Theories Of Parinama

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

Page 45

Samkhya Ideas in Pre-Isvarakṛṣṇa Literature
31
REVIEW
The numerous references to the Samkhya ideas noted above both in the religious and secular literature make it abundantly clear that the Samkhya ideas must have been widely prevalent then. That they must have been greatly authoritative and must have powerfully influenced the contemporary thought is brone out by the explicit statement in the Mbh. to that effect. 'In the Mbh.', as Hopkins puts it 'Kapila is authoritative in all philosophical matters and that his name covers every sort of doctrine. He is in fact the only founder of a philosophical system known to the epic'.29 The best evidence', in the words of Hopkins, 'of the authority of Kapila is given not by express statement but by implication in the praise of other systems which, an important point, are by the same implication looked upon as distinct from that of Kapila, although his name is used to uphold them. Thus Kapila's own system is called generally the Samkhya-Yoga or specifically the Kapilam. The Samkhya-Yogins are said to be the models even in teaching of other tendency as in XII. 347.22. and nothing better can be said of the Bhagavatas, here extolled, than that their system is equal to the Samkhya-Yoga', not, be it observed, the same but as good as the system of Kapila. In the Gitā, too (I, 75) the Samkhya is cited alone as the one system of Salvation'.30 It is also significant to note that Kapila's treatise is repeatedly regarded to be the oldest.81
All this leaves no doubt as to the antiquity and supremacy of the Samkhya thought in ancient india.
29 Great Epic of India, p. 97, 99, 100.
30 Great Epic of India, p 100
31 Great Epic of India, p. 98, (Mbh. X1I. 350, 6)