--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, kaladevi93 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Prasankhyana is the dicrimination between purusha and prakriti, it
is also a source of the
> name of the Sankhya system (a prerequisite for the yoga-sutra).
>
Perhaps, but in my understanding, from the linguistic POV, the
word 'saaMkhya' (with a long a-sound in the first syllable, which,
I believe, makes it a vRddhi-derivative) is derived from 'saMkhya',
one of whose meanings seems to be 'number'.
3 saMkhyA f. reckoning or summing up , numeration , calculation
(ifc. = `" numbered or reckoned among "') R. Ragh. Ra1jat. ; a
number , sum , total (ifc. `" amounting to "') S3Br. &c. &c. ; a
numeral Pra1t. Pa1n2. &c. ; (in gram.) number (as expressed by case
terminations or personal tñterminations) Ka1s3. on Pa1n2. 2-3 , 1 ;
deliberation , reasoning , reflection , reason , intellect MBh.
Ka1v. ; name , appellation (= %{AkhyA}) R. ; a partic. high number
Buddh. ; manner MW. ; (in geom.) a gnomon (for ascertaining the
points of the compass) , Ra1mRa1s.
4 sAMkhya mfn. (fr. %{saM-khyA}) numeral , relating to number W. ;
relating to number (in gram as expressed by the case-terminations
&c.) Pat. ; rational , or discriminative W. ; m.one who calculates
or discriminates well , (esp.) an adherent of the Sa1m2khya doctrine
Cu1lUp. MBh. &c. ; N. of a man Car. ; patr. of the Vedic R2ishi Atri
Anukr. ; N. of S3iva MBh. ; n. (accord. to some also m.) N. of one
of the three great divisions of Hindu1 philosophy (ascribed to the
sage Kapila [q.v.] , and so called either from , discriminating "' ,
in general , or , more probably , from `" reckoning up "' or `"
enumerating "' twenty-five Tattvas [see %{tattva}] or true entities
[twenty-three of which are evolved out of Prakr2iti `" the
primordial Essence "' or `" first-Producer "' , viz. Buddhi ,
Aham2ka1ra , the five Tan-ma1tras , the five Maha1-bhu1tas and
Manas ; the twenty-fifth being Purusha or Spirit [sometimes called
Soul] which is neither a Producer nor Production [see %{vikAra}] ,
but wholly distinct from the twenty-four other Tattvas. and is
multitudinous , each separate Purusha by its union with Prakr2iti
causing a separate creation out of Prakr2iti , the object of the
philosophy being to effect the final liberation of the Purusha or
Spirit from the fetters caused by that creation ; the Yoga [q.v.]
branch of the Saqikhya recognizes a Supreme Spirit dominating each
separate Purusha ; the Tantras identify Prakr2iti with the wives of
the gods , esp. with the wife of S3iva ; the oldest systematic
exposition of the SñSa1m2khya seems to have been by an author called
Pan5ca-s3ikha [the germ , however , being found in the Shasht2i-
tantra , of which only scanty fragments are extant] ; the original
Su1tras were superseded by the SñSa1m2khya-ka1rika1 of I1s3vara-
kr2ishn2a , the oldest manual on the SñSa1m2khya system that has
come down to us and probably written in the 5th century A.D. , while
the SñSa1m2khya-su1tras or SñS3iva-pravacana and Tattva-sama1sa ,
ascribed to the sage Kapila , are now thought to belong to as late a
date as the 14th or 15th century or perhaps a little later) S3vetUp.
MBh. &c. IW. 73 &c. RTL.
