KAPILA

flourished 550 BC? Vedic sage and founder of the system of Samkhya, one of six schools of Vedic philosophy. Hindu sources on Kapila are replete with myth and contradiction. He has been described as a descendant of Manu, the mythical lawgiver, and he has been deified as a son of the creator-god Brahma. The Bhagavadgita pictures him as a recluse. Buddhist 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 preach his ideas to the masses or establish a religious community like the Buddha's sangha. Thus, Kapila's system has not had a great affect upon the Hindu tradition as a whole but has remained important to a small group of philosophers from the 6th century BC through the present.