सांख्य mfn. mfn. (
fr. सं-ख्या) numeral, relating to number,
[W.] relating to number (in gram. as expressed by the case-terminations &c.),
[Pat.] rational, or discriminative,
[W.] सांख्य m. m. one who calculates or discriminates well, (
esp. ) an adherent of the
सांख्य doctrine,
[CūlUp.] ;
[MBh.] &c.
N. of a man,
[Car.] patr. of the Vedic
ऋषिअत्रि,
[Anukr.] N. of
शिव,
[MBh.] सांख्य n. n. (
accord. to some also m.)
N. of one of the three great divisions of
Hindū philosophy (ascribed to the sage
कपिल [
q.v. ], and so called either from ‘discriminating’, in general, or, more probably, from ‘reckoning up’ or ‘enumerating’ twenty-five
तत्त्वs [See
तत्त्व] or true entities [twenty-three of which are evolved out of
प्रकृति ‘the primordial Essence’ or ‘first-Producer’],
viz. बुद्धि,
अहंकार, the five
तन्-मात्रs, the five
महा-भूतs and
मनस्; the twenty-fifth being
पुरुष or Spirit [sometimes called Soul] which is neither a Producer nor Production [see
विकार], but wholly distinct from the twenty-four other
तत्त्वs, and is multitudinous, each separate
पुरुष by its union with
प्रकृति causing a separate creation out of
प्रकृति, the object of the philosophy being to effect the final liberation of the
पुरुष or Spirit from the fetters caused by that creation; the
योग [
q.v. ] branch of the
सांख्य recognizes a Supreme Spirit dominating each separate
पुरुष; the
तन्त्रs identify
प्रकृति with the wives of the gods,
esp. with the wife of
शिव; the oldest systematic exposition of the
S° seems to have been by an author called
पञ्च-शिख [the germ, however, being found in the
षष्टि-तन्त्र, of which only scanty fragments are extant]; the original
सूत्रs were superseded by the
S° of
ईश्वर-कृष्ण, the oldest manual on the
S° system that has come down to us and probably written in the 5th century A.D., while the
S° -
सूत्रs or
Ś° and
तत्त्व-समास, ascribed to the sage
कपिल, are now thought to belong to as late a date as the 14th or 15th century or perhaps a little later),
[ŚvetUp.] ;
[MBh.] &c.,
[IW. 73 &c.] ;
[RTL.]