A Critical Study of the Sankhya System

The author of a new book on the Sankhya philosophy owes an explanation to his readers. Since there are already a few books in English, exclusively devoted to the Sankhya and some others covering the whole field of Indian Philosophy, each containing a chapter on the Sankhya, it may be demanded, why inflict another? My answer is simple. The present work is not altogether a new attempt but the reprint of my paper on the Sankhya, prepared under the wise and able guidance of Pandit (now Dr.) Umesa Misra, and published five years ago in the Allahabad University Studies, Arts section, Volume VII, pp. 387-432, while I was a Research Scholar in the Department of Sanskrit of the University of Allahabad. Then again, this booklet is not meant to replace the existing works but to supplement them, if the humble effort of a beginner, with very little pretensions to originality, can aspire to such a claim. This reprint has afforded me an opportunity to add introductions in English and Sanskrt and the texts of the Sankhya-Sutra and the Sankhya-Karika.