Kumārila Bhaṭṭa

"for the Anglo-Indian military term, see Batta"

IAST|Kumārila Bhaṭṭa (Devanagari: कुमािरल भट्ट, fl. roughly AD 700) was a Hindu philosopher and Mimamsa scholar from Prayag (Now Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India). Little is known about his biography, but he is famous for many of his seminal theses on Mimamsa, such as "Mimamsaslokavarttika". He has been misunderstood by scholars, even in the ancient times. For example, Manikka Vachakar believed that Kumarila promoted a personal God [ P. 156 "A History of Indian Philosophy" By Surendranath Dasgupta ] (Parabrahman), which conflicts with the Mimamsa school's Aparabrahman. His arguments against Buddhism, and in particular its attack on the Vedic sacrificial system, may have contributed in some part, to the decline of Buddhism in India [Daniel P. Sheridan, "Kumarila Bhatta", in "Great Thinkers of the Eastern World", ed. Ian McGready, New York: Harper Collins, 1995, pp. 198-201. ISBN 0062700855] . His teachings also influenced other schools of Hinduism based on the Vedas, most notably Advaita Vedanta.

Kumarila Bhatta was an extreme believer of the karma theory of Hinduism, a great champion of Purva-Mimamsa and a confirmed Ritualist. He made a special study of the sacrificial rites, which were central to Mimansa philosophy, as opposed to Advaita.

Linguistics views

Kumarila Bhatta and his followers in the Mimamsa tradition (known as "IAST|Bhāṭṭas")argued for a strongly Compositional view of semantics (called "abhihitAnvaya"). In this view, the meaning of a sentence was understood only after understanding first the meanings of individual words. Words were independent, complete objects, a view that is close to the Fodorian view of language.

This view was debated over some seven or eight centuries by the followers of Prabhakara school within Mimamsa, who argued that words do not directly designate meaning; any meaning that arises is because it is connected withother words ("anvitAbhidhAna", anvita = connected; abhidhā = denotation). This view was influenced by the holistic arguments of Bhartrihari's IAST|sphoṭa theory.

Essentially the prābhākaras argued that sentence meanings are grasped directly, from perceptual and contextual cues, skipping the stage of grasping singly the individual word meaningscite book
author = Bimal Krishna Matilal
title = The word and the world: India's contribution to the study of language
publisher = Oxford
year = 1990 p. 108] , similar to the modern view of linguistic underspecification, which relates to the Dynamic Turn in Semantics, that also opposes purely compositional approaches to sentence meaning.

Legendary life

According to legend, Bhatta decided to study Buddhismat Nalanda (at the time the greatest university in the world), aiming to refute Buddhist doctrine in favour of ritualist Vedic religion. At the completion of his studies, he asked to debate his own teacher, ("Guru-droha"). When his Guru ridiculed some Hindu beliefs and doubted the Vedas, Kumarila Bhatta got very perturbed and tears start flowing from his eyes. Alarmed, his guru refused to continue the debate and demanded to know his true identity.

As a punishment, he was sentenced to death and was thrown from a cliff. According to legend, he declared that "If the Vedas are true, let me be saved". He survived the fall without injury, but was blinded in one eye by a stone. This was due to his doubting the Veda's infallibility (he should have said "AS the Vedas are true, let me be saved"). Kumarila Bhatta left Nalanda after that and settled down in Prayag (modern day Allahabad).

Overcome with guilt for his trespasses, which included his sin of breach of trust against his Buddhist Guru and the doubting of the Vedas, he decided to commit suicide by self-immolation in a fire kindled in paddy husk ("tusanala") as a form of atonement ("prayaschitta"). Sankara wanted to have a debate with him on philosophy and hence came to Prayag to visit him. However, when Sankara came to him, Kumarila had already entered the funeral pyre. Shankara appealed to him to discontinue his self-immolation and come out to debate with him. However, having already begun the act, Kumarila refused to do so and advised Sankara to meet Mandana Mishra who was one of his greatest and most erudite disciples and directed Shankara to debate with him. Kumarila then requested Sankara to chant the Taraka Mantra and hearing it, he gave up his body.

References

Works

* "Shlokavartika" ("Exposition on the Verses", commentary on Shabara's "Commentary on Jaimini's "Mimamsa Sutras, Bk. 1, Ch. 1)
* "Tantravartika" ("Exposition on the Sacred Sciences", commentary on Shabara's "Commentary on Jaimini's "Mimamsa Sutras, Bk. 1, Ch. 2-4 and Bks. 2-3)
* "Tuptika" ("Full Exposition"commentary on Shabara's "Commentary on Jaimini's "Mimamsa Sutras, Bks. 4-9)

External links

* [http://www.sub.uni-goettingen.de/ebene_1/fiindolo/gretil/1_sanskr/6_sastra/3_phil/mimamsa/mimslovu.htm Text of Mimamsalokavarttika by Kumarila Bhatta] (in transliterated Sanskrit)
* http://www.crvp.org/book/Series03/IIIB-4/introduction.htm
* http://www.ourkarnataka.com/books/saartha_book_review.htm