Kapila
Ṣaṣṭitantra (“Treatise of Sixty Topics”)
Traditional attribution
Ṣaṣṭitantra (“Treatise of Sixty Topics”)
षष्टितन्त्र
A lost treatise that, according to the Kārikā itself (stanza 72), contained in sixty topics the doctrine that Īśvarakṛṣṇa summarised in his seventy stanzas, leaving out the parables and polemics. Its content is reconstructed from the lists of topics handed down by later commentators and by Pāñcarātra texts. It is the missing link between epic and classical Sāṃkhya, and the main reason why the history of the school before the 4th century is so hard to write.
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Authorship note
A lost work of early Sāṃkhya, known only from quotations and references. Tradition ascribes it to Kapila, Pañcaśikha or Vārṣagaṇya; scholars do not regard it as Kapila’s work.
Editions and translations
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Other works by Kapila
- Sāṃkhya Sūtra (Sāṃkhya-pravacana Sūtra) · 1400
- Kapila’s teaching to Devahūti (Kapila-gītā, Bhāgavata Purāṇa III.25–33) · 900
- Tattva Samāsa
- Dialogue of Kapila and Āsuri (Kapilāsurisaṃvāda)
- Dialogue of Kapila and Syūmaraśmi (Gokapilīya)
- Sāṃkhya Kārikā (a work by Īśvarakṛṣṇa, not by Kapila) · 350
- Kapila Purāṇa
- Kapila Saṃhitā
- Kapila Smṛti
- Kapila Pañcarātra
- Kapila, Founder of Sāṃkhya and Avatāra of Viṣṇu (Knut A. Jacobsen) · 2008
- Classical Sāṃkhya (Gerald James Larson) · 1969
Sources
- Larson, Gerald James y Ram Shankar Bhattacharya (eds.). Sāṃkhya: A Dualist Tradition in Indian Philosophy. Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, vol. IV. Princeton: Princeton University Press / Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987.
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