Kapila's Samkhya is taught by him to his mother Devahuti in Book Three, and by Krishna to Uddhava in Book Eleven.

An important story is the tale of Devahuti and her son Kapila — Kapila's Samkhya teachings help lead her to final liberation.

Many of the details about sage Kapila's life are described in Book 3 of the Bhagavata Purana, where it is mentioned that his parents were Kardama Muni and Devahuti.

Kapila's Sankhya is also given by Krishna to Uddhava in Book 11 of the Bhagavata Purana, a passage also known as the " Uddhava Gita ".

According to the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, Akasha is one of the five Mahābhūtas ( grand physical elements ) having the specific property of sound.

Samkhya philosophy, which is sometimes seen as the basis of Yogic thought, adopts a view that matter exists independently of individual minds.

The main opponent in his work is the Mimamsa school of thought, though he also offers arguments against the views of some other schools like Samkhya and certain schools of Buddhism.

In Samkhya, a school of Hindu philosophy, Purusha is pure consciousness.

Samkhya, also Sankhya, Sāṃkhya, or Sāṅkhya (, IAST: ) is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy and classical Indian philosophy.

The Samkhya school is dualistic and atheistic.

Sage Kapila is traditionally credited as a founder of the Samkhya school.

The major text of this Vedic school is the extant Samkhya Karika circa 200 CE.

Samkhya does not describe what happens after Moksha and does not mention anything about Ishwara or God, because after liberation there is no essential distinction of individual and universal Puruṣa.

In Samkhya, however, the dualism is between the real self ( as Puruṣa ) and matter ( Prakriti ).

As such, there is little evidence of existence of the Samkhya school before this time.

" The emphasis of duality between existence ( sat ) and non-existence ( asat ) in the Nasadiya sukta of the Rig Veda is similar to the vyakta – avyakta ( manifest – unmanifest ) polarity in Samkhya.

The Samkhya notion of buddhi or mahat is similar to the notion of hiranyagarbha which appears in both the Rig Veda and the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.

The enumeration of tattvas in Samkhya is also found in Taittiriya Upanishad, Aitareya Upanishad and Yajnavalkya – Maitri dialogue in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

It is probable that these schools of thought and the earliest schools of Samkhya influenced each other.

A prominent similarity between Buddhism and Samkhya is the emphasis on suffering ( dukkha ).

However, suffering is not as central to Samkhya as it is to Budhhism.

Therefore, it is likely that Samkhya imbibed this idea from Buddhism.

However Hermann Jacobi, an Indologist, thinks that there is little reason to assume that Samkhya notion of Purushas was solely dependent on the notion of jiva in Jainism.

It is more likely, that Samkhya was moulded by many ancient theories of soul in various Vedic and non-Vedic schools.

The earliest surviving authoritative text on classical Samkhya philosophy is the Samkhyakarika ( c. 350 – 450 CE ) of Iśvarakṛṣṇa.

The text also refers to an earlier work of Samkhya philosophy called Ṣaṣṭitantra ( science of sixty topics ) which is now lost.

It is considered the second most important work of Samkhya after the karika.

While the Prakriti is a single entity, the Samkhya admits a plurality of the Puruṣas in this world.

Between 5th and 2nd century BCE, Samkhya thought from various sources started coalescing into a distinct philosophy.

While Bhakti Yoga is the prominent teaching, various passages show a synthesis that also include Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta, and Advaita Vedanta.

* Tattva, the basis of the universe according to Hindu Samkhya philosophy

See Also: Hinduism -- Hindu scripture -- Samkhya -- Yoga -- Nyaya -- Vaisesika -- Vedanta -- Bhakti -- Cārvāka -- Indian logic

However, the ideas that were developed and assimilated into the classical Samkhya text, Samkhyakarika, are visible in earlier Hindu scriptures such as Vedas, Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita.

The concept was popularized in the theosophical movements of the 19th century and is derived from Hindu philosophy of Samkhya.

Rajas ( Sanskrit रजस ्, or rajoguna )) is, in the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, one of the three gunas.

The Yoga Sutras are built on a foundation of Samkhya philosophy, an orthodox ( Astika ) and Atheistic Hindu system of dualism, and are generally seen as the practice while Samkhya is the theory.

The orthodox Hindu philosophies of Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta, as well as the non-orthodox Nastika systems of Jainism and Buddhism can all be seen as representing one stream of spiritual activity in Ancient India, in contrast to the Bhakti traditions and Vedic ritualism which were also prevalent at the same time.

Among the six systems of Hindu philosophy, early Samkhya and Mimamsa do not consider the concept of Ishvara, i. e., a supreme being, while later Samkhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, Vedanta and Nyaya believe in the existence of an Ishvara.

Tattva vision is a technique developed by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn ( probably derived from the elements, or Tattva known as Tattwas, of the Samkhya version of Hindu Philosophy ) to aid with the development of the faculty of astral clairvoyance.

Spinozism is closely related to the Hindu doctrines of Samkhya and Yoga.

Within the astika (" orthodox ") schools of Hindu philosophy, the Samkhya and the early Mimamsa school did not accept a creator-deity in their respective systems.

The principal text of the Samkhya school, the Samkhya Karika, was written by Ishvara Krishna in the fourth century CE, by which time it was already a dominant Hindu school.