--- 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.