S'ANICARA, or S'ANKARICHARYA, i.e., the deluirya, or spiritual teacher, S'ankara, is the mane of one of the most renowned theologians of India. His date, as is the case with most celebrities of that country, is unknown. Tradition places him about 200 B.C., but H. II. Wilson assigns with more probability, to the 8th or 9th c. after Christ. 1Vi411 regard to his place of birth and to his caste, most accounts agree in making him a native of Kerala or Malabar, and a membor of the caste of the Nandfful Brahmans. In Ilnlabnr, he is said to have divided the four original castes into seventy-two, or cieliteen 6ubuivisions each. All accounts represent ldm as having led an erratic life, and engaged in successful controversies with other sects. In the course of his career, he founded the sects of the Das' winti-lian'd ins (see S'AivAs). Toward the close of his life, lie repaired to Cashmere; and finally to Kadarnath, in the Himalayas, where lie died at the early ago of 32. His principal wit'ks, which are of considerable merit, and exercised a great influence on the religious history of India, arc his commentary on the Vedanta (q.v.) Sfitras, and Ids commentaries on the 131iaga vadyitd and the principal Upanishads (q.v.). His learning and personal eminence were so great that he was looked upon as an incarnation of the god S iva, and was fabled to have worked several astounding miracles. One of these was his animating the dead body of a king Amara, in order to become temporarily the husband of the latter's widow, so as to be able to argue with the wife of a Brahman mandana upon the topic of sensual enjoyments—the only topic on which he had remained ignorant, as he had always led lime life of a brahmachariu, or bachelor student. A number of works are current in the s. of India relating to his life; amoug these the Sankara-dig-rijaya, or the conquest of the world by Sankara, com posed by Anandagiri, one of his disciples, is the most hnportant.—See, 11. H. Wilson, .4 Sketch, the Rail/oils Sects of the Ilindue; works, vol. i. (edited by Dr. Rust, 1802), pp. 197, IL; and Cavelly Venkata Ramaswami, litographccat Sketches of Deccan. Peels (Bombay, 1847). • (from the Sanskrit tan•hyd, synthetic reasoning) is the name of one of the three great systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy. See SANSKRIT LITEaATunu. It consists of two divisions—the Sankhya, properly so called, and the Yoga (q.v.); and Eke the other systems (see idistAssI ;toil MAYA), it professes to teach the means by which eternal beatitude, or the complete and perpetual exemption from every sort of ili, may be attained. This means is the discriminative acquaintance with tathra, or the true principles of all existence, and such principles are, according to the Stinkliya sys• tern, the following twenty-five: (1), Ay/A:eV/ or Pradkii no. substance or nature: it is the universal and material came; eternal, undiscreteo inferable from its effects: productive. but unproduced. Its first production is (2) eliahat (lit. the great), or Bvidlit (lit. intellect),
or the intellectual principle, which appertains to individual beings. From it devolves (3) Ahankiira (lit. the assertion of I"), the function of which consists in referring the objects of the world in one's-self. It produces (4-8) five tanrodird, or subtle elements, ~Lich themselves urn productive of the five gross elements (see 20-24). Ahanktra further produces (9-13) five instruments of sensation—viz., the eye. the ear. the nose, the tongue, and the skin; (14-18), five instruments of action—viz., the organ of speech, the hands, the feet, the excretory termination of the intestines. and the organ of genera tion; lastly (19), wane.% or the organ of volition and imagination. The five subtle elements (see 4-8) produce (20-24) the five gross elements—viz.. dkdq'rr, space or ether, which has the property of audibleness. is the vehicle of sound, and is derived from the xoleoroem tanntritrii; air, which has the properties of audibleness and tangibility, is sensi ble to hearing and touch, and is derived from the «Mat tanmatra; tire, which has the properties of andiblenes.s, tangibility, rand color, is sensible of hearing, touch, and sight, and is derived front the igneous tanmiltra: wafer, which has the properties of andible ness, tangibility, color. and savor, is sensible to hearing, touch, sight, and taste. and is derived from the aqueous temeritrit; lastly, earth. which unites the properties of audible ness, tinesibilq, color, savor, and odor, is sens:ble to hearing, touch, sight, taste, atid Ella, and is derived from the terrene taninfita The 25th principle is or soul. It is neither produced nor productive; it is multitudinous, individual, sensitive, eternal, unalterable, and immaterial. The union of soul and nature takes place for the contem plation of nature. and for abstraction from it, "as the halt and the blind join for (li• veyance and for guidance. the one bearing and directed. the other borne and directing." From their union, creation is effected. The soul's wish is fruition or liberation. In order to become tit for fruition, the soul is in the first place invested with a /ingu.s'oeirn, or saskuta-s'oefro, a subtle body, which is composed of buddhi (2), ahanti•a (3), the fiisg tannuitrd (4-8), and the eleven instruments of sensation, action, mind volition (9-19) This subtle body is affected by sentiments, lint being too snbile 10 he capable of enjoy meet, it becomes invested with a grosser body, which is composed of the five gross ale• metes (20-24), or. according to some, of four, excluding tiktis'a, or. according to others, of one alone—viz., earth. The grosser body, propagated by generation. perishes: the subtle frame, however, transmigrates through successive bodies, " as a mimic shifts his disguises to represent various characters." Some assume, besides, that between these two there is intermediately a corporeal frame, composed of the five elements, but tenuous or relined, the so-called anusktini na s'arira.