Before the First Cause: Recursive Causality and Co-Definition in Indian Philosophical Literature

This preprint examines how many Indian philosophical and cosmological texts conceptualize causation in non-linear terms. Instead of treating causal explanation as a one-directional sequence with a privileged first cause, these traditions often present pairs or structures that co-generate or co-define one another. Examples include Purusa and Prakrti in Sāṃkhya, Brahmā and the Vedas in Vedic and Vedāntic literature, Śiva and Śakti in Kashmir Śaivism, and several narrative dualities found in the epics.

By drawing on an analytic vocabulary of recursion and fixed-point semantics, the paper shows that these patterns are not inconsistencies or mythological flourishes but deliberate metaphysical models. Mutual dependence functions as a stable explanatory structure rather than a problem requiring resolution.

The paper positions these Indian models alongside linear causal frameworks and highlights their relevance for contemporary debates about grounding, circular explanation, and self-referential systems.