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

It is stated in this stanza, from nature issues the great one. What is meant by that great one is next defined.

ye

p. 80

COMMENT.

The categories of the Sankhya system have been before alluded to (ver. 3, p. 16), in explanation of their mutual relations, and of the properties which they have in common, or by which they are discriminated from one another; but we have them here enumerated in the order of their production, as prefatory to a detailed description of them and of their functions contained in the following stanzas.

The generic term for the twenty-five principles, tattwa, or as usually and with equal correctness written fatwa, is explained by Gaurapapa to mean ‘the abstract existence,’ astitwa*, ovcia, essentia, of tat, THAT; that thing, which is the object of philosophical investigation, or which has a real existence, and must be known. The more common etymology, tat, ‘that,’ and ftcam, ‘ thou,’ belongs to the Védanta system; as in the Ma- Advdkya, tat-tram asi, ‘ that (supreme soul) thou art,’ implies the identity of universal and individualized spirit.

We have in the scholia of Gavrapdpa on this stanza some synonymes of nature and the two first principles, the analysis of which elucidates the ideas entertained of them by the Sankhyas. The succeeding stanzas will afford an opportunity of adverting to the terms used for intellect and egotism, and we may here confine the inquiry to the synonymes of nature, or matter.

Prakriti, as has been previously mentioned (p. 17), intimates, that which precedes, or is prior to, making ; that which is not made from any thing else. It is also used relatively, to signify that which is the source from which a product is derived ; so that mahat is the prakriti of ahankdra, &c. (see p. 18). Here, however, our business is with the primary source of all material products, and the term indicates merely that which preceded (pra) production (kriti); what that may have been is left wholly undefined or unimplied by the particular term. The same may be said of it agreeably to another etymology given in the Sdnkhya Sdra, where

* fered | + wat

p. 81

pra is interpreted by prakrishia, ‘ principal, chief, best,’ analogously to its other denomination, pradhdna, ‘the chief. Pradhdna is derived from pra,‘ principal,’ and did, ‘to hold :’ ‘that in which all generated effect is comprehended *.” The next synonyme, avyakta, ‘the unseparated, the undistinguished, the unperceived,’ has been also previously noticed (p. 41) as derived from anja, ‘to make clear,’ with vi, separative preposition, and the negative a prefixed: the term is of as frequent occurrence as either of the preceding, and is constantly used as a synonyme of prakriti in the Puranas and in Manu. Brahme, which is to be carefully distinguished from Brahmd, the personified creative power, is ordinarily applied either to the Védas or supreme spirit, and is an uncommon synonyme of prakriti; but as derived from vriha, ‘to increase,’ it implies the first principle of which the expansion becomes all perceptible objects. Bahudhdnaka is derived, like pradhdna, from dhd, ‘to hold; dhdnaka, “the holder’ or ‘comprehender’ of bah, ‘much’, of all things. Mdyd, in its ordinary sense of ‘ illusion,’ is applied to prakriti, not by the Sankhyas, for they maintain the reality of existing things, but by the Védantis and Pauranikas, who regard creation as a delusion or as a sport of the Creator : it is derived from the root md, ‘to measure,’ and nay here perhaps imply either ‘comprehension,’ like pradhdna, or ‘extension.’ There is no explanation of the term by any of the Scholiasts. VisnAna Burxsnv quotes the Védas to shew that it is synonymous with prakriti}. In the Sdnkhya Sdra we have other synonymes, as, sakti, ‘ power,’ ¢évaus; ajd, ‘the unborn, the unproduced ;° ¢amas, ‘ darkness ;’ and avidyd, ‘ignorance |.’