18
Sāṅkhya Kārikā / Verses 1–21, the two realities / 18
जननमरणकरणानां प्रतिनियमादयुगपत्प्रवृत्तेश् च पुरुषबहुत्वं सिद्धं त्रैगुण्यविपर्ययाच् चैव
jananamaraṇakaraṇānāṃ pratiniyamād ayugapatpravṛtteś ca puruṣabahutvaṃ siddhaṃ traiguṇyaviparyayāc caiva
The line
That persons are many is established because birth, death, and the instruments are portioned out, because activity is not simultaneous, and because the three strands are found in different mixes.
नेपालीमा
पुरुष धेरै छन् भन्ने जन्म, मृत्यु र करण बाँडिएकाले, काम एकैसाथ नहुने भएकाले, र तीन गुण फरक मिश्रणमा पाइने भएकाले सिद्ध हुन्छ।
Where it sits
Plurality is a count of seers, not a count of bodies. Bodies were already many as products of prakṛti (प्रकृति). The new claim is that the seer is not one light behind all of them.
Split: janana-maraṇa-karaṇānām (जनन-मरण-करणानाम्) + pratiniyamāt (प्रतिनियमात्) + ayugapat-pravṛtteḥ (अयुगपत्-प्रवृत्तेः) + ca (च) + puruṣa-bahutvam (पुरुष-बहुत्वम्) + siddham (सिद्धम्) + traiguṇya-viparyayāt (त्रैगुण्य-विपर्ययात्) + ca (च) + eva (एव)
Sanskrit, in depth
The words
| Word | Grammar | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| janana-maraṇa-karaṇānām (जनन-मरण-करणानाम्) | genitive plural | of births, deaths, and instruments. karaṇa (करण) is the set of senses and the inner organ, dealt to each life. |
| pratiniyamāt (प्रतिनियमात्) | ablative singular | because of allotment to each. They are not one shared event. |
| ayugapat-pravṛtteḥ (अयुगपत्-प्रवृत्तेः) | ablative singular | because activity is not all at once. ayugapat (अयुगपत्) is not-together. One person is not born as everyone is born. |
| puruṣa-bahutvam (पुरुष-बहुत्वम्) | nominative singular, neuter | the plurality of persons. |
| siddham (सिद्धम्) | nominative singular, neuter | established. |
| traiguṇya-viparyayāt (त्रैगुण्य-विपर्ययात्) | ablative singular | because of the differing of the three strands. One life is mostly sattva (सत्त्व), another mostly tamas (तम). If there were one person, the proportions would not be distributed this way. |
| ca eva (च एव) | indeclinables | and indeed. |
The phrases
Verse 17 showed a person. This verse refuses to make him a single world-soul. Sāṅkhya (साङ्ख्य)'s puruṣa (पुरुष) is many. Each is the same in kind, which verse 19 will say, and many in number, which this verse says.
Vedānta (वेदान्त) will fight this. Śaṅkara (शङ्कर) reads the self as one. The kārikā (कारिका) is not that reading. Keep the disagreement visible.
Sanskrit in this line
bahutva (बहुत्व) is an abstract noun, 'many-ness,' from bahu (बहु). Abstract -tva (-त्व) is neuter. siddham (सिद्धम्) agrees with it.
Say it back
Say why one shared person would make birth a single event.