The Sānkhya Kārikā, with the Bhāshya of Gauḍapāda — trans. H. T. Colebrooke and H. H. Wilson (1837)

Discrete; intellect and the other effects. Causable; that of which there is cause; the term Aetw meaning ‘cause,’ as synonymous with updddna, kdrana, and nimitta. Nature is the cause of a discrete principle; therefore discrete principles, as far as the gross elements inclusive, have cause; thus, the principle intellect has cause by nature ; egotism by intellect; the five rudiments and eleven organs by egotism ; ether by the rudiment of sound; air by that of touch; light by that of form ; water by that of taste; and earth by that of smell. In this way, to the gross elements inclusive, a discrete principle has cause. Again, it is inconstant, because it is produced from another; as a water-jar, which is produced from a lump of clay, is not constant. Again, it is unpervading, not going every where: a discrete principle is not like nature and soul, omnipresent. Again, i¢ is mutable; it is subject to the changes which the world undergoes: combined with the thirteen instruments, and incorporated in the subtile frame, it undergoes worldly vicissitudes, and hence is mutable. J¢ is multitudinous; it is intellect, egotism, the five rudiments, and eleven organs; and the five gross elements are supported by the five rudiments. It is mergent; subject to resolution ; for at the period of (general) dissolution, the five gross elements merge into the five rudiments; they, with the eleven organs, into egotism ; egotism into intellect ; and intellect merges into nature. Conjunct ; conjoined, made up of parts, as sound, touch, taste, form, and smell. Governed ; not self-dependent ; for intellect is dependent on nature, egotism on intellect, the rudiments and organs on egotism, and the gross elements on the rudiments. In this way the governed or subject discrete principle is explained: we now explain the undiscrete.

The undiscrete one is the reverse. An undiscrete principle is the contrary in respect to the properties attributed to the discrete: that, is causable; but there is nothing prior to nature, whence follows its non-production, and therefore it is without cause. A discrete principle is inconstant ; an undiscrete is eternal, as it is not produced. The primary elements are not produced from any where; that is, nature. A discretep. 41 principle is unpervading; nature is pervading, going every where. A discrete principle is mutable; nature immutable, from the same omnipresence. Discrete principles are multitudinous; nature is single, from its causality: “ Nature is the one cause of the three worlds ;” thence nature is single. Discrete principles are dependent; the undiscrete one is independent, from its not being an effect: there is nothing beyond nature of which it can be the effect. A discrete principle is mergent; the undiscrete immergent (indissoluble), being eternal: intellect and the rest, at the period of general dissolution, merge respectively into one another; not so nature; and that therefore is immergent (indissoluble). A discrete principle is conjunct (or compound, made up of parts); nature is uncompounded, for sound, touch, flavour, form, and odour, are not in (crude) nature. Discrete principles are governed ; the undiscrete is independent, it presides over itself. These are the properties in which discrete and undiscrete principles are dissimilar: those in which they are similar are next described.

COMMENT.

It was stated in the eighth stanza, that intellect and the other effects of nature were in some respects similar, and in others dissimilar, to their cause: the properties in which the dissimilarity consists are here enumerated.

The generic term used for the effects or products of primeval nature (vyakta*) means, in its etymological and commonly received senses, that which is evident or manifest, or that which is individual or specific ; from vi, distributive particle, and anja, ‘to make clear or distinct.’ The purport is therefore sufficiently well expressed by the equivalent Mr. Colebrooke has selected, ‘ discrete,’ detached from its cause, and having a separate and distinct existence. Nature (or primary matter) is the reverse of this, or avyakta +, ‘ undiscrete, unseparated, indistinct.’ If xatura were substituted for ¢ellus, these lines of Lucretius would illustrate the application of the terms in question:

* orm! T wore I

p. 42

Multa modis multis multarum semina rerum
Quod permixta gerit tellus discretaque tradit.

Discrete or separated effect or principle (meaning by principle a fatwa, or category, according to the S4nkhya classification of the elements of