HINDU PHILOSOPHY. PART I. THE Hindu schools of philosophy are usually classed in the following order : 1. The Nyaya, founded by Gautama. 2. The Vaiseshika, by Kaṇāda. 3. The Sankhya, by Kapila. 4. The Yoga, by Patanjali. 5. The Mīmāṇsā, by Jaimini. 6. The Vedanta, by Badarāyaṇa, sometimes called Vyāsa, or Veda Vyāsa. They are called the six Sastras, or writings of authority, and sometimes the six Darśanas, views or expositions of doctrine. The term "philosophy" cannot be strictly applied to all these systems. The Nyaya is properly a system of logic, offering many points of resemblance to the methods of Aristotle. The Vaiseshika treats of physics, of the categories or general attributes of things, and of the formation of A the kosmos, which it attributes to the qualities and movements of primitive atoms. The Mīmāṇsā and Vedanta systems are nearly related to each other. The Mīmāṇsā, or Pūrva (Prior) Mīmāņsā, arose from a desire to maintain and illustrate the Vedas. Its object was to support the supreme authority of these books, to maintain their ritual, and to determine the true meaning of such passages as had been misunderstood, or wrested in support of error. The Vedanta, or Uttara (Posterior) Mīmāņsā, as it is sometimes called, was formed at a later date on the base of the Upanishads, or treatises relating generally to the Vedas. It differs from the Purva Mīmāṇsā chiefly in this, that its main object is to explain and enforce the religious doctrines of the Vedas. It teaches that there is in reality only one existence. It maintains the doctrine of a-dvaita, or non-dualism, as decidedly as Schelling or Hegel. All things, visible and invisible, are only forms of the one eternal Essence (Tò év). The basis of the system is therefore a pure Pantheism. In its later development, this system denied the existence of matter or material forms as objective realities. Visible things are only appearances, a kind of mirage, called māyā (illusion).1 These systems may be conveniently arranged in three divisions: 1. The Sankhya, including the modification of it by Patanjali. 2. The Nyaya, connecting with it the system of Kaṇāda. 1 Colebrooke's Essays, ii. 400, and note by Professor Cowell. 3. The Mīmāņsā, both divisions of it being devoted to the support and illustration of the Vedas. I purpose to treat only of the first of these divisions, adding, as an appendix, an outline of the methods and physical theories of the second. The Sankhya Kārikā of Iśwara Krishna is an exposition of the pure Sankhya doctrine of Kapila. OF KAPILA, THE AUTHOR OF THE SANKHYA SYSTEM. 3 THE imagination of the Hindus has thrown a veil of mystery and fable around Kapila, the traditional author of the Sānkhya philosophy. So much reverence gradually attached to his name, that he was sometimes called "the divine Kapila," and was said to have been a son of Brahma, the creative form of Brahmă,1 an incarnation of Vishnu, or a form of Agni, though born as a son of Vitatha and Devahutī; one of the great rishis or ancient sages; a descendant of the great lawgiver Manu; and to have been endowed with knowledge, virtue, freedom from passion, and supernatural power at the time of his birth. We can only say that he was probably a Brahman, who, being disgusted with the prevailing beliefs and practices of his time, wrought out for himself a system by which he hoped to solve the mysteries connected with spirit and 1 See Gauḍapada's Commentary on the S. Kārikā, Wilson's ed., p. 1.; Colebrooke, ii. 242. 2 "In his (Vishnu's) fifth manifestation, he (in the form of) Kapila and Lord of Saints, declared to Asuri the Sankhya (doctrine), which defines the series of principles, and which had been lost through the lapse of time" (Bhāg. Purāṇa, i. 3, 10; Muir, iii. 192; Vishņu Purāṇa, iii. 2, 18; Bhag. Gītā, x. 26). 3 In the Bhag. Purāņa, however, Kapila is said to have had nine sisters, all born to Kardama by his wife Devahutī (ii. 7, 3; iii. 33, 1). |