Tradition
Kapila
Overview
Kapila (Sanskrit: कपिल) (7th-6th-century BCE), also referred to as Cakradhanus, was a Vedic sage in Hindu tradition, regarded the founder of the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy.
His influence on Buddha and Buddhism has long been the subject of scholarly studies. There have been accusations by orthodox Buddhists that Sarvastivadins are heavily influenced by Samkhya school of philosophy.
According to the Brahmanda Purana, Kapila is described as an incarnation of Vishnu: "Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa will protect us all. The Lord of the universe has now been born in the world as Kapilācārya."
Many historic personalities in Hinduism and Jainism, mythical figures, pilgrimage sites in Indian religion, as well as an ancient variety of cow, are named after Kapila, or share his name.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Kapila is discussed.
Because It is immaterial, it necessarily follows that It must be infinite, It cannot have any limitation whatever. So each one of these _purushas_ is omnipresent, each is all-pervading, but can act only through fine and gross manifestations of matter. The mind, the self-consciousness, the organs and the vital forces compose what is called the fine body, or what in Christian philosophy is called the “spiritual body”…
Swami Vivekananda, Jnâna Yoga, Part II
states what it is; names the idea; opens on it
Among the Indians of the Brazilian forests, for example, the sun and moon are called leaves or feather-balls; by several of the Soudan tribes they are conceived as balls that have been thrown to the sky by human beings and have stuck there. Such ideas alternate with others in which the sun and moon are regarded as brothers or as brother and sister, or the sun is said to be chasing the moon--images influenced…
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
states what it is
The one part, which really is orthodox, has no other purpose than to make the deliverances of the Vedas clearer, or to derive from the text of these original treatises an ingeniously thought-out Psychology. This system is called Mimansa, and two schools proceed from it. Distinguished from these there are other systems, amongst which the two chief are those of the Sanc’hya and Nyaya. The former again divides into two…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
states what it is
Sylla, when he had passed over the Assus, marching under the Mount Hedylium, encamped close to Archelaus, who had entrenched himself strongly between the mountains Acontium and Hedylium, close to what are called the Assia. The place of his entrenchment is to this day named from him, Archelaus.
Plutarch, Plutarch
states what it is
But, besides the forces of nature, the social forces dominated men by their apparent necessity, for these forces were, in reality, just as strange and unaccountable to men as were the forces of nature. The imaginary forms in which, at first, only the secret forces of nature were reflected, became possessed of social attributes, became the representatives of historical forces. By a still further development the…
Friedrich Engels, Landmarks of Scientific Socialism
Philosophers who discussed Kapila
Related ideas
- Bhagavata Purana
- Hemachandra
- Hinduism
- Jainism
- Sarvastivada
- Vishnu
- Mahabharata
- Brahman
- Brahma
- Vedic period
- Bhagavad Gita
- Patanjali
- Brahmin
- Ahimsa
- Sutra
- Śramaṇa
- Advaita Vedanta
- Vyasa
- Hindu philosophy
- Samkhya
- Theravada
- Shvetashvatara Upanishad
- Buddhism
- Max Müller
Place in the tradition
Part of Cosmology.