Theories Of Parinama

Author(s): Indukala H Jhaveri
Publisher: Gujarat University

Page 41

Samkhya Ideas in Pre-Isvarakrșna Literature
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it Individuation, from it the five Elements. The Vikaras are said to be sixteen but after that only five višeșas and five senses, i. e. in all ten vikāras are mentioned. In XII. 310.10-17, five organs of perception - eye, ear, etc., their five objects, five organs of action, speech, hands etc. and mind are mentioned as the sixteen vikāras. The evolutionary series given in the Anugita (XIV, 40-42) agrees in many respects with that of the classical Samkhya. It is stated that from the Avyakta 'is produced the Mahat, from it Individuation, from it the five Elements, from them on the one hand the qualities of sound etc. and on the other the five vital airs, while from Individuation arise the eleven organs of sense - five of perception, five of action and mind.
It may be noted that nowhere in the Mbh. do we get a reference to the five Tanmātrās (which in the classical Sāmkhya are derived from Individuation) and to the division of Individuation into Vaikārika, Taijasa and Tamasa found in the Sāṁkhyakārika.
With the exception of these two, the Mbh. records the categories of the classical Samkhya in a variety of ways. Nevertheless the important concepts of the classical Sāṁkhya, like those of the three Guņas, the distinction between Puruşa and Prakști, the plurality of passive Puruşās etc. are clearly mentioned.
From the above, it is clear that the Mbh.-Samkhya provides a cosmology with a God. Though the terms like ‘vikurvānāḥ' and "Vikuste', Vikriya' do occur in the Mbh. (XII.313.15, 302.21.42, 308.2)18 yet we do not find any explicit mention of parināma as explaining creation. It may be that the idea of pariņāma was taken for granted as implicit in the process.
SĀŇKHYA IDEAS IN THE SMRTIS AND PURĀŅAS
The Smặtis and the Purānas adopt the Mbh. tradition of theistic Samkhya in one form_or another. In the Manu-Smộti which is contemporaneous with the main body of the didactic
18 Cf. also 307, 13