The Samkhya Karikas of Is'vara Krishna - With the Commentary of Gaudapada; Abstract of Thesis #227636

The Samkhya Karikasl' of Ievara Krishna take without doubt the first place among the formal treatises of that system of philosophic speculation, the Samkhya, which had its beginnings several centuries before the Christian era and which was in its teachings the precursor of the Buddhist reformation. This s'chool 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.