Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/237

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VII] Changes -in the Siil!zkhya doctr£ne 221 (revised edition of $a!itantra)l. Probably the earlier $atitantra was lost even before Vacaspati's time. 'i. If we believe the $atitantra referred to in the Ahirbudll1zya Sa1flhitii to be in all essential parts the same work which was composed by Kapila and based faithfully on his teachings, then it has to be assumed that Kapila's Sarpkhya was theistic 2 . It seems probable that his disciple Asuri tried to popularise it. But it seems that a great change occurred when Paficasikha the disciple of Asuri came to deal with it. For we know that his doctrine differed from the traditional one in many important respects. It is said in Sa1flkhya kiirikii (70) that the literature was divided by him into many parts (tena bahu.dhiik!,tam tan tram). The exact meaning of this reference is difficult to guess. It might mean that the original $a#tantra was rewritten by him in various treatises. It is a well-known fact that most of the schools of Vai1).avas accepted the form of cosmology which is the same in most essen- tial parts as the Sarpkhya cosmology. This justifies the assump- tion that Kapila's doctrine was probably theistic. But there are a few other points of difference between the Kapila and the Patafijala Sarpkhya (Y oga). The only supposition that may be ventured is that Paficasikha probably modified Kapila's work in an atheistic way and passed it as Kapila's work. If this supposition is held reasonable, then we have three strata of Sarpkhya, first a theistic one, the details of which are lost, but which is kept in a modified form by the Patafijala school of Sarp- khya, second an atheistic one as represented by Paficasikha, and a third atheistic modification as the orthodox Sarpkhya system. An important change in the Sarpkhya doctrine seems to have been introduced by Vijfiana Bhiku (sixteenth century A.D.) by his treatment of gU1).as as types of reals. I have myself accepted this interpretation of Sarpkhya as the most rational and philosophical one, and have therefore followed it in giving a connected system of the accepted Kapila and the Patafijala school of Sarpkhya. But it must be pointed out that originally the notion of gU1).as was applied to different types of good and bad mental states, and then they were supposed in some mysterious way by mutual increase and decrease to form the objective world on the one hand and the 1 TarkarahasyadiPikii, p. 10 9. 2 CVa1!1 atjvinzfaka,!1 priihu!z fariramih miillavii!z sii,,!lkhyam saf!Zkhyiitnzakatviicca kaPiliidibhirucyate. .fI,fatsyapuriia, IV. 28.