Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts Asiatic Society Vol 11

SR No.: 020279
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hariprasad Shastri, Narendrachandra Vedanttirtha, Chintaharan Chakravarti
Publisher: Asiatic Society
Publication Year: 1957
Total Pages: 1052
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Catalogue
File Size: 21 MB

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On the Bhasya of Sabarasvamin we have two different systems founded, one by Prabhakara (c. 600) in his Brhati, great (commentary), the other by Kumarila who wrote perhaps about 700. His comment falls into three parts the Slokavärttika on i. 1 of the Sutra, Tantravarttika on i. 2-iii, and Tupțika on iv-xii. Kumārila is traditionally made out to have instigated persecution of the Buddhists, but the justification for this view seems merely to have been his bitterness against them as the chief enemies of the Veda. He derides the doctrine of the Buddha as omniscient, which none of his contemporaries was competent to know, derides also the followers of Buddha, and declares empirical means of knowledge worthless; if right be judged by causing pleasure to others, then the violation of the chastity of the wife of the teacher as giving her pleasure would be right instead of heinous crime. Kumārila was a native of southern India, who reveals his knowledge of Dravidian languages, and recommends that borrowed words should be given Sanskrit terminations; he refers both to literature and to current practices, and his ingenuity is very considerable. His differences in philosophy from Prabhakara are considerable but both agree with Sabarasvamin in holding that the individual soul in some sense is immortal; both again do not accept the doctrine of illusion. A pupil of Kumarila on one theory, of Sankara on another was Mandanamiśra, who wrote a Mīmāṁsānukramani and a Vidhiviveka; on the latter Vācaspati Miśra (c. 850) writes a comment, the Nyayakanikā; he also set forth Kumarila's views in Tattvabindu. Of late
Kumārila and Prabhakara, two commentators of the Mimämsä Bhāṣya.
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The Mimämsā literature.
works the Nyayamälävistara of Madhava (14th century), the Mimämsänyāyaprakāśa of Apodeva, and the Arthasamgraha of Laugākṣi Bhaskara are best known, but of more philosophic interest is Nārāyaṇa Bhatta's Manameyodaya (c. 1600) in which Kumārila's epistemology and metaphysics are interestingly summarized. On Prabhakara's view of Mimämsā we have Šalikanatha's Ṛjuvimala commentary on the Byhati and an independent treatise called Prakaraṇapañcikā. Both Prabhakara and Sālikanātha were the natives of Bengal. Mimamsaparibhāṣā of Kṛṣṇayajvan, and Sastradipika of Parthasarathi Miśra are two later works on Mimāṁsa that are extensively read in modern times.