(“I-saying,” or “I-making”), in the dualist and evolutionist Saṃkhyā school of Hindu philosophy, the second stage of development of the prakriti, the original stuff of material nature, which evolves into the manifest world.

Ahankara follows the stage of buddhi (intelligence, or perception), in which the purusha (soul, or self)—once in a state of pure consciousness, i.e., without an object of contemplation—becomes focused on the prakriti, on existence outside of itself. From the “this-awareness” of the buddhi level evolves the ahankara, or ego-consciousness (an “I-this awareness”). Ahankara is thus the mistaken assumption of personality or individuality. It is mistaken because the soul is incapable of acting; it is rather the prakriti, the essential matter, that acts. Ahankara in turn gives way to other stages in the transmigration of the soul. See also Saṃkhyā.