. SUBRAMANIA IYER. Poona: Deccan College, 1973. Vakyapadiya of Bhartrhari (An ancient Treatise on the Philosophy of Sanskrit Grammar) Containing the Tika of Punyaraja and the Ancient Vrtti. Kanda II, ed. K.A. SUBRAMANIA IYER. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. 1983. TAKAKUSU 1904 TILLEMANS 1990 VP VPP II VPT WEZLER 1985a ALBRECHT WEZLER, A Note on Varsaganya and the Yogacarabhumi. JASC 27,2 (1985) 1-17. Page #14 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________ 322 J. BRONKHORST WEZLER 1985b Ybh. Id., A Note on Mahabhasya II 366.26: gunasamdravo dravyam (Studies on Mallavadin's Dvadasaranayacakra II). In: Buddhism and Its Relation to Other Religions. Essays in Honour of Dr. Shozen Kumoi on His Seventieth Birthday. Kyoto 1985, p. 1-33. Patanjala-Yogasutra-Bhasya-Vivaranam of SankaraBhagavatpada, crit. edd. P. SRI RAMA SASTRI - S.R. KRISHNAMURTHI SASTRI. [Madras Government Oriental Series, No. XCIV]. Madras: Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, 1952. Yuktidipika. An ancient Commentary on the SamkhyaKarika of Isvarakrsna, ed. R.CH. PANDEYA. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1967. Yoga Sutra YD YS