Kapila

Kapila the reputed author of the Sankhya (q.v.), one of the philosophical systems of the Hindus. As to the origin of Kapila, Hindu tradition is rather vague. Among his followers he is by some described as a son of Brahma, and by others, especially his later followers, as an incarnation of Vishnu He is also recounted to have been born as the son of Devahiti, and, again, is identified with one of the agnis or fires. Finally, it is said that there existed, in fact, two Kapilas-the first an embodiment of Vishnu; the other, the igneous principle in human disguise. The probability is that Kapila was simply, like the great majority of his educated countrymen, a Brahman. Spence Hardy (Manual of Buddhism, p. 132) quotes a legend by which it may be shown that the Hindus regarded Buddha as a later existence of our Kapila, and that therefore Buddhism is the Sankhya philosophy modified; but professor Max Miller rejects this theory, and says that he has looked in vain for any similarities between the system of Kapila, as known to us in the Sankhya- satras, and the Abhidharma, or the metaphysics of the Buddhists. He adds, however, that if any similarity of the two systems could be established, such proofs would be very valuable. " They would probably enable us to decide whether Buddha borrowed from Kapila, or Kapila from Buddha, and thus determine the real chronology of the philosophical literature, of India, as either prior or subsequent to the Buddhist sera." See Professor J. E. Hall, Bibliotheca Indica, Sankhyapr. p. 14 sq.; Ballantyne, Lecture on the Sankhya Philosophy [Mirzapore, 1850]; Hardwick, Christ and other Masters, i, 208 sq.; Max Muller, Chips from a German Workshop, i, 223 sq. SEE SANKHYA.