isting chiefly of an enumeration of topics, as the most
ancient Sankhya formulary, but the opinion of scholars as to its age
is not unanimous. The name Sankhya is best interpreted as signifying
enumeration in allusion to the predilection of the school for numbered
lists, a predilection equally noticeable in early Buddhism.

The object of the system set forth in these works is strictly
practical. In the first words of the Sankhya-pravacana, the complete
cessation of suffering is the end of man, and the Sankhya is devised
to enable him to attain it. Another formula divides the contents of
the Sankhya into four topics--(_a_) that from which man must liberate
himself, or suffering, (_b_) liberation, or the cessation of
suffering, (_c_) the cause of suffering, or the failure to
discriminate between the soul and matter, (_d_) the means of
liberation, or discriminating knowledge. This division obviously
resembles the four Truths of Buddhism. The object proposed is the same
and the method analogous, though not identical, for Buddhism speaks as
a religion and lays greater stress on conduct.

The theory of the Sankhya, briefly stated, is this. There exist,
uncreated and from all eternity, on the one side matter and on the
other individual souls. The world, as we know it, is due entirely to
the evolution of matter. Suffering is the result of souls being in
bondage to matter, but this bondage does not affect the nature of the
soul and in one sense is not real, for when souls acquire
discriminating knowledge and see that they are not matter, then the
bondage ceases and they attain to eternal peace.

The system is thus founded on dualism, the eternal antithesis between
matter and soul. Many of its details are comprised in the simple
enumeration of the twenty-five Tattvas or principles[743] as given in
the Tattva-samasa and other works. Of these, one is Purusha, the soul
or self, which is neither produced nor productive, and the other
twenty-four are all modifications of Prakriti or matter, which is
unproduced but productive. Prakriti means the original ground form of
external existence (as distinguished from Vikriti, modified form). It
is uncreated and indestructible, but it has a tendency to variation or
evolution. The Sankhya holds in the strictest sense that _ex nihilo
nihil fit_. Substance can only be produced from substance and properly
speaking there is no such thing as origination but only manifestation.
Causality is regard