Classical Samkhya: An Interpretation of its History and Meaning

This is an older book published by Motilal Banarsidass which I believe is out of print. Author Larson thoroughly recapitulates the history of the teaching and of scholarship upon it over the last couple of hundred years. As a sort of bonus he includes the (Roman) text and translation of the 'Samkhyakarika,' the definitive statement of Samkhya dating to 300 - 500 CE. This book, I feel, is necessary not only for an understanding of classical Hindu mythology, but for the ideas it contains about reality and human perception. The author of the Sankhyakarika comes close, if I haven't misunderstood him, to saying that monism and dualism are both kinds of illusion and that the underlying reality of the world is neither - "neti neti," if you will. This is a book for scholars and passionate amateurs like myself; much of the text is given over to minute examination of earlier expressions of Samkhya-like ideas in the Rg-Veda, Atharva-Veda, the classical Upanishads and various portions of the Mahabharrata. Familiarity with Indian philosophy and religion, and/or familiarity with textual criticism will help the reader make their way through a delightfully dense and complex book.

We are writing on Sankhya in a modern practical sense including cross cultural studies of perception from such scholars as Marshall McLuhan, E. T. Hall and the traditional Indian translator, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Highly recommended and satisfying our scholarly needs, "Classical Samkhya" fits perfectly into our research and source materials. Well written. A little old.

I was drawn to the color of the book in the picture on Amazon but instead I got the color in my photo.

Classical Samkhya covers the matter is a partial way, popular with Indologists, In short it should be treated as a good survey of Sanskrit Texts dealing with Samkhya rather than Samkhya itself where texts are no more than careers of thought. It is a good starting point, however since Samkhya has been mostly ignored by Indian authors like Dr. Radhakrishnan, C.D.Sharma...

A lot of references, for real seeker because it's really big and heavyFor those who want to study this beautiful teaching

Yogasutraの英訳を読み漁っているうちに、気になって読んでみました。とても素晴らしい本です。まず英文がとても分かりやすい。次に議論の展開がクリアで躓きなく読めます。これは、元になっているのが作者の学位論文であるのが大いにあずかっていると思います。内容は、私の読書の範囲から判断する限り、Samkhyaの解説として極めて優れたものと思います。この本を読むとインドの思想が、大分わかったったような気になります。インド哲学に興味のある方には必読でしょう。