"This book is the first monographic study of prakrti. It traces the history of the word prakrti, the word chosen by the modern North Indian languages to translate the English word 'nature,' through the texts of the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain systems of religious thought. Prakrti is one of the central metaphysical principles in the religious traditions of Hinduism, especially in the very influential Samkhya and Yoga traditions.

The second part of the book gives a systematic analysis of this important principle in the Proto-Samkhya, Samkhya, and Samkhya-Yoga texts."--BOOK JACKET.