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Hinduism: Social and Historical Developments in Religious Thought

Hinduism, science and the challenge of secularisation

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  • Component 1

Overview

A school that classifies reality without appeal to revelation, the qualities and categories it names, and Hindu responses to a secular age.

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Key term

How does Sāṃkhya analyse reality, what are its three qualities, and why is it compared to science?

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What is Hindutva?

Key term

How does Sāṃkhya classify matter?

Questions from this subtopic

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  1. 1

    How does Sāṃkhya classify matter?

    Model answer

    Sāṃkhya analyses reality into twenty-five tattvas or principles. Prakṛti, unconscious matter, evolves into intellect, ego, mind, the senses and the elements.

  2. 2

    What are the three guṇas in Sāṃkhya?

    Model answer

    The three guṇas are sattva, rajas and tamas. Every material thing is a mixture of these strands of purity, energy and inertia.

  3. 3

    Why is Sāṃkhya sometimes described as an early scientific analysis?

    Model answer

    Sāṃkhya proceeds by classification and causal explanation rather than by appeal to revelation. Supporters therefore treat it as an ancient attempt at systematic natural philosophy.

  4. 4

    Who was Caraka?

    Model answer

    Caraka is the name attached to the Caraka Saṃhitā, a foundational treatise of Āyurveda. Diagnosis, diet, the three doṣas and the ethics of a physician are set out in it.

  5. 5

    Who was Āryabhaṭa, and what did he achieve?

    Model answer

    Āryabhaṭa completed the Āryabhaṭīya in 499 CE at the age of twenty-three. Sine tables, an accurate value for π and the rotation of the earth all appear in that work.

  6. 6

    Why is it inaccurate to describe Caraka and Āryabhaṭa as ṛṣis?

    Model answer

    A ṛṣi is a seer of vedic revelation, and neither man is remembered in that role. Caraka was a physician and Āryabhaṭa a mathematician and astronomer.

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