Fourfold Classification of the Twenty-five Tattvas

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

Fourfold Classification of the Twenty-five Tattvas .

The Sankhya gives a description of categories based on their respective productive efficiency, viz., (i) Productive (Prakriti), (ii) Productive and Produced (Prakriti-Vikriti), (iii) Produced (Vikriti) and (iv) Neither Productive nor Produced (Anubhavarupa). This fourfold classification includes all the twenty-five principles or Tattvas. Prakriti or Nature or Pradhana (chief) is purely productive. It is the root of all. It is not a product. It is a creative force, evolver, producer. Seven principles—intellect (Buddhi), egoism (Ahankara) and the five Tanmatras (subtle rudiments)—are productions and productive. Buddhi is productive, as Ahankara is evolved out of it. It is produced also, as it itself is evolved out of Prakriti. Egoism is a production, as it is derived from intellect. It is productive, as it gives origin to the five subtle rudiments or Tanmatras. The subtle rudiments are derived from egoism. Hence they are productions. They give origin to the five elements. Hence they are productive. The sixteen principles, the ten organs, the mind and the five elements, are productions only. They are unproductive, because none of them can give birth to a substance essentially different from itself. The Purusha or Spirit is neither a production, nor is it productive. It is without attributes.