Kapila (flourished 550 bce?) was a Vedic sage who is often identified as one of the founders of the system of Samkhya, one of six darshans (systems) of Indian 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), nor did he establish a religious community.
The Bhagavadgita (“Song of God”) depicts Kapila as a recluse associated with Yogic adepts (siddhas). Indeed, the Samkhya system attributed to him is closely associated with Yoga and forms a part of the philosophical background of the Gita. Hindu mythology regards Kapila as a descendant of Manu, the primal human being, and a grandson of the creator-god Brahma or as an avatar of the god Vishnu. An exemplar of Yogic stringency, Kapila is said to have produced an inner store of such intense heat (tapas) that he was capable of reducing to ashes the 60,000 sons of the Vedic king Sagara. Buddhist sources present him as a well-known philosopher whose students built the city of Kapilavastu, which was, according to one tradition, the birthplace of the Buddha.