Kapila
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Materialism in Indian Philosophy
M. N. Roy traces ancient Indian materialism from Vedic rebellions to its culmination in Cārvāka thought. Challenging priestly orthodoxy, early naturalists developed Kaṇāda’s atomist Vaiśeṣika and Kapila’s empirical Sāṃkhya systems. By grounding reality in matter, perception, and mechanistic natural laws, these rationalist currents dismantled Vedic theology, paving the way for Buddhist Enlightenment.
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The Materialism of the Samkhya Philosophy
Attributed to Kapila, Sāṃkhya presents an uncreated, materialist universe governed by eternal matter (prakṛti). Rejecting divine creation, it explains development through the causal evolution and equilibrium of three natural forces (guṇas): mass, energy, and potential consciousness. Sāṃkhya demonstrates an early systematic understanding of material transformation and the conservation of physical substance.