Kumārila Bhaṭṭa

Kumārila Bhaṭṭa was an influential Indian philosopher who defended the Mīmāṃsā school and the Vedas’ authority, especially against Buddhist critiques.

Mīmāṃsā: An Indian philosophical tradition that interprets Vedic ritual and treats the Vedas as authorless and authoritative. Kumārila developed the Bhāṭṭa branch of this tradition.
Anupalabdhi: Non-apprehension, treated by some Indian philosophers as a means of knowing that something is absent. Kumārila counted non-apprehension as an independent source of knowledge.
Buddhist philosophy: A diverse body of philosophical traditions grounded in the teachings of the Buddha. Kumārila’s works directly challenge Buddhist theories and critiques of Vedic authority.
Maṇḍana Miśra: An influential Indian philosopher associated with Mīmāṃsā and later Advaita Vedānta traditions. His work carries Mīmāṃsā debates into later discussions of knowledge and liberation.
Veda: The foundational body of sacred texts in Hindu traditions, regarded by Mīmāṃsā as authorless and authoritative. Defending Vedic authority was central to Kumārila’s philosophical project.
Perception (Indian philosophy): Direct, non-conceptual awareness treated as a source of knowledge in Indian philosophy. Kumārila’s theory distinguishes immediate perception from later conceptual judgment.
Dharmakīrti: A seventh-century Buddhist philosopher whose works shaped debates about logic, perception, and knowledge. Kumārila answers Buddhist epistemological positions associated with Dharmakīrti’s tradition.
Vedānta: A family of Indian philosophical traditions interpreting the Upaniṣads and the nature of ultimate reality. Vedānta’s focus on liberation and ultimate reality differs from Kumārila’s emphasis on Vedic duty.
Śabda (Indian epistemology): Knowledge gained through words or reliable testimony in Indian theories of knowledge. Kumārila argued that Vedic sentences can yield knowledge without a human author.
Vākyārtha: The meaning of a sentence, analyzed in Indian philosophy through relations among words and their meanings. Kumārila explained sentence meaning through the words’ independently understood meanings.

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JaiminiRelated: His commentaries became a major later interpretation of Jaimini’s sutras.