Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c12.s2.7

c12.s2.7

That this was a form of thought existing in the period of early Buddhism cannot seriously be questioned; the precise view of the Buddha himself we cannot hope to gather, but it is interesting to examine how far the growth of the school was affected by these doctrines. There would, of course, be proof positive of influence of the Sāṃkhya on Buddhism did we take seriously the account in the *Buddhacarita* of the meeting of the Buddha with the teacher Arāḍa Kālāma and the Sāṃkhya doctrines—which have epic parallels—attributed by Açvaghoṣa to the latter.³ But the Canon is silent and Aṣvaghoṣa a poet who would have us believe the Vaiçeṣika pre-Buddhist, so we may leave the argument aside. Less plausible still is the conjecture that the name of the Buddha’s town, Kapilavatthu, retains a record of the sage Kapila, founder of the classical Sāṃkhya. The only proof available must be internal evidence.