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Vachaspati Mis’ra, though recognising Kapila as an incarnation of Vishnu, considers ‘ primeval sage’ to refer to the former, reappearing on earth after ubsorption into the divine essence. The remainder of Vachaspati’s remarks are not very intelligible ; or else my MSS. are corrupt. Schlegel, in his note on the Rimdyano, L, 41, 3, remarks: “ De hoe Vish- nis cognomine et munere non habco quod expromain. Vix opus est monere plane hine slienum est Kapilum, philosophiae rationalis (sdukhya) auctorem ; quamvis et hune discipuli nimis ambitiosi numinis plenum, imo ipsum in mortali corpore praesentem Vishnum fuisse iactaverint. Quam opinioncu innuit auctor Bhagavad-gitac, Lecr. X., 26.” It must now appear that the notion which Schlegel here dismisses so peremptorily, is much better fortifi- ed, by mythology, than he, to all appearance, apprehended. * Bhdyavata-purdpa, Il., 7, 3; and III., 33,1. The birth of the sage, and of his nine sisters, is here said to have taken place in the house of Kar- dama, the husband of Devahati, who is called Kapile’s mother. Kapila’s father, according to this account, must be Kardama ; as there is no hint of any- thing like a miraculous conception. Kapila, as here described, is, neverthe- less, regarded, by some, as having afterwards become an incarnation of Vish- nu. Kardama, if not one of Brahma’s mind-born sons, was, at all events, 8 prajdpati, or “patriarch.” Vishpu-purdua, p. 50, note. In Colebrooke’s Miscell. Essays, Vol. I., p. 230, Devad&ti is, of course, a misprint for Devahiti. Yet Tassen_has adopted the former reading. In- dische Alterthumskunde, Vol. I., p. 832. + weamafasar a fatal BATA | BRAT SMT Hi MATPsATT Tt’ afrd watt @ 9 msaaa eat \ wafa: @ afaet ara eTeaaraTa: | Mahdbhérata, II., 14196—7. It is the last line of these couplets which, with the exchange of s‘dstra for yoga, is cited at p. 232 of the present work. The ‘self-styled Vedanti,’ jy which epithet Vijnana there denouuces some unnamed author, for holding D { 18. \ other, the igneous principle in human disguise.* It must be acknowledged, in short, that we know nothing satisfactory con- cerning Kapila; the meagre notices of him that are producible wy, that the Sénkhya Kapila was an incarnation of fire, has hitherto eluded my quest, Prof. Wilson, alluding to this text, of whose source he was unapprised, pronounces, touching the identity which it authenticates, that “ there does not appear to be any good authority for the notion; and adds, immediately afterwards: ‘‘ Kapila is a synonyme of fire, as it is of a brown, dusky, or tawny, colour; and this may have given rise to the idea of Agni and the sage being the same.” Sdnkhya-kdérikd, p. 188. See, also, Colebrooke’s Miscell. Essays, Vol. I., p. 230. But it seems just as likely that the conception owed its origin to the fabled combustion, by Kapila, of the sons of Sagara. Mahdébhérata, UL, 8881. Also see As. Res., Vol. II. pp. 349, 350; and Vol. VL, p. 478. For Wilford’s wild speculations in which he identifies Kapila with Enoch, see As. Res., Vol. VI., pp. 473-4. ; * I'quote at length, as the following passage will, in a subsequent page, again come under consideration : sara nnaa ease giagaratarnaaareny: at WAIT aa: feqaaarat aeftdaara, afoet aifenfreatanigead earara wafafa fe gala! aa va: vaaauiai wae aleaararai aaa wafal <aee sraEaMagaya areractiy aT ears l Rasa J Fara craarcuaaataes eat 1<agq zifdufaan wat ale ater AMIUaacaeanaatgeiwia FE | Sarvopakérini, ad init. S’ankara A’chérya, in the S’drfraka-mfmdnsé-bhdshya, I., 2, 1, also de- clares for two Kapilas. Implicitly following the Ramayana, he considers the Kapila who destroyed the sons of Sagara, to be an incarnation of Vasudeva or Vishnu ; but he denies the origination, or revival, by him, of the atheistic system. Acknowledging another Kapila, him of the Sankhya, he makes, however, no attempt to ascertain him. The Bhdgavata-purdna, IX., 8, 13, flatly denies that this Kapila could, with his gentle nature, intentionally have slain the sons of Sagara. Yet it makes no dopbt that they were destroyed by fire issuing from the body of the incensed ascetic, independently of his volition, S‘ankara A’charya, commenting on the word Kapila in the S’wetds’u atara- upanishad, V., 2, proposes two interpretations of it. By one of them it is violently made to intend, as a lame synonyme, Jliranyagarbha. Otherwise, 19 being hopelessly involved in uncertainty, and inextricably em- barrassed by fable. Yet it may be credited, with but little hesi- tation, that he was something more substantial than a myth ;* and there seems to be tolerably good | ground for receiving, as an historical fact, his alleged connection with the Sankhya. since primogeniture among created beings is found averred of both Kapila and Hirenyagarbha, they are, to save scriptural consistency, concluded to be one and the same. On the other interpretation, the person named in the text is Kapila of the Sinkhya, a partial incarnation of Vishou. For the quali- fication of him as such, some unspecified Purana is adduced. S‘ankara adds that the other Kapila is celebrated in the Mundaka-upanishad. This state- ment is, however, made inadvertently, since no mention of him occurs there. S’ankara probably quoted, after the ordinary reckless Indian fashion, from memory. Dr. Réer has somewhat misrepresented S’aukara, in making him cite suicidally the Purina above referred to. It is vouched, and pro- fessedly so, not to corroborate the first identification of Kapila, but to eluci- date the second. Neither, in this quotation, is Kapila, “to praise him,” “ identified with Hiranyagarbha.” See Bib. Indica, Vol. XV., p. 62. It may be observed, generally, that, in conformity with Hindu usage, none but the figment of one’s special idolatry, is glorified as a plenary incar- nation. Kapiia, in the Mahddeva-sahasra-ndma-stotra, Mahdbhérata, XML, 1211, i8 an epithet of S‘iva; and expresses, as indicated by the context, ‘tawny.’ In an inscription translated by Colebrooke, there occurs the word kapild, which, he observes, “ probably is fire, personified as a female godless.” [sic] Miscell. Essays, Vol. I., p. 300, last line; and p. 304, foot-note no. 2l. It remains to be shown that the word ever means fire. In this place it bears, undoubtedly, the sense of ‘ a red cow ;’ from circumambulating which, great merit is supposed to be acquired. ‘A red one] Kapila: When applied to a cow, this term signifies one of the colour of lac-dye, with black tail and white hoofs.’ Colebrooke’s Two Treatises on the Hindu Law of Inheritance, p. 131, second foot-note. For dapéld in this acceptation, see the Mahdébhdrata, XIUIL., 2953, 3535, 3596, 3703-4, 3744, 3764; and, on the subject of circumambulating a cow, see the same poem, XIII., 3436 and 3794. * Colebrooke comes to a different conclusion. ‘It may be questioned,” he says, “whether Kapila be not altogether a mythological personage, to whom the true author of the doctrine, wheever he was, thought fit to ascribe pn 2 4 20 The larger of the works presumed to be by Kapila, is com- prised in six books of sdétras* or aphorisms, which, as ordinarily it.” Miscell. Essays, Vol. I., p. 231. But the Makébhérata, in spite of its alloy of fiction, sufficiently attests, it would seem, the reality of the sage ; and the Sdnkhya-sttra and Tattwa-samdsa may be pseudonymous, without vacating the existence of Kapila, or his character of originator, or early promulgator, of hylotheistie doctrines. In the Padma-purdga, latter section, Gauri-varnana subdivision of the Kumdre-sambhava chapter, Kapila is said to have dwelt in the village of Kalapa. Further particulars regarding this personage can, doubtless, be ob- tained, if the Kamla-upapurdna, which is named in the Kérma-purdna and elsewhere, be still extant. The Kapila-sanhité may be the same. See the Sanskrit Catalogue of the library of the As. Soc of Bengal, p. 72.° At p. 26 of this Catalogue occurs the name of Kapila-smriti, or legal institutes of Kapila. A work descriptive of certain places of pious resort, and another on naval astrology, attributed to Kapila, have been found in the Peninsula. Mackenzie Collection, Vol. L., pp. 65 and 262. * Colebrooke—Miscell. Essays, Vol. L, pp. 231, 232—unhesitatingly applies the ‘title of Sdéekhya-pravachana to these sitras; but adds—ibid., p- 232—that it “seems to be a borrowed one: at least, it is common to several compositions. It appertains to Patanjali’s Yoga-s’dstra.”” Undoubt- edly it is borrowed; and I am disposed to date its use in question only from Vijoina Bhikshu. Apart from the writings of this author and of his fol- lowers, I have nowhere met with the employment of Sdnkhya-pravachana in place of Sdnkhya-sitra, save in the postscript to Aniruddha’s commentary, and in that to its abridgement by Yedinti Mahadeva. But the epigraphs to Indian manuscripts are known to be, so generally, the work of copyists, that the adverse evidence of these two seeming exceptions may, very allowably, be neglected. With regard to the meaning of the term Sdnkhya-pravachana, whieh forms part of the title of the present publication, M. Saint-Hilnire could not have done better than consult ous commentator; whose explanation of it he seems, however, to be unaequainted with. At p. 5 of his Premier Mémoire sur le SAnkhya, he translates these words by “ Préface ou Introduction au Sankhya.”’ Sooth to say, this would be a strange sort of name for a complete dogmatic enunciation, by any philosopher, of his own theory ; especially if, as happens with the Sankhya, the theory leaves almost no room for legitimate evolution. 21 read, amount to five hundred and twenty-six.