---
type: Concept
bundle: sankhya-darshana
bundle_version: 0.13.0
id: satkaryavada
title: Satkāryavāda
iast: Satkāryavāda
devanagari: सत्कार्यवाद
description: The doctrine that the effect pre-exists, latently, in its material cause -- the signature Samkhya causal theory (shared in modified form by Yoga and Vedanta), directly OPPOSED to Nyaya-Vaisheshika's asatkaryavada/arambhavada (v0.9), which holds the effect is a wholly new entity.
darshana:
- Samkhya
tags:
- satkaryavada
- causation
- samkhya
- epistemology
- metaphysics
not:
- term: creation from nothing
  why: Satkaryavada is not a creation doctrine. Nothing new comes into being; what appears to be a 'new' effect (a pot, a thought, a world) is an already-latent potential of the cause becoming manifest -- a change of form (parinama), not a change of substance.
  instead: 'State satkaryavada as: the effect is not a fresh, independent existent, it is the cause itself in a modified, manifest state -- like curd being milk transformed, not milk replaced.'
- term: the Nyaya-Vaisheshika asatkaryavada / arambhavada position (v0.9)
  why: 'Nyaya-Vaisheshika holds the direct opposite: an effect (e.g. a pot) is a genuinely new entity, arambha, arising fresh from the collocation of causes (e.g. clay atoms), never pre-existing in the cause. This is not a variant reading of satkaryavada -- it is Samkhya''s named philosophical opponent on causation.'
  instead: 'When both are discussed, name the school-contrast explicitly: Samkhya/Yoga/Vedanta = satkaryavada (effect pre-exists); Nyaya-Vaisheshika = asatkaryavada/arambhavada (effect is new).'
related:
- /concepts/parinamavada.md
- /concepts/prakriti.md
timestamp: '2026-07-10'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Satkāryavāda -- सत्कार्यवाद

**Not:** creation from nothing, the Nyaya-Vaisheshika asatkaryavada / arambhavada position (v0.9)

## What It Actually Means

Satkāryavāda answers the question 'does the effect pre-exist in its cause?' with yes. Sāṃkhya-Kārikā 9 gives five arguments for this: a non-existent effect could never be produced by any means (asadakaraṇāt); a specific material is always sought for a specific effect (upādānagrahaṇāt); anything cannot come from anything (sarvasambhavābhāvāt); a competent cause produces only what it is capable of (śaktasya śakyakaraṇāt); and the effect is non-different in essence from the cause (kāraṇabhāvāt). The world, on this view, is prakṛti's own latent potential becoming visible -- not creation, but disclosure.

## Audience Metaphor

Satkāryavāda is like unfolding a pre-printed map rather than drawing a new one: every road was already encoded in the folded paper, and unfolding does not add roads, it reveals what was already there in compressed form.

## Citations

1. Samkhya-Karika 9 -- see [references/samkhya-karika.md](../references/samkhya-karika.md)
2. Cross-bundle warning: asatkaryavada/arambhavada in nyaya-vaisheshika v0.9 -- the named philosophical opponent, never a variant of this doctrine
