Life
Kumarila Bhatta was a seventh-century Mimamsa philosopher, often placed around 660 CE. Later accounts tell dramatic stories of studying among Buddhists, religious conflict and atonement. These cannot simply be treated as a verified life story. His surviving philosophical works provide firmer evidence of a formidable engagement with Buddhist and other opponents.
Contribution
He defended Vedic authority while developing theories of cognition, error and meaning. In his account, cognition carries an initial claim to validity, though it can be defeated by subsequent evidence. His approach to sentence meaning gives individual words a role in contributing meanings that are then connected within the sentence.
Key works
- Ślokavārttika
- Verse arguments on foundational questions of Mimamsa and rival philosophical positions.
- Tantravārttika and Ṭupṭīkā
- Further commentarial works addressing interpretation and ritual reasoning.
Legacy
His influence reached far beyond ritual theory into epistemology and the philosophy of language. The Bhāṭṭa school that follows him differs from Prabhakara’s tradition, including over how error and linguistic understanding work. Reading those disagreements is more informative than treating Mimamsa as a single unquestioning defence of scripture.
Must every belief prove its reliability before it can count as knowledge, or can it stand until a defeater appears?
Sources
- Reference
Kumārila — Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (opens in a new tab)
plato.stanford.edu
- Original textSanskrit transliteration
Jaimini: Mīmāṃsāsūtra (opens in a new tab)
GRETIL · Göttingen State and University Library
How to read itSansknet input. Begin at 1.1.1–5 on inquiry, dharma, perception, and the word–meaning relationship. Later schools substantially develop these aphorisms.
- University guideEnglish
Mīmāṃsā Darśana — IGNOU unit 4 (opens in a new tab)
IGNOU · public university, India
How to read itInterpretation, language and duty; a modern teaching resource.