________________
The Sankhya and the Jaina, along with the Yoga and the Bauddha, philosophies seem to represent the different branches of the main thoughtcurrent of Non Aryans of India that was prevalent before the advent of the Vedic Aryans This thought-current went underground in the days of the Vedas but afterwards having gathered strength it seems to have asserted itself and influenced the Upangads and Dharmalastras That the Sankhya (-Yoga), Jaina and Bauddha philosophles belong to one tradition is suggested by the fact that Mahavira, the 24th Jalna rthankara, was a sankhyācārya in his previous birth2 and that Buddha had become a siya of Alara Kalama and Rudraka Ramaputra who were sankhyācāryas In this context the declaration of Ac Sankara that the Sankhya is a Vedaniruddha tantra new meaning and magnitude Even Badarayana declares the heterodox character of Sankhya (Br Sa 115) This has prompted me to bring out the points of similarities between the Jane and the Sankhya philosophies
JAINISM AND SANKHYA
Nagin J Shah
2 The Jaina and the Sankhya maintain clear-cut dualism Jalna theoreticians hold that five and ajiva are two radically different elements, Similarly, the Sankhyas contend that purua and prakyti are two ultimate reals Under the head of ajioa the Jainas count dharma, adharma, pudgala,
1 "These ideas (ie Sänkhya-Yoga deas) do not belong to the original stock of the Vedic Brahmanic tradition Nor, on the other hand, do we find among the basic teachings of Sankhya and Yoga any hint of such a pantheon of divine Olympians, beyond the vicissitudes of earthly bondage, as that of the Vedic gods. The two ideologies are of different origin, Sikhya and Yoga being related to the mechanical system of the Jainas, which, as we have seen can be traced back, in a partly histor cal, partly legendary way, through the long series of the Tirthankaras, to a remote, aboriginal, non-Vedic, Indian antiquity" Philosophies of India, Zimmer, the Bollinge Series XXVI (1953), p 281 'If Dr Zimmer's view is correct, however, the preAryan, Dravidian religion was rigorously moral and systematically Dealistic yes before the birth of Zoroaster This would seem to suggest that in Zoroastrianiko a resurgence of pre-Aryan factors in Iran, following the period of Aryan supremacy, may be represented-something comparable to the Dravidian resurgence in India the form of Jainism and Buddhism" Zimmer Philosophies of India, p. 185, Note 8 by Editor-Campbell
Avasyakacurnl I p 182 & p 220,
Nava Nalanda Mahavthar Research Vol. II p 48 कपिलस्य तन्त्र वेदविदम्
2
3
०००मा० २१११ ।
