Kapila is the tenth child of the sage
Kardama and Devahūti. Kardama is provided a boon by Narayana that he would himself be born as his son. After attaining this, Kardama wished to leave for the forest for penance and research and Vedic study. Kardama had nine daughters who were very learned and went ahead to marry great sages mentioned in ancient Indian history.
Vedic texts The
Rigveda X.27.16 mentions Kapila (
daśānām ekam kapilam) which the 14th-century Vedic commentator
Sayana thought refers to a sage; a view which Chakravarti in 1951 and Larson in 1987 consider unreliable, with Chakravarti suggesting that the word refers to one of the
Maruts, while Larson and Bhattacharya state kapilam in that verse means "tawny" or "reddish-brown"; as is also translated by Griffith. The Śata-piṭaka Series on the Śākhās of the
Yajurveda – estimated to have been composed between 1200 and 1000 BCE – mention of a
Kapila Śākhā situated in the Āryāvarta, which implies a Yajurveda school is named after Kapila.
Puranas Kapila, states George Williams, lived long before the composition of the Epics and the Puranas, and his name is coopted in various later composed mythologies. •
As an ascetic and as sleeping Vishnu: In the
Brahma Purana, when the evil king
Vena abandoned the Vedas, declared that he is the only creator of
dharma, and broke all limits of righteousness. It is also believed that Kapila is the 5th incarnation of lord vishnu who was born in a village Mahangupur near the banks of river Saryu in Gonda district of Uttarpradesh and is killed, Kapila advises hermits to churn Vena's thigh from which emerged Nishadas, and his right hand from which Prthu originated who made earth productive again. Kapila and hermits then went to Kapilasangama, a holy place where rivers meet. The Brahma Purana also mentions Kapila in the context of
Sagara's 60,000 sons who looking for their Ashvamedha horse, disturbed Vishnu who is sleeping in the shape of Kapila. He woke up, the brilliance in his eyes burnt all but four of Sagara's sons to ashes, leaving few survivors carrying on the family lineage.
Sagara's son is King Dilipa and his grandson is
Bhagiratha. On the advice of his guru Trithala, Bhagiratha did penance for a thousand years (according to god timeline) to please Ganga, to gain the release his 60,000 great-uncles from the curse of saint Kapila. • '''''As Vishnu's incarnation'''
: The Narada Purana enumerates two Kapilas, one as the incarnation of Brahma and another as the incarnation of Vishnu. The Puranas Bhagavata, Brahmanda, Vishnu, Padma, Skanda, Narada Purana; and the Valmiki Ramayana mentions Kapila is an incarnation of Vishnu. The Padma Purana and Skanda Purana conclusively call him Vishnu himself who descended on earth to disseminate true knowledge. Bhagavata Purana calls him Vedagarbha Vishnu''. The
Vishnusahasranama mentions Kapila as a name of Vishnu. In his commentary on the Samkhyasutra,
Vijnanabhikshu mentions Kapila, the founder of Samkhya system, is Vishnu. Jacobsen suggests Kapila of the Veda,
Śramaṇa tradition and the Mahabharata is the same person as Kapila the founder of Samkhya; and this individual is considered as an incarnation of Vishnu in the Hindu texts. •
As son of Kardama muni: The Book 3 of the
Bhagavata Purana, states Kapila is the son of
Kardama Prajapati and his wife Devahuti. Kardama is born from Chaya, the reflection of
Brahma. Brahma asks Kardama to procreate upon which Kardama goes to the banks of
Sarasvati river, practices penance, visualizes
Vishnu and is told by Vishnu that
Manu, the son of Brahma will arrive there with his wife
Shatarupa in search of a groom for their daughter Devahuti. Vishnu advises Kardama to marry Devahuti, and blesses Kardama that he himself will be born as his son. Besides Kapila as their only son, Kardama and Devahuti had nine daughters, namely Kala,
Anusuya, Sraddha, Havirbhu, Gati, Kriya,
Khyati,
Arundhati and Shanti who were married to
Marici,
Atri,
Angiras,
Pulastya,
Pulaha, Kratu,
Bhrigu,
Vashistha, and
Atharvan respectively. H.H.Wilson notes the Bhagavatha adds a third daughter Devahuti to introduce the long legend of Kardama, and of their son Kapila, an account not found elsewhere. Kapila is described, states Daniel Sheridan, by the redactor of the Purana, as an incarnation of the supreme being Vishnu, in order to reinforce the Purana teaching by linking it to the traditional respect to Kapila's Samkhya in Hinduism. •
As son of Kashyapa: The Matsya Purana mentions Kapila as the son of
Kashyapa from his wife
Danu, daughter of Daksha Prajapati. Kapila is one among Danu's 100 sons, and her other sons (Kapila's brothers) mentioned in the Vishnu Purana include Dvimurddha, Shankara, Ayomukha, Shankhushiras, Samvara, Ekachakra, Taraka, Vrishaparvan, Svarbhanu,
Puloman, Viprachitti and other
Danavas. •
As son of Vitatha or Bharadwaja: In the
Brahma Purana and in the
Harivamsa Kapila is the son of Vitatha. Daniélou translates Vitatha to inaccuracy;
Dharmasutras and other texts As son of Prahlada: The Baudhayana Dharmasutra mentions the Asura Kapila is the son of Prahlada in the chapter laying rules for the
Vaikhanasas. The section IV.16 of
Baudhāyana Gṛhyasūtra mentions Kapila as the one who set up rules for ascetic life. In other Hindu texts such as the Mahabharata, Kapila is again the sage who argues against sacrifices, and for non-violence and an end to cruelty to animals, with the argument that if sacrifices benefited the animal, then logically the family who sacrifices would benefit by a similar death. while the Vaikhānasasāgama gives somewhat varying description. The Vaikhānasasāgama places Kapila as an āvaraņadēvāta and allocates the south-east corner of the first āvaraņa. • Pradyumna assumed the form of Kapila when he became free from desire of worldly influences. • In the Vamana Purana, the Yakshas were sired by Kapila with his consort Kesini who is from the Khasa class; though the epics attribute the origin of Yakshas to a cosmic egg or to the sage Pulastya; while other puranas posit Kashyapa as the progenitor of Yakshas with his consort Vishva or Khasha. • In some puranas, Kapila is also mentioned as a female, a daughter of Khaśā and a Rākșasī, after whom came the name Kāpileya gaņa. In the Mahabharat, Kapila is a daughter of Daksha and having married Kashyapa gave birth to the Brahmanas, Kine, Gandharvas and Apsaras. • Kapila being a great teacher also had gardening as a hobby focusing his time around the babool (Acacia) tree everywhere he lived.
Kapila Devahuti Samvada The Kapila-Devahuti Samvada, detailed in the
Third Canto of the Bhagavat Purana, serves as a foundational dialogue for the theological presentation of
Samkhya philosophy. Shri
Krishna also mentioned this concept briefly to Arjun amidst their conversation during the
Mahabharata war, which has been mentioned in the
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2, called Samkhya Yog. The narrative begins with Devahuti approaching her son Kapila, identified as the Supreme Lord, and expressing distress over a life spent in sense enjoyment, which she regards as wasted. She seeks fearlessness and liberation from suffering. She attributes her condition to bodily identification, articulated as aham mama iti ("I and mine"), and asks Kapila to remove her attachment to the physical body and its sense of ownership. Kapila responds by teaching Samkhya, described as a system of discriminative knowledge. By analyzing the constituents of material reality (tattvas), he distinguishes matter (
prakriti) from spirit (
purusa). The dialogical analysis aims to dispel identification with the body and mind, reduce attachment to material existence, and ground yoga, meditation on God, devotion, and intellectual stability in systematic knowledge of nature. == Jainism ==