Rishi Varshaganya

Varshaganya (Varshaganya, in Sanskrit Vārṣagaṇya) is an early teacher of Samkhya. He is known only from other writers who name him, list him or quote him. No complete work of his is known, and no text I found gives his parents, his home or his dates.

The Mahabharata names him. In the Shanti Parva the Gandharva Vishvavasu names the teachers from whom he has heard discourses on the subject of the self: "the intelligent Varshaganya, Bhrigu, Panchasikha Kapila, Suka, Gautama", and also Jaigishavya, Asita and Devala [Mahabharata, Shanti Parva, section 319 in Ganguli]. Later Samkhya writers treat him as one of the old authorities. The Yuktidipika, a commentary on the Samkhya Karika, lists him with Kapila, Asuri, Panchashikha and Vindhyavasin, and Vachaspati Mishra's Samkhya Tattva Kaumudi quotes him. The Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna, which names only Kapila, Asuri and Panchashikha as its line of teachers, is dated to about 350 CE, with other estimates between about 200 and 540 CE.

In the Buddhist biography of Vasubandhu by Paramartha (sixth century CE), a Samkhya teacher Vindhyavasin defeats Vasubandhu's old teacher Buddhamitra in debate at Ayodhya, and Vasubandhu answers with a treatise, the Paramarthasaptati. Secondary summaries say Paramartha calls Varshaganya the great Samkhya teacher and Vindhyavasin his pupil. Scholars regard Paramartha's biography as partly legendary. Estimates for Varshaganya's own date run from about the first century to about the fourth century CE, and they are disputed.

The name is also found outside Samkhya. A Varshaganya is quoted in the Latyayana Shrautasutra (10.9.10), a Samaveda text, and a Varshaganya appears in the teacher lists of the Vamsha Brahmana. No text I found says these are the same man as the Samkhya teacher.

1. Named among the teachers of the self: Vishvavasu names Varshaganya first among the sages from whom he has heard discourses [Mahabharata, Shanti Parva, section 319].
2. Quoted by Samkhya writers: The Yuktidipika lists him among the old Samkhya authorities, and Vachaspati Mishra quotes him in the Samkhya Tattva Kaumudi.
3. His school and Vindhyavasin: Paramartha's biography of Vasubandhu tells of the debate at Ayodhya in which Vindhyavasin defeated Buddhamitra. Chinese sources call his followers the "rain host", which is read as a rendering of Varsha-gana.

• Gandharva Vishvavasu's questions to Yajnavalkya, where the Mahabharata names him
• The Samkhya schools of the early centuries CE