Samkhya school

Also called: Sankhya · Topic: The Vedic Age · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Samkhya school (also spelt Sankhya) is one of the oldest schools of Indian philosophy. Tradition says the sage Kapila founded it. It explains the world through two separate realities: purusha (pure consciousness, the knowing self) and prakriti (matter, the source of the physical world). Its classical text is Ishvarakrishna's Samkhya Karika.

It matters because Samkhya gives the theory behind Yoga practice. It is also the clearest example of dualism (the belief in two basic realities) among the Indian schools, so it stands in contrast to the "all is one" teaching of Vedanta.

Explanation

Background: schools grow out of Vedic thought

• Early in the 1st millennium BCE, separate schools of thought grew out of the Vedas.
• The Upanishads had already moved Vedic religion away from ritual (performing sacrifices correctly) and towards knowledge as the path to freedom [1].
• Samkhya belongs to this search for knowledge. It asks two questions: what is the world made of, and how can the self be freed from it?
• Samkhya ideas appear in some older texts, but the school was set out as a full system much later. Kapila's own writings have not survived.
• Samkhya is counted among the six āstika schools, the "orthodox" schools that accept the authority of the Vedas. They are often studied in pairs: Samkhya–Yoga, Nyaya–Vaisheshika and Mimamsa–Vedanta.

Main ideas: two realities

• Purusha (consciousness)
• Purusha is the pure, knowing self. It only watches. It does not act and it does not change.

• Samkhya says there are many purushas, one for each living being. Vedanta instead teaches one single brahman.

• Prakriti (matter)

• Prakriti is the single source of everything physical, including the body, the mind and the senses.
• It is made of three gunas (qualities or strands):
  • sattva: light, calm and goodness
  • rajas: energy, activity and passion
  • tamas: darkness, heaviness and dullness

• When the three gunas are in balance, nothing happens. When the balance breaks, the world begins to unfold.

• The 25 tattvas (basic principles)

• Samkhya counts 25 tattvas. Purusha is one. Prakriti and the 23 things that unfold from it make up the other 24.

• Among the things that unfold are intellect, ego, mind, the senses and the elements.

• Satkaryavada (the effect already exists in the cause)

• Samkhya says nothing new is ever created from nothing. A pot already lies hidden in the clay.
• In the same way, the whole world already lies hidden in prakriti.

The problem and the way out

• Bondage: suffering begins when purusha wrongly believes it is the body and mind. Those belong to prakriti, not to purusha.
• Freedom: the way out is right knowledge. This means seeing clearly that purusha and prakriti are different.
• Kaivalya: the goal is kaivalya (the "aloneness" or freedom of purusha from prakriti).
• No creator god: classical Samkhya does not need a creator god to explain the world. Prakriti unfolds by itself.

What followed: Samkhya and Yoga

• The Yoga school is close to Samkhya philosophy, but it adds a supreme lord, Īśhvara [5].
• In simple terms, Samkhya provides the theory (what the self and the world are) and Yoga provides the practice (how to realise it).
• Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras (c. 2nd century BCE; some scholars say 5th century CE) set out the eight-limbed Aṣhṭāṅga Yoga on this Samkhya base [4][5].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: Samkhya's roots lie in the later Vedic and Upanishadic age, when schools of thought were taking shape early in the 1st millennium BCE. Its classical written form is much later. Exact dates are uncertain.
• Region: north India, the same world as the Upanishadic thinkers and forest-dwelling renouncers [2].
• Key figures:
• Kapila: the traditional founder. He is known mostly through legend.
• Ishvarakrishna: the author of the Samkhya Karika, the oldest surviving textbook of the school.

• Patañjali: he built Yoga on Samkhya ideas [4][5].

• How we know:

• the Samkhya Karika, the main source
• early ideas scattered through some Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita
• the Yoga Sūtras, which take over Samkhya's ideas of purusha and prakriti [5]
• no archaeological or inscription evidence, because this is a school of ideas

Don't confuse with

• Yoga school: Yoga accepts Samkhya's two realities but adds a supreme lord, Īśhvara [5]. Classical Samkhya has no creator god.
• Vedanta: Vedanta is non-dualist at its core. It teaches that everything is one brahman and that ātman = brahman [3]. Samkhya is dualist: purusha and prakriti stay separate, and there are many purushas.
• Charvaka (Lokayata): Charvaka is a materialist school. It accepts only matter and rejects the Vedas. Samkhya accepts both matter and consciousness, and it is counted among the āstika (orthodox) schools.
• Kapilavastu: this is the Buddha's home town, a place name. Do not mix it up with Kapila, the sage who founded Samkhya.

Prelims Hooks

• Samkhya: traditional founder Kapila; classical text the Samkhya Karika by Ishvarakrishna.
• Two realities: purusha = consciousness; prakriti = matter.
• The three gunas of prakriti are sattva, rajas and tamas. Samkhya counts 25 tattvas.
• Satkaryavada (the effect already exists in the cause) is a Samkhya doctrine.
• Paired schools: Samkhya–Yoga, Nyaya–Vaisheshika, Mimamsa–Vedanta.
• Trap: "Samkhya and Yoga both accept Īśhvara" is wrong. Only Yoga adds Īśhvara [5].

Mains Points

• The questioning spirit in action. Samkhya tries to explain the universe through reasoned analysis, without relying on ritual or a creator god. It shows that Indian thought included a strong habit of rational enquiry, carrying forward the Upanishadic move from ritual to knowledge [1].
• Variety within orthodox thought. Samkhya (dualist, many selves) and Vedanta (one brahman, ātman = brahman [3]) both accept the Vedas. This shows that the "schools of thought" behind Hinduism were open systems that disagreed with each other, not one fixed doctrine.
• A lasting legacy. Samkhya's ideas live on through Yoga. Patañjali's system rests on them [4][5], and Yoga is now practised around the world. The UN declared 21 June the International Day of Yoga on 11 December 2014 (resolution 69/131) [6]. This is useful for questions on the continuity of Indian culture.

Related concepts

• Upanishads
• Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
• Chandogya Upanishad
• Uddalaka Aruni
• Tat tvam asi
• Katha Upanishad
• Nachiketa
• Mundaka Upanishad
• Satyameva Jayate
• Atman

Read more

• Upanishadic thought: Vedanta, Yoga and the questioning spirit