---
type: Concept
bundle: sankhya-darshana
bundle_version: 0.13.0
id: samkhya-as-enumeration
title: Sāṃkhya (as Enumeration)
iast: Sāṃkhya
devanagari: सांख्य
description: The school's own self-naming logic -- 'samkhya' means enumeration/counting, referring to the school's method of exhaustively enumerating the tattvas (categories of reality) as the path to discriminative knowledge. This concept treats the METHOD of enumeration, not the tattva ladder's content itself (already published elsewhere).
darshana:
- Samkhya
tags:
- samkhya
- enumeration
- method
- tattva
not:
- term: '''reflection'' or ''analysis'' in a loose general sense'
  why: 'Samkhya is sometimes glossed loosely as ''analysis'' or ''reflection.'' Its actual etymological sense is more specific: enumeration, counting -- naming and fixing the exact number of the fundamental categories of reality (traditionally twenty-five, with purusha as the twenty-fifth) as the school''s defining method.'
- term: the tattva ladder's content (already published)
  why: This file documents the enumeration METHOD as the school's identity, not a restatement of the specific 24-tattva evolutes, which are already published in yoga-darshana v0.2, cosmology-creation v0.7, and ayurveda-consciousness v0.11.
related:
- /concepts/kapila.md
- /concepts/vyakta-avyakta.md
timestamp: '2026-07-10'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Sāṃkhya (as Enumeration) -- सांख्य

**Not:** 'reflection' or 'analysis' in a loose general sense, the tattva ladder's content (already published)

## What It Actually Means

The word sāṃkhya derives from a root meaning 'to count' or 'enumerate' -- the school takes its very name from its method: fixing an exact, closed count of the fundamental categories of reality (the tattvas) and deriving liberation from correctly discriminating among them. This enumerative method is Sāṃkhya's signature intellectual style, distinct from Vedanta's more exegetical approach to scripture or Nyaya's dialectical approach to debate.

## Audience Metaphor

Sāṃkhya's method is closer to a taxonomist's than a storyteller's: fix the exact number and boundary of every category first, and liberation follows from correctly sorting experience into the right boxes, especially the crucial two -- puruṣa's box and everything-else's box.

## Citations

1. Samkhya-Karika 1-2 (opening statement of purpose) -- see [references/samkhya-karika.md](../references/samkhya-karika.md)
