Note (return) — SA@NKARA'S INTRODUCTION (continued 3)

The Sâ@nkhyas maintain that that also which is based on inference, i.e. the pradhâna, is perceived in the text of some sâkhâs. We read, for instance, they say, in the Kâthaka (I, 3, 11), 'Beyond the Great there is the Undeveloped, beyond the Undeveloped there is the Person.' There we recognise, named by the same names and enumerated in the same order, the three entities with which we are acquainted from the Sâ@nkhya-smriti, viz. the great principle, the Undeveloped (the pradhâna), and the soul228. That by the Undeveloped is meant the pradhâna is to be concluded from the common use of Smriti and from the etymological interpretation of which the word admits, the pradhâna being called undeveloped because it is devoid of sound and other qualities. It cannot therefore be asserted that there is no scriptural authority for the pradhâna. And this pradhâna vouched for by Scripture we declare to be the cause of the world, on the ground of Scripture, Smriti, and ratiocination.