Prakriti : A study about its meaning
Prakṛti is a Sanskrit noun made from the root kṛ-, the prefix pra-, and the suffix -ktin showing the feminine gender. The root kṛ- means to “make,” “cause,” “create,” or “produce.” The prefix pra- has the sense of forward movement and indicates a creative force.
The word prakṛti has many meanings, and the word is used in a variety of contexts in Sanskrit texts as well as modern Indian languages. The adjective derived from prakṛti, prākṛta, means “original,” “normal,” or “derived from the original form” (prakṛti) and is used already in the Śatapathabrāhmaṇa 1.1.2.7 (etarhi prākṛtāni) and 2.2.5.1 (prākṛto śvamedha). Prakṛti means “that which precedes,” “the first,” or “that which is in its original form.” It is the “basis,” the “original state,” therefore the “natural,” the “archetype,” one’s “character,” “health,” “normality,” the “ordinary,” and “usual.” Prakṛti is the “material cause,” the “primordial substance,” the “producer of effects,” the “generative principle,” and the “ultimate material principle.” It is also the “constituent,” “part,” and “component.” The word is used in grammar for roots and stems to which prefixes and suffixes are added; in political science for the seven elements of the state and also the constituents in the circle of states; in medical science for physical health and personality types; in the ritual texts for model sacrifices on which the modified sacrifices are based; in Sāṃkhya-Yoga for the ultimate material principle as well as the eight material causal principles; in many Hindu theological and narrative traditions as a principle involved in creation and controlled by the divine power; in theological systems as an epithet of goddesses and associated with māyā and śakti ; and in Śākta religious traditions for the feminine divine principle from which the goddesses emerge.
Prakṛti is used in Sāṃkhya-Yoga to conceptualize the material principle as the opposite of the principle of consciousness, puruṣa , but prakṛti interestingly is also used to express a number of other dualisms. Prakṛti means “original” and “first,” and vikṛti means “secondary.” Prakṛti means “health” and “normality,” while vikṛti means “abnormality” or “illness.” Prakṛti is the original, anukṛti is the copy or imitation. The model sacrifices fully described in the ritual texts are the prakṛtis, and the modified sacrifices that are variations of them are called vikṛtis. In phonetics the unaltered sound is prakṛti, and the phonetically altered sound is called vikṛti, vikāra, or vikṛta. Prakṛti is also contrasted to saṃskṛta (“the constructed,” “the perfected”). The movement from prakṛti to vikṛti seems to express a disturbance and the beginning of decay. Prakṛti is the opposite of saṃskṛta. The saṃskṛta view, however, expresses the ability by ritual means to overcome the natural tendency of decay. The attempt to improve nature is related to the realm of dharma , while the focus on the natural course of decay is related to attempts of renunciants to realize salvific liberation (mokṣa). In modern times, prakṛti was the word the speakers of the languages of North India chose to translate the English word “nature,” and these days many English-speaking persons in or from India perceive the words prakṛti and “nature” to be synonymous.
As a religious concept, prakṛti is probably most important as a name for the ultimate material principle in Sāṃkhya and Yoga, as a cosmogonical principle in Hindu theological systems, and as a female principle and an epithet of the Goddess (Devī).
Several properties of prakṛti as the ultimate material principle were identified by the Sāṃkhya-Yoga systems of religious thought. Prakṛti is unconscious (acetana) and thus absolutely different from the puruṣa principle. Prakṛti is an ultimate principle, which means that it is independent of any superior principle and that it cannot be dissolved in a more subtle principle. Prakṛti therefore has no material cause (ahetumat), and it is also without support (anāśrita) from something else, such as a divine or cosmic principle. The ultimate material principle is the āśraya, on which the products depend. Prakṛti is without mark (aliṅga) – that is, no further, more subtle principle can be inferred from it. The manifestations of prakṛti are dependent (paratantra), but prakṛti is independent (svatantra) and is not, according to Sāṃkhya-Yoga, controlled by a divine principle. Prakṛti is general or common (sāmānya). It is the single “material substratum” (dharmin) of all the manifestations, and in this way it is not different from its products. The products are effects of the material principle, which is their material cause, but the effects exist in the cause in a subtle form before their manifestation, and the material principle therefore pervades (vyāpin) the world. This idea, called satkārya (preexistence of the material effects in the material cause), is one of the principal theories of change in Indian philosophy. The ultimate material principle is called viṣayin, which means “that which contains the object” and is contrasted with the “object” (viṣaya), its manifestations. The ultimate material principle, prakṛti, is not itself a perceptible object, but it is the presupposition of the objects. Prakṛti is single (eka), there cannot be more than one ultimate material principle, and it is not constituted by parts (anavayava). It is a tripartite process constituted by the three guṇas (constituents, strands), but this tripartite process is identical with prakṛti and does not constitute a division in it. Prakṛti is identical with the three guṇas, which are called sattva (the principles of luminosity and intelligibility), rajas (the principle of change and passion), and tamas (the principle of inertia and darkness). Prakṛti is eternal (nitya) and functions through the guṇas. The manifestation of the products of prakṛti is compared to making a cloth with white, red, and black threads. The union of the threads produces the cloth, but the threads in the cloth retain their distinctness. “Production” (pariṇāma) means only the rearrangement of the threads, not creation of new ones. Prakṛti is self-propellant and always changing; the movement by which the material principle manifests itself is immanent in it. Prakṛti is productive (pariṇāmin), and it is in particular the property of being productive that has made prakṛti an important principle in the sacred narratives and the theological traditions of Hinduism.
The tattvas (principles) that produce other tattvas are called prakṛtis. In Sāṃkhya there are eight prakṛtis. The first prakṛti is called mūlaprakṛti, to distinguish it from the other seven, and the others are called prakṛtivikṛtis to indicate that they are not only material causes but also products of a material cause. In Bhagavadgītā 7.5 and Mahābhārata 12.294.27, parā prakṛti (highest prakṛti) is used to distinguish the first prakṛti from the rest. The followers of Sāṃkhya, according to Mahābhārata 12.294.27–29, are those who proclaim avyakta (the unmanifest) to be the ultimate material cause or highest prakṛti (prakṛtiḥ parā). There is a predilection in several groups of Sanskrit texts to relate groups of eight to the eight prakṛtis of Sāṃkhya (Jacobsen, 1999; Johnston, 1937).
In the Sāṃkhya tradition, a number of similes are used to argue and illustrate central doctrines about prakṛti (Jacobsen, 2006). In similes in Proto-Sāṃkhya, the Sāṃkhyakārikā, and the Sāṃkhyasūtra, prakṛti is compared to a number of things such as the outer cover of the reed, the uḍumbara tree (bot. Ficus Glomerata), water, lotus leaves, the riverbank, a tree, a pot in which fire is kept, a blind man, milk, an unselfish servant, a female dancer, snake’s skin, an amputated hand, a flower, a rose, a calf, a cook, a women from a noble family, and a silkworm. The point of the similes is not that prakṛti is these things, but the point is in the comparisons the similes express. The main point in many of the similes found in the Proto-Sāṃkhya sources is that puruṣa is different from prakṛti. This means that when the body dies, puruṣa does not die because it is different from prakṛti. In Sāṃkhyakārikā the main point made by many of the similes is that prakṛti functions for the attainment of the salvific goal of puruṣa. One of these similes, which is often misunderstood, compares prakṛti to a female dancer (nartakī), who when her performance is finished disappears from the stage (SāṃK. 59). In a similar way, prakṛti ceases after having manifested itself to puruṣa. The meaning of the simile is not that prakṛti is a female dancer or a female. Another simile compares prakṛti to a blind man, but that does not mean that prakṛti is a blind man or indeed a man. The simile of the dancer meant to convey the idea that the manifestation of prakṛti dissolves when the salvific liberation has been attained. When the separation of puruṣa and prakṛti is realized, the work of prakṛti is over. It withdraws, and only the passive presence of puruṣa is left. That many of the similes in the Sāṃkhyakārikā is about the issue of prakṛti working for attainment of the goal of puruṣa, is perhaps because competition from theistic traditions, which taught that salvific liberation ultimately was dependent on the salvific activity of a god, had become a critical issue at this time, creating doubt about prakṛti as an ultimate principle and the possibility of liberation of the puruṣa without the activity of a divine principle.
In the theistic environment of Hinduism, the cosmic nature and cosmogonical functions of prakṛti were emphasized. The material principle was the equilibrium of the three guṇas. The process of creation and dissolution of the universe were often conceived as the process in which the Sāṃkhya categories were produced from the divine power of a god. The Matsyapurāṇa states,
"There are three guṇas known as sattva, rajas and tamas. The state of equilibrium of these three is called prakṛti. Some call it pradhāna, others avyakta, and this is what causes the creation and dissolution of the universe" (MtP. 3.14–15).
The Liṅgapurāṇa identifies prakṛti with the left side of the male god:
"[Śiva created] Puruṣa, the twenty-fifth principle, directly from his heart, the material principle (prakṛti) from his left; the intellect from the region of the intellect; the egoity principle from the egoity principle and the tanmātras from it. The supreme god created playfully his sense-organs from his own sense-organs" (LiP. 1.76–10–11).
Prakṛti often stands in relationship to the male god as the material principle that he controls. Prakṛti became part of cosmogonical speculations and was understood as the material cause, often identified with māyā and śakti and controlled by a divine power. In the Śvetāśvataropaniṣad it says, “Know that the material cause (prakṛti) is the creative power (māyā), and know the great god as the possessor of the creative power (māyā)” (ŚvetU. 4.10). Also in the Bhagavadgītā, prakṛti is controlled by the divine power, but here prakṛti and māyā as different principles are emphasized:
"Although being unborn, imperishable, and also the lord of all beings, having taken recourse to materiality (prakṛti) which is mine, I come into being by my own supernormal power (māyā)" (BhG. 4.6).
"All beings go into my prakṛti (material cause), oh son of Kuntī, at the end of a kalpa. At the beginning of a kalpa, I send them forth" (BhG. 9.7).
The different theological schools gave different interpretations of this prakṛti controlled by Kṛṣṇa. Prakṛti in Bhagavadgītā 4.6 was explained by Śaṅkara as “the māyā related to Viṣṇu consisting of the three guṇas under the control of which this whole world exist.” Rāmānuja glosses prakṛti with svabhāva, and according to Vedāntadeśika, svabhāva here means “the body (vigraha) of god.” These are examples of how prakṛti was given new interpretations in the theological traditions to make sense of the relationship of prakṛti with the divine. Most of the Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, and Śākta theological schools – such as the Pāśupatas, Śaiva Siddhānta, Liṅgāyats, Kashmir Śaivism, Pāñcarātra, Viśiṣṭādvaita of Rāmānuja, Dvaitādvaita of Madhva, Bhedābheda of Nimbārka, Śuddhādvaita of Vallabha, and Acintyabhedābheda of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava traditions – did accept the Sāṃkhya principles from prakṛti to the gross elements, but there was disagreement about the principle above the prakṛti principle. In order to explain the relationship of the divine principle to prakṛti and the material world, additional principles were postulated between the divine principle and prakṛti. The stuff from which the world was made manifest was situated in the scheme between the divine principle and the manifest world, but prakṛti also became one of the epithets of the Goddess and was, as such, identified with various female divinities.
"'Pra-' means 'excellent,' 'kṛti' means 'creation.' Therefore that goddess who is the most excellent in creation is called prakṛti. The word 'pra' means the most excellent sattva guṇa. 'Kṛ' means the middle rajas guṇa, and -ti denotes the tamas guṇa. She, whose nature is triguṇa, is endowed with powers. She is superior in creating, therefore she is called prakṛti. 'Pra' means 'first,' 'kṛti' means 'creation.' The goddess who is the beginning of creation, she is called prakṛti" (DBhāgP. 9.1.5–8).
The various goddesses were also identified with a single divine principle, and this principle was identified with prakṛti. This theme was developed in texts devoted to the Goddess, and in these texts the female divine beings, as well as female human beings, were identified with a principle called prakṛti, which in these texts is a term for what can perhaps be called the “female principle.” That prakṛti was a creative material principle, that it was part of a dualism with puruṣa, and that it was a feminine noun are some reasons for its feminization. The goddesses replaced Brahmā and Prajāpati as creative principles, and the concept of śakti became dominant as the creative power. In a creation story told in Devībhāgavatapurāṇa 9.1.1, the ultimate divine principle divided himself into a male and female half. His left side was the female, and this primal Goddess called Prakṛti divided herself into five forms: the goddesses Rādhā, Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī, Sāvitrī, and Durgā. These five are called the five highest prakṛtis. These highest modifications of prakṛti are female goddesses, but women in general also embody the divine prakṛti since prakṛti descends to the world in the form of women, according to this view. In the Sāṃkhya-Yoga systems, puruṣa and prakṛti are impersonal, ultimate principles. It goes against the logic of the Sāṃkhya-Yoga system to understand prakṛti, which is devoid of consciousness as a person. Identified with goddesses, prakṛti was no longer an unconscious material principle but a conscious animating force. The Śākta texts seem well aware of the difference between the Sāṃkhya-Yoga view and the Śākta view of prakṛti as a female principle:
"The Sāṃkhya philosophers say that of the two principles, puruṣa and prakṛti, it is prakṛti, the creatrix of the world that is devoid of consciousness (caitanya). But can you [Devī, identified with prakṛti] be of such nature for [if this is so] how could the abode of the world [Viṣṇu] be made unconscious by you today?" (DBhāgP. 1.7.29; trans. modified from Brown, 1990).
According to Sāṃkhya-Yoga, female experience is based on the same fundamental association of puruṣa (consciousness) and prakṛti (the material principle), as is male experience. In the Sāṃkhya-Yoga view, personification depends on, and is caused by, the association of the two ultimate principles, puruṣa and prakṛti. In the theistic traditions, however, the idea of a female–male polarity was added to the Sāṃkhya concept of puruṣa and prakṛti, and various gods as well as the God were identified with puruṣa, and goddesses as well as the Goddess were identified with prakṛti.
The word prakṛti has many meanings, and the word is used in a variety of contexts in Sanskrit texts as well as modern Indian languages. The adjective derived from prakṛti, prākṛta, means “original,” “normal,” or “derived from the original form” (prakṛti) and is used already in the Śatapathabrāhmaṇa 1.1.2.7 (etarhi prākṛtāni) and 2.2.5.1 (prākṛto śvamedha). Prakṛti means “that which precedes,” “the first,” or “that which is in its original form.” It is the “basis,” the “original state,” therefore the “natural,” the “archetype,” one’s “character,” “health,” “normality,” the “ordinary,” and “usual.” Prakṛti is the “material cause,” the “primordial substance,” the “producer of effects,” the “generative principle,” and the “ultimate material principle.” It is also the “constituent,” “part,” and “component.” The word is used in grammar for roots and stems to which prefixes and suffixes are added; in political science for the seven elements of the state and also the constituents in the circle of states; in medical science for physical health and personality types; in the ritual texts for model sacrifices on which the modified sacrifices are based; in Sāṃkhya-Yoga for the ultimate material principle as well as the eight material causal principles; in many Hindu theological and narrative traditions as a principle involved in creation and controlled by the divine power; in theological systems as an epithet of goddesses and associated with māyā and śakti ; and in Śākta religious traditions for the feminine divine principle from which the goddesses emerge.
Prakṛti is used in Sāṃkhya-Yoga to conceptualize the material principle as the opposite of the principle of consciousness, puruṣa , but prakṛti interestingly is also used to express a number of other dualisms. Prakṛti means “original” and “first,” and vikṛti means “secondary.” Prakṛti means “health” and “normality,” while vikṛti means “abnormality” or “illness.” Prakṛti is the original, anukṛti is the copy or imitation. The model sacrifices fully described in the ritual texts are the prakṛtis, and the modified sacrifices that are variations of them are called vikṛtis. In phonetics the unaltered sound is prakṛti, and the phonetically altered sound is called vikṛti, vikāra, or vikṛta. Prakṛti is also contrasted to saṃskṛta (“the constructed,” “the perfected”). The movement from prakṛti to vikṛti seems to express a disturbance and the beginning of decay. Prakṛti is the opposite of saṃskṛta. The saṃskṛta view, however, expresses the ability by ritual means to overcome the natural tendency of decay. The attempt to improve nature is related to the realm of dharma , while the focus on the natural course of decay is related to attempts of renunciants to realize salvific liberation (mokṣa). In modern times, prakṛti was the word the speakers of the languages of North India chose to translate the English word “nature,” and these days many English-speaking persons in or from India perceive the words prakṛti and “nature” to be synonymous.
As a religious concept, prakṛti is probably most important as a name for the ultimate material principle in Sāṃkhya and Yoga, as a cosmogonical principle in Hindu theological systems, and as a female principle and an epithet of the Goddess (Devī).
Prakṛti in Sāṃkhya-Yoga
In the Sāṃkhya-Yoga systems of religious thought, prakṛti was adopted as a name of the material principle, in addition to pradhāna (the principal) and avyakta (the unmanifest), both grammatical neuter words. However, the word prakṛti has several meanings, and also in the Sāṃkhya and Yoga texts, the word prakṛti is used also in a nontechnical sense, and only sometimes does it refer to the ultimate material principle, prakṛti (Jacobsen, 1999; 2007).Several properties of prakṛti as the ultimate material principle were identified by the Sāṃkhya-Yoga systems of religious thought. Prakṛti is unconscious (acetana) and thus absolutely different from the puruṣa principle. Prakṛti is an ultimate principle, which means that it is independent of any superior principle and that it cannot be dissolved in a more subtle principle. Prakṛti therefore has no material cause (ahetumat), and it is also without support (anāśrita) from something else, such as a divine or cosmic principle. The ultimate material principle is the āśraya, on which the products depend. Prakṛti is without mark (aliṅga) – that is, no further, more subtle principle can be inferred from it. The manifestations of prakṛti are dependent (paratantra), but prakṛti is independent (svatantra) and is not, according to Sāṃkhya-Yoga, controlled by a divine principle. Prakṛti is general or common (sāmānya). It is the single “material substratum” (dharmin) of all the manifestations, and in this way it is not different from its products. The products are effects of the material principle, which is their material cause, but the effects exist in the cause in a subtle form before their manifestation, and the material principle therefore pervades (vyāpin) the world. This idea, called satkārya (preexistence of the material effects in the material cause), is one of the principal theories of change in Indian philosophy. The ultimate material principle is called viṣayin, which means “that which contains the object” and is contrasted with the “object” (viṣaya), its manifestations. The ultimate material principle, prakṛti, is not itself a perceptible object, but it is the presupposition of the objects. Prakṛti is single (eka), there cannot be more than one ultimate material principle, and it is not constituted by parts (anavayava). It is a tripartite process constituted by the three guṇas (constituents, strands), but this tripartite process is identical with prakṛti and does not constitute a division in it. Prakṛti is identical with the three guṇas, which are called sattva (the principles of luminosity and intelligibility), rajas (the principle of change and passion), and tamas (the principle of inertia and darkness). Prakṛti is eternal (nitya) and functions through the guṇas. The manifestation of the products of prakṛti is compared to making a cloth with white, red, and black threads. The union of the threads produces the cloth, but the threads in the cloth retain their distinctness. “Production” (pariṇāma) means only the rearrangement of the threads, not creation of new ones. Prakṛti is self-propellant and always changing; the movement by which the material principle manifests itself is immanent in it. Prakṛti is productive (pariṇāmin), and it is in particular the property of being productive that has made prakṛti an important principle in the sacred narratives and the theological traditions of Hinduism.
The tattvas (principles) that produce other tattvas are called prakṛtis. In Sāṃkhya there are eight prakṛtis. The first prakṛti is called mūlaprakṛti, to distinguish it from the other seven, and the others are called prakṛtivikṛtis to indicate that they are not only material causes but also products of a material cause. In Bhagavadgītā 7.5 and Mahābhārata 12.294.27, parā prakṛti (highest prakṛti) is used to distinguish the first prakṛti from the rest. The followers of Sāṃkhya, according to Mahābhārata 12.294.27–29, are those who proclaim avyakta (the unmanifest) to be the ultimate material cause or highest prakṛti (prakṛtiḥ parā). There is a predilection in several groups of Sanskrit texts to relate groups of eight to the eight prakṛtis of Sāṃkhya (Jacobsen, 1999; Johnston, 1937).
In the Sāṃkhya tradition, a number of similes are used to argue and illustrate central doctrines about prakṛti (Jacobsen, 2006). In similes in Proto-Sāṃkhya, the Sāṃkhyakārikā, and the Sāṃkhyasūtra, prakṛti is compared to a number of things such as the outer cover of the reed, the uḍumbara tree (bot. Ficus Glomerata), water, lotus leaves, the riverbank, a tree, a pot in which fire is kept, a blind man, milk, an unselfish servant, a female dancer, snake’s skin, an amputated hand, a flower, a rose, a calf, a cook, a women from a noble family, and a silkworm. The point of the similes is not that prakṛti is these things, but the point is in the comparisons the similes express. The main point in many of the similes found in the Proto-Sāṃkhya sources is that puruṣa is different from prakṛti. This means that when the body dies, puruṣa does not die because it is different from prakṛti. In Sāṃkhyakārikā the main point made by many of the similes is that prakṛti functions for the attainment of the salvific goal of puruṣa. One of these similes, which is often misunderstood, compares prakṛti to a female dancer (nartakī), who when her performance is finished disappears from the stage (SāṃK. 59). In a similar way, prakṛti ceases after having manifested itself to puruṣa. The meaning of the simile is not that prakṛti is a female dancer or a female. Another simile compares prakṛti to a blind man, but that does not mean that prakṛti is a blind man or indeed a man. The simile of the dancer meant to convey the idea that the manifestation of prakṛti dissolves when the salvific liberation has been attained. When the separation of puruṣa and prakṛti is realized, the work of prakṛti is over. It withdraws, and only the passive presence of puruṣa is left. That many of the similes in the Sāṃkhyakārikā is about the issue of prakṛti working for attainment of the goal of puruṣa, is perhaps because competition from theistic traditions, which taught that salvific liberation ultimately was dependent on the salvific activity of a god, had become a critical issue at this time, creating doubt about prakṛti as an ultimate principle and the possibility of liberation of the puruṣa without the activity of a divine principle.
Prakṛti as Dependent on a Divine Ultimate Principle
A principle called prakṛti was accepted by many Śaiva, Vaiṣṇava, and Śākta theological systems as one of the tattvas (principles). However, while prakṛti in the Sāṃkhya and Yoga systems was an independent and ultimate principle, in the theological systems that accepted prakṛti, it was usually understood as dependent on a divine ultimate principle, or as only one element in a series of evolutes.In the theistic environment of Hinduism, the cosmic nature and cosmogonical functions of prakṛti were emphasized. The material principle was the equilibrium of the three guṇas. The process of creation and dissolution of the universe were often conceived as the process in which the Sāṃkhya categories were produced from the divine power of a god. The Matsyapurāṇa states,
"There are three guṇas known as sattva, rajas and tamas. The state of equilibrium of these three is called prakṛti. Some call it pradhāna, others avyakta, and this is what causes the creation and dissolution of the universe" (MtP. 3.14–15).
The Liṅgapurāṇa identifies prakṛti with the left side of the male god:
"[Śiva created] Puruṣa, the twenty-fifth principle, directly from his heart, the material principle (prakṛti) from his left; the intellect from the region of the intellect; the egoity principle from the egoity principle and the tanmātras from it. The supreme god created playfully his sense-organs from his own sense-organs" (LiP. 1.76–10–11).
Prakṛti often stands in relationship to the male god as the material principle that he controls. Prakṛti became part of cosmogonical speculations and was understood as the material cause, often identified with māyā and śakti and controlled by a divine power. In the Śvetāśvataropaniṣad it says, “Know that the material cause (prakṛti) is the creative power (māyā), and know the great god as the possessor of the creative power (māyā)” (ŚvetU. 4.10). Also in the Bhagavadgītā, prakṛti is controlled by the divine power, but here prakṛti and māyā as different principles are emphasized:
"Although being unborn, imperishable, and also the lord of all beings, having taken recourse to materiality (prakṛti) which is mine, I come into being by my own supernormal power (māyā)" (BhG. 4.6).
"All beings go into my prakṛti (material cause), oh son of Kuntī, at the end of a kalpa. At the beginning of a kalpa, I send them forth" (BhG. 9.7).
The different theological schools gave different interpretations of this prakṛti controlled by Kṛṣṇa. Prakṛti in Bhagavadgītā 4.6 was explained by Śaṅkara as “the māyā related to Viṣṇu consisting of the three guṇas under the control of which this whole world exist.” Rāmānuja glosses prakṛti with svabhāva, and according to Vedāntadeśika, svabhāva here means “the body (vigraha) of god.” These are examples of how prakṛti was given new interpretations in the theological traditions to make sense of the relationship of prakṛti with the divine. Most of the Vaiṣṇava, Śaiva, and Śākta theological schools – such as the Pāśupatas, Śaiva Siddhānta, Liṅgāyats, Kashmir Śaivism, Pāñcarātra, Viśiṣṭādvaita of Rāmānuja, Dvaitādvaita of Madhva, Bhedābheda of Nimbārka, Śuddhādvaita of Vallabha, and Acintyabhedābheda of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava traditions – did accept the Sāṃkhya principles from prakṛti to the gross elements, but there was disagreement about the principle above the prakṛti principle. In order to explain the relationship of the divine principle to prakṛti and the material world, additional principles were postulated between the divine principle and prakṛti. The stuff from which the world was made manifest was situated in the scheme between the divine principle and the manifest world, but prakṛti also became one of the epithets of the Goddess and was, as such, identified with various female divinities.
Prakṛti as Female
Both of the Sāṃkhya terms prakṛti and puruṣa were adopted by theistic traditions, but their meaning was transformed in the theological speculations about divinity. Although puruṣa (lit. man) earlier had been regarded as a masculine principle, prakṛti had not been thought of as specifically feminine in essence, despite its feminine grammatical gender (Brown, 1990; Jacobsen, 1996; 1999). In the theistic traditions, the female–male sexual polarity was added to the Sāṃkhya concepts of prakṛti and puruṣa, which originally were not thought of in terms of gender or sexual symbolism. The association of prakṛti with the Goddess was dependent on the Sāṃkhya system, and in this development the identity of being feminine in a different sense than just the grammatical was ascribed to the term prakṛti. In Sāṃkhya prakṛti was not a female principle, but prakṛti became a female principle, and the Goddess personified it. When prakṛti was personified, she could be prayed to as a divine principle. In Devīmāhātmya the gods pay homage to Durgā, celebrating her as prakṛti: “Homage to prakṛti, the auspicious! We who are restrained bow down to her” (DM. 5.7). “You are the material cause (prakṛti) of everything, manifesting the triad of constituents” (DM. 1.59). But the personification of prakṛti by identifying her with goddesses meant that it had been identified with śakti, the female power that ultimately is both consciousness and activity. Ahirbudhnyasaṃhitā states: “That which is the material cause of the world (jagatprakṛtibhāvo), is called śakti” (AhirSa. 2.57). And: “That supreme prakṛti is the śakti of all-pervading Viṣṇu. She is the primordial source of the universe (jagatprakṛti parā)” (AhirSa. 5.28). Prakṛti is a female divine creator. In Lakṣmītantra the Goddess says, “The universe is produced from me, hence I am called prakṛti” (LakṣT. 4.51). A new etymology reflecting this view of prakṛti as a female divine creator was given in the Devībhāgavatapurāṇa. According to this text,"'Pra-' means 'excellent,' 'kṛti' means 'creation.' Therefore that goddess who is the most excellent in creation is called prakṛti. The word 'pra' means the most excellent sattva guṇa. 'Kṛ' means the middle rajas guṇa, and -ti denotes the tamas guṇa. She, whose nature is triguṇa, is endowed with powers. She is superior in creating, therefore she is called prakṛti. 'Pra' means 'first,' 'kṛti' means 'creation.' The goddess who is the beginning of creation, she is called prakṛti" (DBhāgP. 9.1.5–8).
The various goddesses were also identified with a single divine principle, and this principle was identified with prakṛti. This theme was developed in texts devoted to the Goddess, and in these texts the female divine beings, as well as female human beings, were identified with a principle called prakṛti, which in these texts is a term for what can perhaps be called the “female principle.” That prakṛti was a creative material principle, that it was part of a dualism with puruṣa, and that it was a feminine noun are some reasons for its feminization. The goddesses replaced Brahmā and Prajāpati as creative principles, and the concept of śakti became dominant as the creative power. In a creation story told in Devībhāgavatapurāṇa 9.1.1, the ultimate divine principle divided himself into a male and female half. His left side was the female, and this primal Goddess called Prakṛti divided herself into five forms: the goddesses Rādhā, Lakṣmī, Sarasvatī, Sāvitrī, and Durgā. These five are called the five highest prakṛtis. These highest modifications of prakṛti are female goddesses, but women in general also embody the divine prakṛti since prakṛti descends to the world in the form of women, according to this view. In the Sāṃkhya-Yoga systems, puruṣa and prakṛti are impersonal, ultimate principles. It goes against the logic of the Sāṃkhya-Yoga system to understand prakṛti, which is devoid of consciousness as a person. Identified with goddesses, prakṛti was no longer an unconscious material principle but a conscious animating force. The Śākta texts seem well aware of the difference between the Sāṃkhya-Yoga view and the Śākta view of prakṛti as a female principle:
"The Sāṃkhya philosophers say that of the two principles, puruṣa and prakṛti, it is prakṛti, the creatrix of the world that is devoid of consciousness (caitanya). But can you [Devī, identified with prakṛti] be of such nature for [if this is so] how could the abode of the world [Viṣṇu] be made unconscious by you today?" (DBhāgP. 1.7.29; trans. modified from Brown, 1990).
According to Sāṃkhya-Yoga, female experience is based on the same fundamental association of puruṣa (consciousness) and prakṛti (the material principle), as is male experience. In the Sāṃkhya-Yoga view, personification depends on, and is caused by, the association of the two ultimate principles, puruṣa and prakṛti. In the theistic traditions, however, the idea of a female–male polarity was added to the Sāṃkhya concept of puruṣa and prakṛti, and various gods as well as the God were identified with puruṣa, and goddesses as well as the Goddess were identified with prakṛti.
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