Samkhya Sutra is a seminal work on Samkhya philosophy. It is traditionally attributed to Sage Kapila, but it is not the work of Kapila. It was not referred to by any writer until it was commented on by Aniruddha in the 15th century CE. The other reading of the sutras themselves is to be found in Samkhya Pravachana Bhashya of Vijnanabhiksu, who flourished in the latter half of the 16th century CE. There is no mention of this sutra collection in the older Samkhya literature. Many of the references to other philosophical doctrines of Samkhya Sutra appear to reflect a much later period in the history of Hindu philosophy.
Samkhya Sutra contains refutations of other doctrines and also several parables. The text is divided into six books (adhyayas), viz., the book of topics (Visayadhyaya); the book of evolutions of the prime cause (Pradhanakaryadhyaya); the book of non-attachment (Vairagyadhyaya); the book of parables (Akhyayikadhyaya); the book of refutations of opponents (Parapoksanirjayadhyaya); and the book of recapitulation of the teachings on Tantra (Tantradhyaya). The text contains 526 sutras in total.
Samkhya Sutra follows the style of Samkhya Karika but is written in sutra form. The Samkhya doctrines found in Samkhya sutra are not different from the doctrines propounded in Samkhya Karika. However, they are seen to have some sort of compromise with the Upanishadic doctrine, which is not found in Samkhya Karika.
Samkhya Karika holds that when the Upanishads talk about one absolute pure intelligence, they mean to refer to a unity involved in the class of intelligent purushas, a distinct from the class of the gunas. As all purushas are of the nature of pure intelligence, they are spoken of in the Upanishads as one, for they all form the category or class of pure intelligence and hence may, in some sense, be regarded as one.