Betreuung: Karin Preisendanz
This MA thesis deals with the classification and explanation of the three kinds of suffering, ādhyātmika (suffering relating to something belonging to the Self), ādhibhautika (suffering relating to something belonging to living beings) and ādhidaivika (suffering relating to something belonging to the gods or to heaven). The reference to these three kinds of suffering is very well known from the opening verse of the teaching of classical Sāṃkhya philosophy in the Sāṃkhyakārikā. Although the verse itself only uses the term duḥkhatraya, ‛triad of suffering’ or ‘three kinds of suffering,’ the commentators on the Sāṃkhyakārikā and other authors provide further information on the names of these three kinds of suffering, their definitions and sub-classification, and explain them, mainly by way of exemplification. However, it is not clear whether this classification of duḥkha originates from the Sāṃkhya philosophy. The same classification is also found in various other Sanskrit literatures, such as the classical Yoga philosophy and the Pāśupata tradition, in the Purāṇas, in Āyurveda, etc.
In this context, the present thesis addresses the question how the interpretation and description of the duḥkhatraya developed in classical and medieval Sanskrit literature. Therefore, translations of selected passages of the commentaries on Sāṃkhyakārikā 1, Sāṃkhyasūtra 1, of short commentaries and other works included in the Sāṃkhyasaṃgraha, of commentaries on Pātañjalayogaśāstra 1.31, and of the Pañcārthabhāṣya, Brahmapurāṇa, Viṣṇupurāṇa and Suśrutasaṃhitā, are included. The rich information contained in these selected passages is then presented in tabular form and subsequently evaluated from various points of view, such as the mutual relationship between the interpretations in the sources and their crucial differences, their inner logic and development, and the identification of peculiar features of them.