Mr. H. T. CoLEBROOKE on the Philosophy of the Hindus. 21 



fables, which occupy the place of history with the Hindus, are recounted 

 variously. In Gaudapada's commentary on the Seine' hya-Cdricd, he is 

 asserted to have been a son of Brahma ; being one of seven great Rishis 

 or saints, named in Purdnas or theogonies, as the offspring of that deity. 

 His two most distinguished disciples, Asuri and Panchasic'ha, are there 

 exalted to the same rank and divine origin with himself. Another com- 

 mentator maintains, that Capila was an incarnation of Vishnu. It had 

 been affirmed by a writer on the Veddnta, upon the authority of a passage 

 quoted by him, wherein Capila, the founder of the Sdnc'hya sect, is. 

 identified with Agni, fire, that he was an incarnation, not of Vishnu, but 

 of Agni. The commentator is not content with the fiery origin conceded 

 to the author. He denies the existence of more than one Capila ; and 

 insists, that the founder of this sect was an incarnation of Vishnu, born as 

 the son of Devad6ti.* 



In fact, the word capila, besides its ordinary signification of tawny 

 colour, bears likewise that of fire : and, upon this ambiguity of sense, 

 many legends in the Indian theogonies, concerning the saint of the name, 

 have been grounded : a sample of which will be found quoted by Coi. 

 Wilford, in the Asiatic Researches. f 



A passage, which is cited in the commentaries of Gaudapada and 

 Vachespati on the Cdricd, assigns to Capila intuitive knowledge, and 

 innate virtue, with transcendent power and other perfections born with him 

 at the earliest creation : and this is taken by those scholiasts as relating to 

 the founder of the Sdnc'hya sect. But another commentator of the Cdi-icd, 

 Rajiacrishna, who belongs to the theistical branch of this sect, affirms that 

 the passage in question concerns Iswara, or God, acknowledged by that 

 school. 



A text, quoted in Vyasa's commentary on Patanjali's Y6ga-sdstra,'l and 

 referred by the annotator Vachespati, as well as a modern scholiast of the 

 Yuga-sdstra, Nagoji, to Panchasic'ha the disciple of Asuri, describes 

 Capila as an incarnation of the Deity : " The holy and first wise one, 

 " entering a mind by himself framed, and becoming the mighty sage 

 '• (Capila), compassionately revealed this science to Asuri. "§ 



Vijnydna In Cap. bhdsh. f Vol. III. p. 355. f Patanj. Sdnc'h. prav. 1, 25. 



§ Panch. sutra, quoted in Vi/dsn's hhashya. 



