Exchange
Exchange
The
Samkhya Karikasof Is'vara Kr/shna
with the
Commentary of Gauc/apada
Abstract of Thesis
PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVER- SITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIRE- MENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
By
Ellwood Austin Welden
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania
The
Sa/nkhya Karikasof Is Vara Kn'shna
with the
Commentary of Gauc/apada
Abstract of Thesis
PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVER- SITY OF PENNSYLVANIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIRE- MENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
By
ELLWOOD AUSTIN WELDEN ft
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania
The Samkhya Karikas of Is'vara Krishna
with the Commentary of GauJapada
The Sawkhya Karikas1 of Igvara Krishwa take without doubt the first place among the formal treatises of that system of philosophic speculation, the Sawkhya, which had its beginnings several centuries before the Christian era and which was in its teachings the precursor of the Buddhist reformation. This school of philosophy, atheistic in its tendencies, directly antagonistic to the doctrines of the earlier Upanishads and, in consequence, the strong opponent of the monistic Vedanta, conceives of the visible universe as a real creation emanating from a material principle or substratum, called prakriti, which in its characteristics and attributes is the exact opposite of the purusha or soul, this latter being regarded by the masters of the school as multitudinous and individual.
The word karika signifies a memorial or technical verse, and the work was drawn up in its present form some time prior to the cycle 557-583 A. D. This fact is established by a Chinese translation of the work, made during this period of twenty-six years. The collection consists of sixty-nine stanzas, written in the arya metre, to which number were subsequently added three verses, describing the composition of the book and enumerating in brief its sources. It is evident that these last three karika are apochryphal from the absence of comment upon them by Gaurfa- pada and from the fact that verse 69 is properly the concluding stanza.
In a concise and comprehensive way, these sixty-nine me- morial verses, each in turn, explain the several doctrines of the earlier and pure Samkhya school, as yet untouched by Vedantic colorings, and in their brevity and terseness they resemble, in every particular, except their metrical structure, the sutras of the remaining five orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy.
The Form of the Work. — Within the body of the karikas
present paper, together with my articles "The Sawkhya Term linga" (A. J. P., Oct.-Dec., 1910), and "I metri delle Samkhya Karika (Studi Italiani di Filologia Indo-Iranica, vol. viii, Firenze, 1912), form part of the introduction to my original work the Sawi-khya Karika with Commentary of Gawdapada, presented as a thesis.
themselves there is indeed no division into books and parts, as is so common to most Sanskrit treatises, due to the Hindu's mania for artificial classification; but, on the other hand, there is a markedly clear, systematic treatment of each topic in its proper place, and an orderliness of method, almost unknown to other philosophical text-books. Thus it is possible to recognize a scheme of internal division into sections, in accordance with the general theme under discussion.
SECTION 1. Karikas 1-9. General Introduction The first nine karikas serve as a sort of introductory sketch or general outline of the Sawkhya doctrines and of the methods to be pur- sued in investigation, as follows:
1-2. Reasons for investigation into the means of alle-
viating and annihilating the three kinds of pain: internal,
external and superhuman.
3. Tabulation of the main theory of the Sawkhya
school, to wit, the twenty-five tattvas or principles, composing
the invisible, universe, the visible and the soul.
4-7. The logical means of proof, by which a conclusion
may be reached and the impediments to perception of an
object.
8. Impediments to the perception of the prakriti or substratum of the material universe.
9. The doctrine of sat-karya, or the existence of an effect in its material cause.
SECTION 2. Karikas 10-21. Ontology. Attributes of mat- ter and soul. These twelve karikas take up the subject already introduced in karika 3, and enumerate the qualities or attributes of both prakriti or matter and purusha, or soul.
10-11. The similarities and diversities of the charac- teristics of prakriti, her evolvents and purusha.
12-13. The doctrine of the three guwas or constituents of prakriti and her evolvents.
14-16. Proofs of the existence of prakriti as the mate- rial cause of the universe.
(16)-17. Proofs of the existence of purusha, the soul.
18. The multitudinousness and individuality of puru- sha, the soul.
19. Soul's attributes — isolation, neutrality, perceptivity and non-agency.
20-21. Causes of bondage, or the union of soul and matter.
SECTION 3. Karikas 22-28. Physiology. Herein is de-
scribed the process of evolution of the universe, the nature of
the products of prakriti and their functions.
22. Classified list of prakriti's evolvents.
22-24. The inner organs — Buddhi, or intellect, and ahawkara or self-reference, the origin of subjectivity.
25-26. The names and origin of the five organs of sense and the fire organs of action.
27. The manas, or mind — its nature.
28-37. The functions of both inner and outer organs and their method of functionating.
38. The gross elements and their characteristics. SECTION 3. Karikas 39-51. Metempsychosis. Karika 39
introduces for the first time the theory of a subtle or inner body, composed of the thirteen organs, or linga1, plus the rudimentary elements which accompanies the purusha or soul on its rounds of re-birth; the succeeding karikas treat of the doctrine of me- tempsychosis and of the subtle body.
39. The three kinds of objects of sense.
40-42. The nature of the subtle body and the reasons for its existence.
43-45, The attributes of buddhi or intellect and the result of each.
46-51. The bhavas or dispositions of the intellect and the results of each.
SECTION 4. Karikas 52-54 The Two-fold Creation: intel- lectual and material, and the prevalence of the guwas or con- stituents of matter in the various forms of creation are here de- scribed.
SECTION 5. Karikas 55-68. Psychology. In these verses
is described the union of purusha, the soul, with prakriti, or mat-
ter, and the methods of liberation.
55-61. Causes of bondage. Reasons for the union of
the two principles, in order that purusha shall eventually
attain to final emancipation.
62-63. Purusha is not bound, but prakriti.
64-68. Final emancipation. Its nature and when at-
tained.
SECTION 6. Karika 69 (70-72). Concluding verse and apochryphal additions.
Metrical Structure. — The Sawkhya Karikas differ from the vast majority of Hindu works on philosophy, through the fact that they are composed in metrical form, at least in their present state. The metre employed by Igvara Krishna is the arya, per- haps the most complicated and most different of all the many modes of Sanskrit versification, but one which is frequent in works of the golden age of the literature, during which period our author flourished. In structure this metre is quite different from nearly all other Indian metrical forms, inasmuch as it is
based not on the number of syllables in the verse, or pada, but on the number of morae. A light syllable, that is, one contain- ing a short vowel, counts as one mora ; a heavy syllable, in other words, a syllable containing a long vowel, or a closed syllable, counts as two.
The verse is divided into two half stanzas, each of which is made up of eight padas or feet, and the caesura occurs in both cases at the end of the third foot. These feet are formed, each of two morae, appearing as two heavy syllables (— — ), as two light syllables and one heavy (__ — , _ — _, — __), or a four light syllables (____). The eighth foot of each half stanza is catalectic, consisting of one heavy syllable ( — ). But here occurs an irregularity, frequent also in other works than the Karika, namely, the occasional occurrence of a light (_) in place of the heavy syllable.
It should be noted further that the sixth foot of the first half stanza must always form an amphibrach (_ — _), and the sixth foot of the second half stanza must be a single light syllable (_), while no odd foot may be an amphibrach. Applying these rules, it is easily seen that the first half stanza consists of thirty morae, the second of twenty-seven, as follows :
In my recent paper, "I Metri delle Sawkhya Karika," pub- lished in "Sttidi Italiani di Filologia Indo-Iranica" (vol. viii. tip. Carnesecchi, Firenze, 1912), I have already treated in detail the numerous metrical defects of the Karikas. Of the entire seventy- two verses, forty-seven contain to a greater or less degree errors in regard to versification.
2. In two karikas there is a disregard for the rule of the amphibrach in the sixth foot of the first half serve.
Karika 3 reads :
"mulaprakritir avikritir; | mahad-adya/* prakriti-vikritaya/i
sapta ; |
shodacakas tu vikaro; | na prakritir, na vikriti/z purusha/t||" and Karika 47 :
"paiica viparyaya-bheda | bhavanty, agaktes tu karawa- vaikalyat |
ashtaviragati-bhedas ; tushfir navadha; 'shtedha siddhi/i ||."
In both cases, the foot in question consists of four short syllables (_^__).
3. Four karikas contain more than the regular number of morae.
Karika 20:
"tasmat, tat-sawyogad | acetanaw cetanavad iva lingam, | guwa-kartritve ca tatha | karteva bhavatiti udasina/t ||."(1)
Scheme: I I II.. — . I I I
Karika 43 :
"sawsiddhikag ca bhavaft | "sawsiddhikag ca bhava/z | prakritika, vaikritikag ca dharma-
'dyah |
drsh/a/i karawa-'grayiwa/i, karya-'grayi«ag ca kalala-'dya/i 1 1 Scheme: U~ _ | II -. , I ^ I ^~
Karika 52:
v<na vina bhavair lingaw, | na vina lingena bhava-nirvritti/* ; | linga-'khyo, bhava-'khyas | tasmad dvividha/i pravartate
sarga/i || " Scheme: _-| I ll.-l l_-_|-
Iii this case the second half verse has the scheme of a first half verse. In classical Sanskrit this occurs regularly and is known as the giti or udgatha. Karika 66: " 'drishfa rnaya' ity upekshaka | eko ; 'drish^a 'ham' ity
uparamaty anya; |
sati sawyoge 'pi, tayo/? | prayojanam na 'sti sargasya || (2) Scheme: |^_^|_^ _|| | U — w |
JBetter reading perhaps "sanaka/z sanandanag ca" cf Saw- khya Sutras 6.69).
2Some manuscripts read uuparatai-'ka" for "uparamaty" anya," correcting the metre.
4. Karikas 50 and 59 are defective in the fifth foot of the second half verse, the scheme of which is ^ —
5. The most serious fault in the metrical structure of the karikas is to be found in the separation of words and compounds by the caesura in one half verse, or even in both. This occurs twelve times throughout the work, to wit, Karika 4, 7, 9, 10 12, 22, 262, 28, 32 and 62*.
Commentaries to the Karikas. — There are extant four com- mentaries to the Sainkhya Karikas. Besides that of Gaudapada, the earliest and by far the most important, there is a long com- ment known as the Sawkhya Tattva KaumudI, composed by Vacaspati Migra at a much later date and influenced throughout its pages by the monistic Vedanta and the theistic Yoga. It has been translated by Prof. Richard Garbe (Der Mondschein der Sawkhya Wahrheit, 1892). The remaining two are very modern works, and throw but little light on the original doctrines of the school. They are known as the Sawkhya Candrika, of Narayawa Tirtha and the Sawkhya Kaumudi by Ramakrisrwa Bhafrfacarya.
Gaudapada's Bhashya. — The bhashya or gloss of Gaudapada, under which simple and modest title this earliest comment on the memorial verses goes, is the work of a scholiast who is believed to have lived at least two generations before the celebrated Vedanta commentator, S'awkaracarya, who flourished somewhere about the first half of the eighth century of our era. A trans- lation of this gloss into Chinese in connection with the Karikas themselves was made during the latter part of the sixth century, as mentioned above, fixing beyond question the latest date to which this work may be assigned, but further than that the uncertain chronology of Indian history does not aid us.
