Samayasara OR Nature of Self

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 87

1xXXVI
SAMAYASARA the fact that some of the founders of Vedic schools Apasthambha and Kathyayana are spoken of as Dravidian and the Tamil work already referred to also speaks of the prevalent Indra worship in the South Taking all these facts we have to assign the Aryan migration somewhere about the 7th Century BC. The migration of Aryans with their characteristic Indra worship must certainly have been associated with the Sankhya school which was manily opposed to Indra worship and animal sacrifice, that is the two schools of thought must have come down to the south almost simultaneously Another thing we may notice in this connection is this. The school of revolt against Brahminical ritualism must generally be more liberal in its social aspect. This is clearly borne out in the case of Jaina and Buddhistic schools The Sankhya school was evidently at one with these two schools in removing the social barriers against religious devotees. Such an assumption well borne out by sister schools of thought would explain the fact that among the alwars of the south we find representatives from among all strata of society irrespective of the distinction of Arya and Dravida The Vaishnava tradition is confirmed even by Ramanuja's teachings though by a strange irony of fate his followers at present represent the most bigoted form of orthodoxy.
Sankhya Philosophy The term Sankhya according to European scholars is derived from Sankhya or number, because Kapila enumerates a number of Tatwas as constituting elements of reality. The term is supposed to be related to number. But according to Indian thinker the term is synonymous with discrimination. This is the meaning in which the term is used in the Mahabharata. Vignanabikshu a famous writer of the Sankhya school also explains the term as discrimination or setting forth the distinction between spirit or atman on the one hand and matter or Prakriti on the other. Sankara also adopts the same interpretation. Hence the traditional meaning nay be accepted as more correct and the other one suggested by European scholars has to be rejected as far fetched. Some of them even go to the length of connecting the Sankhya system with the Pythagorean school. Pythagoreanism is also connected with the mystric doctrine of numbers.