Sambodhi 1975 Vol 04

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 27

Vedic origins of Sankhya Dialectic
or Indra to the firmament, and the sun to the solar world.44 In the Vedas, the sun is also designated as Visnu.45 So, it is said that fire is the lowest and Visņu the highest of the deities, all other deites falling in between.46 It appears that later, in order of importance, Indra and fire yielded place to Brahman (masculine) and Siva respectively. In the result, the Vedic trinity of sun, Indra, and fire was supplanted by the Puranic trinity of Viṣṇu, Brahman (mas.) and Śiva.* It is significant that even in an Upanisad of sufficient antiquity tamas is identified with Rudra or Śiva, rajas with Brahman (mas.), and sattva with Visnu.47
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Thus, the cosmic trilogy as the divine trinity envisaged in the Vedas has had much to do with the origin of the guna-trilogy.
The cosmogonic trilogy of chaos (vi-sarga, parti-sarga, pra-laya), creation (sarga), and cosmos (srsti) also seem to have been at the root of the guna-trilogy. In the Veda as well as other ancient texts, the state of cosmo. gonic chaos is always identified with darkness or 'tamas', in a categorical manner. 48 An Upanisadic text identifies this "tamas' with the 'tamas' of the guna-trilogy in clear terms.49 Well, if chaos is identifiable with darkness, cosmos will naturally be indentified with light and the creative process with down or dusk as the case may be. In fact, the three cosmogonic phases are clearly described in certain texts as the night, the dawn, and the day of Brahman (mas.) on one hand 50 and slumber (pra-svapa), dream (svapna), and wakefulness (jagaṛana) on the other, respectively. In some texts, God is said to be dark during chaos, red during the process of creation, and white during the life of the cosmos.52 In several texts, it is also indicated that tamas is black, rajas red, and sattva white.63 As already noted, tamas is also indentfied with Rudra or Śiva, rajas with Brahman (mas.) and sattva with Visņu, the gods of chaos, creation, and cosmos respectively. Puranically, the dark colour of God is the manifestation of tamas; the red colour, of rajas: and the white colour, of sattva- the three guna-s of Sankhya.54 The Upanisad has it that there is a goat or eternal one (apparently Prakrti of Sankhya)-black, white, and red-giving birth to beings of all kinds.55 Here the reference to the guna-trilogy is unmistakable.
The penultimate form of the guna-trilogy in the cosmogonic context appears to be the trilogy of forms of existence (rupāņi) given in the Chandogya-Upanisad, viz, anna (solid), ap (liquid), and tejas (heat), which are said to be, respectively, the black, white and red forms of the world to. be50, and which are to become threefold each through contact with the puruşa (self). Here the expression 'through contact with the purusa' is specially reminiscent of the Sankhya. J. A. B. Van Buitenen has very ably traced 57 the why of this trilogy to a statement in the Brhadaranyak-Upanisad, 58 which need not be discussed here,
Sambodhi 4.1