Maharishi Kapila is an ancient Vedic sage, who is considered to be the original proponent of the `Samkhya` system of philosophy but there is no known writings of him found related to Samkhya. In the Puranas, Kapila is ascribed as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Kapila is famous for his teachings as a process of liberation known as Bhakti Yoga.
Kapila is a historical sage, who lived in the Indian subcontinent sometime around 500 BC. In Bhagavat Gita he is mentioned by Krishna as perfect being. In Bhagavata Purana, Kardama Muni and devahuti are mentioned as his parents. After his father Kardama Muni left home, Kapila instructed her mother Devahuti in the philosophy of Yoga and the process of worshipping Lord Vishnu, enabling her to achieve both Moksha or liberation and pure love of God. The teachings of Kapila are quoted exclusively within the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Maharishi Kapila is associated with the story of Makar Sankranti and bringing down Ganga River from heaven. King Sagar of Ayodhya, who was the ancestor of Rama was also involved in that story. King Sagara had performed the sacrifice of Aswamedha for ninety-nine times. In that sacrifice a horse is released and an army follows it. If any king arrests the horse then a fight occurs and if the battalion on the side of the sacred horse wins, the defeated king had to bow to its owner king. Finally when the horse returns to it`s own kingdom, it is killed and a grand Yajna is held. When king Sagara performed the Aswamedha for the hundredth time, Indra, the king of heaven became so jealous that he kidnapped the horse and hid it in the hermitage of Kapila Muni.
The great king Sagara had sixty thousand sons who set in search of the horse and found it in the Ashrama of Kapila. They believed Kapila to be the abductor and dishonored him. Kapila cursed the attacker so that they turned into ashes. Anshuman, the great grandson of king Sagara (son of Asamanjas) came to Kapila and prayed to him to redeem the souls of his sixty thousand ancestors. Kapila replied that if only Ganges descended from heaven and touched the ashes of the sixty thousand souls, then only they could be redeemed. As a result Bhagiratha brought Ganga to the earth.
