Kapila Kardama- The First Empiricist.

My favorite philosopher?

Hah!
Kapila Kardama. Who else?

Who was he? Why is he great? 

He was a very ancient sage and philosopher of India. Son of Kardama muni and Devahuti. Descendant of Saptarshi Pulaha by some accounts.

-Founded Samkhya (The 'enumeration'), the world's second oldest philosophy.

-The world's first Empiricist.

-World's first Atheist thinker.

-Worlds first Reformer.
-Established monasticism

#PatronRishi of Rebels.

Imagine. The Bronze age. Only three civilizations exist- India , Egypt and Sumer. The other two and the rest of mankind has not matured enough yet to delve into philosophy.In that primitive era, we not only had philosophy, we were also beginning to engage in intense dialectic! When Vedic Advaitins(non-dualists) reigned supreme as Aryavarta's intellectuals, one man boldly challenged them ALONE!

"I don't accept your Vedic position that all reality can be reduced to a singularity . Oh, I don't accept many other things too"

He was Kapila Kardama. And these are the achievements to his credit-in no specific order of significance-

1. He was probably the first to speak up against rigid ritualism, though from the earliest references(such as in the Atharvaveda) he and his disciple Asuri seems to have been ritualists themselves initially.

2. He was the first to oppose cruelty to animals and the practice of animal sacrifices. When the gods argue that the word ajāh in the context of sacrifice means goat, Kapila replies-

“The word ajā not only means ‘goat’. It also means ‘seed’. If you, purohitas, wish to sacrifice, you may sacrifice a seed”
-Kapila(as one of the seven Nivrtti sages)
(MB XII.324)

Stories like this point to a new phase in Vedic history where the wisdom and knowledge of enlightened men(the seven sages in this case) began to topple the position of power wielded by the gods themselves and the unquestioning strains of faith. No longer would the gods go unchallenged. They have to answer to the philosophers! A civilization that matured so early, India had its first renaissance already in the bronze age.

3. He was one of the earliest advocates of Ahimsa. Yet the story of ahimsa pays no homage to its earliest teacher.

“No law is higher than non-violence”
-Kapila to the sage Syumareshmi (seeing an animal tied up for sacrifice)
( Mahabharata XII.260.17)

“Fearlessness to all living beings from my side! Svaha!”
-Kapila
(Baudhayana Grihya Sutra, 4.16.4)

4. Baudhayana also credits him with establishing the four ashramas .In laying down rules for ascetic life(Kapila Sannyasa Vidha), he was instrumental in the early history of monasticism.

5. Allusions to his Philosophy already appear in the very late Rig Vedic Book X implying he belongs in that era.

-'Tamas' and Satkarya vada(dissolution principle where effects such as names, forms and processes pre-exist in the cause and nothing new is brought forth into existence in creation) appears in Rig Veda X.129.3
-Upanishads abound in Sankhya references

6. He established Dualism as a firm counter to Vedic monism which flourished under monists like Yajnavalkya, Aruni, Svetaketu etc

7. He rejected a creator for the universe, making him the world’s first atheist thinker. His Samkhya left no place for God/Isvara as a material or efficient cause of the universe. While none of Kapila’s original texts have survived, while only later texts by his successors still remain. the Brahma sutras clearly prove that an atheistic Samkhya already existed by ~1000-800 BCE.

"The existence of Ishvara(god) is unproved."
(the existence of Ishvara cannot be proved and hence cannot be admitted to exist)
Sāṁkhyapravacana Sūtra 1.92

Samkhya was the first philosophy that put forth the basic arguments against creationism.

"Nothing can be created from nothing.
Pradhana, the primordial matter, was uncreated.
And it will remain at the end of the universe."
-Kapila Kardama

The first time in history that anyone stated a conservation law- though by modern standards it may no longer be valid.

8. He DECLARED that sensory perception and observation were the primary sources of true knowledge.

"Tis not enough to just sit, close your eyes and meditate. Hoping answers will come on their own.

Tis also not enough to loose your way in the twisting rivers of logic.

You must use your eyes & ears & touch. Observe and study the world around you if you seek valid knowledge."
-Kapila

9. He laid down an IRON RULE of Empiricism which EVERY Indian philosopher after him accepted. ALL of them.

"Pratyakṣa (The Empirical/Experimental world) is greater than anumāna (inference/Reason)
Remember this. This is my Iron rule"
-Kapila

Kapila foreshadowed the modern scientific method by almost 3000 years. Modern science arrived at this Empirical conclusion by rejecting Greek inspired rationalism only by the 20th century. The Iron Rule of Indian philosophy was laid down by him. A major reason why India continued to advance over the rest of the world right till the middle ages.

10. He has directly or indirectly influenced/inspired every other Indian philosophy that followed. Including Buddhism & Advaita whose major texts have all adopted Sankhya and converted it into a theistic system.

11. The first teacher of Gautama Buddha was a Sankhya philosopher called Alara Kalama. No wonder we find Sankhya influences in Buddhism! The monasticism, the atheism and many ideas shared between the two. Kapilavastu, the capital of Buddha’s Shakya kingdom was named after Kapila!

“The complete cessation of suffering is the highest aim of man"
-Kapila Kardama

“The cessation of sufferign can be attained by the elimination of desire”
- Gautama Buddha(third noble truth)

12. Kapila. A man so great, even his philosophical opponents(Monists) admired and revered him-

"Amongst the perfected beings, I am the sage Kapila.."
Bhagavad Gita 10.26

"Bhishma said (to Yudhishthira), 'Listen, O slayer of foes! The Sankhyas or followers of Kapila, who are conversant with all paths and endued with wisdom, say that there are five faults, O puissant one, in the human body. They are Desire and Wrath and Fear and Sleep and Breath. These faults are seen in the bodies of all embodied creatures"
-Mahabharata

When did he live, approximately?

Having reappraised and appreciated him, we must now attempt to answer the difficult question. WHEN did he live?

This is not an easy question. Nor even one that can be known definitively. The only thing we know for certain is that he lived before the time of the Mahabharata, where he is already a celebrated, legendary sage. Puranic testimony states that 1050 years passed between the war and the accession of King Mahapadma Nanda to the throne of Magadha. The latter event happened ~402 BCE(Pargiter). We arrive at around 1452 BCE. There is also some archaeological evidence supporting such a date. So Kapila would have lived sometime before this.

But how much before exactly?
The only piece of usable information that I could find is the lineage of early teachers which runs thus-

Kapila
v
Asuri(probably a woman)
v
Panca Sikha (systematized the philosophy)
v
Vindhyavasa
v
Varsaganya
v
Jaigisavya

This list does not help us much- EXCEPT the last name. Who is this 'Jaigisavya'? Where does he find mention? In the MB, Padma purana etc, we come across a Jaigisavya who was a teacher to the Nipa King Brahmadatta. Who is this Brahmadatta? He was a friend & contemporary to King Pratipa, great grandfather of Bhishma.

We may conclude that Kapila Kardama lived 10 generations or thereabouts before the time of the Mahabharata. That would place him at the latest in 1800-1700 BCE.

Texts of Samkhya

Texts attributed to Kapila or his disciples most of which are either lost, untraceable or remain untranslated in various manuscript libraries-

Manvadi Shrāddha - mentioned by Rudradeva in Pakayajna Prakasa.
Dṛṣṭantara Yoga - also named Siddhāntasāra available at Madras Oriental Manuscripts Library.
Kapilanyayabhasa - mentioned by Alberuni in his works.
Kapila Purana - referred to by Sutasamhita and Kavindracharya. Available at Sarasvati Bhavana Library, Varanasi.
Kapila Samhita - there are 2 works by the same name.
Kapilasutra - Two books, namely the Samkya Pravacana Sutra and the Tattvasamasasutra, are jointly known as Kapilasutra. Bhaskararaya refers to them in his work Saubhagya-bhaskara.
Kapila Smriti - Available in the work Smriti-Sandarbha, a collection of Smritis, from Gurumandal Publications.
Kapila Gita - also known as Dṛṣṭantasara or Siddhāntasāra.
Kapila Pancharatra - also known as Maha Kapila Pancharatra. Quoted by Raghunandana in Saṃskāra Mayukha.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapila#Works

References-
Sankhya Karika of Isvara Krishna(~100 CE)
Sankhya sutras of Kapila(?)
Kapilopanishad by RKM publishers.(?)
Vedanta Sutras of Badarayana Vyasa(~800BCE)
Pravrtti and Nivrtti Sages in the Mahabharata
Peter Hill
Ancient Indian historical tradition Pargiter 1922.