Śabdatanmātra
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Sparśatanmātra
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Rūpatanmātra
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Rasatanmātra
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Gandhatanmātra
The evolution of the tanmātras has been variously described in the Purāṇas and the Smṛti literature. These divergent views can briefly be brought under two headings: those which derive the tanmātras from the bhûtas and those which derive them from the ahaṃkāra and the bhûtas from them. Some of these schools have been spoken of in the Barabara Muni’s commentary on the Tattvatraya—a treatise on the Rāmānuja Philosophy—and have been already explained in a systematic way by Dr. B. N. Seal. I therefore refrain from repeating them needlessly. About the derivation of the tanmātras all the other Sāṃkhya treatises, the Kārikā, the Kaumudī, the Tattvavaiśāradī, the Sūtra and Pravacana-bhāshya, the Siddhāntacandrikā, Sūtrārthabodhinī, the Rajamārtaṇḍa and the Maṇiprabhā seem to be silent. Further speaking of the tanmātras, Vijñāna Bhikshu says that the tanmātras exist only in unspecialised forms; they therefore can be neither felt nor perceived in any way by the senses of ordinary men. This is that indeterminate state of matter in which they can never be distinguished one from the other, and they cannot be perceived to be possessed of different qualities or specialised in any way. It is for this that they are called tanmātras, i.e. their only specialization is a mere thatness. The Yogins alone perceive them.