Kapila

/kah"pi leuh/, n.

fl. early 6th century B.C., Hindu philosopher: reputed founder of the Sankhya system of Hindu philosophy.

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flourished 550 BC?

Founder of the Samkhya school of Vedic philosophy in India.

Legend says he was a descendant of Manu, the primal human being, and a grandson of the creator god, Brahma. He has also been thought of as an incarnation of Vishnu. In Buddhist sources he was a well-known philosopher whose students built Kapilavastu, the birthplace of Buddha Gautama. He lived as a hermit, and his ascetic regimen was said to have given him an inner store of such intense heat that he was capable of reducing 60,000 men to ashes.

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▪ Vedic sage

flourished 550 BCE?

      Vedic sage who is often identified, with others, as the founder of the system of Samkhya (Saṃkhyā), one of six schools of Vedic philosophy. He is not, however, the author of the text primarily responsible for giving the school its philosophical definition: Ishvarakrishna's Samkhya-karika (c. 4th century CE).

      According to Hindu (Hinduism) sources, Kapila was a descendant of Manu, the primal human being, and a grandson of the creator-god Brahma, or he was an avatar of the god Vishnu. The important religious text the Bhagavadgita pictures him as a recluse associated with yogic adepts ( siddhas). The Samkhya system attributed to Kapila has had a considerable impact on the Hindu tradition as a whole, especially through its close association with Yoga, as symbolized in Kapila's own asceticism. For example, Samkhya forms a notable part of the philosophical background of the Bhagavadgita. In mythology, Kapila is portrayed as an exemplar of yogic stringency. His hermit regimen is said to have produced in him an inner store of such intense heat that he was capable of reducing to ashes the 60,000 sons of the Vedic king Sagara.

      Buddhist (Buddhism) sources present him as a well-known philosopher whose students built the city of Kapilavastu, according to one tradition the birthplace of the Buddha. Though there are many similarities in the philosophies of the Buddha and Kapila (e.g., stress upon meditation as a technique for removing suffering, belief that the Vedic gods were subject to limitations and conditions, and dislike of ritual and of Brahmanic doctrines), Kapila did not establish a religious community.

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