---
type: Concept
bundle: sankhya-darshana
bundle_version: 0.13.1
id: kapila
title: Kapila
iast: Kapila
devanagari: कपिल
description: The traditional founder-sage of the Samkhya school -- a semi-legendary figure credited with the earliest systematization of Samkhya doctrine, distinct from any deity or avatara named Kapila in Puranic literature.
darshana:
- Samkhya
tags:
- kapila
- founder
- samkhya
- history
not:
- term: a deity or divine avatara
  why: Some Puranic sources associate a figure named Kapila with divine or avataric status, distinct from the philosophical founder-figure credited with founding the Samkhya darshana. This concept file refers specifically to the darshana's traditional founder, not to any Puranic Kapila-as-deity narrative, which is out of scope for this bundle.
related:
- /concepts/samkhya-as-enumeration.md
- /concepts/samkhya-pravacana-sutra.md
timestamp: '2026-07-10'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Kapila -- कपिल

**Not:** a deity or divine avatara

## What It Actually Means

Kapila is traditionally credited as the founder of the Sāṃkhya darśana, the figure to whom the school's earliest systematization is attributed, though the historical Kapila is semi-legendary and no securely dated text survives directly from him. The extant Sāṃkhya-Pravacana-Sūtra is attributed to his tradition rather than confidently to his own hand; the earliest fully extant systematic text is Īśvarakṛṣṇa's Sāṃkhya-Kārikā, centuries later.

## Audience Metaphor

Kapila functions for Sāṃkhya somewhat like a discipline's founding figure whose name anchors a school of thought even though the field's actual textbook (the Kārikā) was written by a later systematizer working within the tradition he founded.

## Citations

1. Samkhya-Pravacana-Sutra, traditional attribution -- see [references/samkhya-pravacana-sutra.md](../references/samkhya-pravacana-sutra.md)
2. Cross-bundle note: the Puranic Kapila-as-avatara this file excludes (see the not: field) has a named primary text -- Kapila Gita, Bhagavata Purana 3.24-33 -- identified and cited at sesvara-samkhya.md, not treated here
