Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 52
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
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JULY, 1823 )
THE PROBLEM OF THE SANKHYA KARIKAS.
177
Tashkend, far away to the north, brought about a great rising of the populations beyond the Yazartes, who received aid from the Arabs. In a great battle fought in July 751, in the plains near Talas, Kao Hsien-chih was completely defeated by the Arabs and their local allies, and in the ensuing débâcle barely escaped with a small remnant of his troops.35
This disaster marked the end of all Chinese enterprise beyond the Imaos. In Eastern Turkestan Chinese domination succeeded in maintaining itself for some time amidst constant struggles, until by A.D. 791 the last of its administrators and garrisons, completely cut off long before from contact with the Empire, finally succumbed to Tibetan invasion. Close on a thousand years were to pass after Kao Hsien-chih's downfall before Chinese control was established onoe again over the Tarim basin and north of the T'ien-shan under the great emperor Ch'ien-lung.
THE PROBLEM OF THE SANKHYA KARIKAS.
BY SHRIDHAR SHASTRI PATHAK, In his edition of Isvarkrishna's Sankhya Karikas with Gaudapáda's Commentary thereon, Wilson, while oommenting on the seventy-second karika, makes the following observation:" We have here in the text reference to seventy stanzas as comprising the doctrinal part of Sankhya. In fact, however, there are but sixty-nine, unless the verse containing the notice of kapila be included in the enumeration, and in that case it might be asked, why should not the next stanza at least, making mention of the reputed author, be also comprehended, when there will be seventy-one verses? The scholiasts offer no explanation of the difficulty."
The three stanzas referred to above, beginning with the 70th in Wilson's edition, run as follows -
एतत् पवित्रमय्यं मुनिरासुरयेऽनुकम्पया प्रददौ । भासुरिरपि पश्चशिखाय तेन च बहुधा कृतं तन्त्रम् ॥ ७० ॥ शिष्यपरम्परयागतमीश्वरकृष्णेन चैतदार्याभिः । संक्षिप्तमार्यमतिना सम्यग्विज्ञाय सिद्धान्तम् ।। ७१ ।। सप्तम्यां किल येऽर्थास्तेः कृत्स्नस्य षष्टितंत्रस्य
आख्यायिकाविरहिताः परषादविवर्जिताश्चापि ॥ ७२ ॥ Gaudapáda's Commentary, as observed by Wilson, stops at the end of the sixty-ninth kdrika, but in its concluding verse quotes 'seventy' as the number of Aryas (Yatraitah Saptatirâryah, etc.)
In an article in Sanskrit Research " the late Mr. B. G. Tilak, accepting Wilson's view regarding the existence of some incongruity in the number of karikás, proceeds to show that a lirika is actually missing from the present text, and even claims to have discovered it in a passage of Gauda påda's Commentary. This passage is a part of the bhâshya on the sixtyfirst karika and contains a discussion on the nature of the first cause of creation. In Mr. Tak's opinion it must have originally formed Gaudapâda's Commentary on & distinot karikd following the sixty-first, and was somehow left out of the body of the text. Selecting suitable excerpts from the passage and putting them together, he gets the following as the missing karika.
कारणमीश्वरमेके पुरुषं कालं परे स्वभावं वा। ar: i farfurat 26:: FAT 11
36 Cf. Chavannee, Turos occidentaux, p. 142, note 2. M. Chavannes, p. 297, quotes the closely conpordant account of these events from Muhammadan historical recorde.
