.sa.s.titantra

[Vishal Agarwal]

While Dr. Bronkhorst would be probably the best person to answer this
question, I add some preliminary comments:

----Original Message Follows----
From: Bruno Lo Turco <b.loturco at AGORA.STM.IT>
Subject: .sa.s.titantra
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 23:10:19 +0100

Bruno Turco asked: What do we know about the .sa.s.titantra? As far as I
remember, it is supposed to be the oldest systematic
exposition of sA.mkhya. The last stanza of the
sA.mkhyakArikA presents this work as a summary of the
.sa.s.titantra which leaves out all the didactic tales,
together with the controversies with other schools. But
according to vAcaspatimizra, the .sa.s.titantra is not a
work, but a scheme composed of sixty arguments. Do we have
any evidence of this?
_______________________
VA replies: The existence of Shashtitantra is proved by numerous quotations
from it that are extant in later works. These quotations have been collected
and studied by numerous authors. Two such collections that I am familiar
with are
1. Pulinbihari Chakravarti; Origin and Development of the Sankhya System of
Thought; Published by Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers; Delhi; 1975
2. Pracina Samkhya Sandarbha; Udayavira Sastri; Govindaram Hasanand; Delhi
(In Hindi)

The 60 topics are listed by Yuktidipika (introd. portion) etc.
The didactic tales and disputations with other schools are apparently
present in a later text called the Samkhya Sutra (in Chapter 4; and in Chps
5 and 1 resp.) Many of the disputations in the Sutra text are late in origin
and might not have been present in the original Shashtitantra.
Numerous Shashtitantras existed, the original one probably the work of
Pancasikha, and a later redaction by Varshaganya.

Please be on the lookout for the volume on the conference on Samkhya (see
the archives of November 1999 for an announcement by Dr. Bronkhorst to this
effect).

Best wishes
Vishal Agarwal
http://hinduweb.org/home/dharma_and_philosophy/vvh

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