A History of Sanskrit Literature c18.17

c18.17

Kapila, the founder of the system, whose teaching is presupposed by Buddhism, and whom Buddhistic legend connects with Kapila-vastu, the birthplace of Buddha, must have lived before the middle of the sixth century. No work of his, if he ever committed his system to writing, has been preserved. Indeed, the very existence of such a person as Kapila has been doubted, in spite of the unanimity with which Indian tradition designates a man of this name as the founder of the system. The second leading authority of the Sānkhya philosophy was Panchaşikha, who may have lived about the beginning of our era. The oldest systematic manual which has been preserved is the *Sānkhya-kārikā* of ĪÇVARA-KṚISHṆA. As it was translated into Chinese between 557 and 583 A.D., it cannot belong to a later century than the fifth, and may be still older. This work deals very concisely and methodically with the doctrines of the Sānkhya in sixty-nine stanzas (composed in the complicated *Āryā* metre), to which three others were subsequently added. It appears to have superseded the Sūtras of Panchaşikha, who is mentioned in it as the chief disseminator of the system. There are two excellent commentaries on the *Sānkhya-kārikā*, the one composed about 700 A.D. by Gauḍapāda, and the other soon after 1100 A.D. by Vāchaspati Miçra.