Vachaspati Misra
| Vācaspati Miśra | |
|---|---|
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Philosophy | Advaita Vedanta, Hinduism |
| Personal | |
| Born | unknown, 9th/10th century CE India |
| Died | unknown, 9th/10th century CE |
Vācaspati Miśra was a 9th- or 10th-century CE Indian philosopher. He wrote so broadly that he was known as "one for whom all systems are his own", or in Sanskrit, a sarva-tantra-sva-tantra. Vācaspati Miśra was a prolific scholar and his writings are extensive, including bhasya (commentaries) on key texts of almost every 9th-century school of Hindu philosophy with notes on non-Hindu or nāstika traditions such as Buddhism and Carvaka. He also wrote one non-commentary, Tattvabindu, or Drop of Truth, which focuses on Mīmāṃsā theories of sentence meaning. Some of his works are lost to history or yet to be found.
Little is known about Vācaspati Miśra's life, and the earliest text that has been dated with certainty is from 840 CE, and he was at least one generation younger than Adi Śaṅkara. However, an alternate date for the same text may be 976 CE, according to some scholars, a confusion that is based on whether Hindu Śaka or Vikrama era calendar is used for the dating purposes. His scholarship is revered in the Hindu tradition, which believes that he was a Maithila Brahmin from Bihar.
Tattvabindu is his original work, wherein he develops principles of hermeneutics, and discusses the "Theory of Meaning" for the Mīmāṃā school of Hindu philosophy. This is an influential work, and attempted to resolve some of the interpretation disputes on classical Sanskrit texts.
Vācaspati examines five competing theories of linguistic meaning:
Vācaspati concurs with the Bhāṭṭa view, when he employs in other contexts, such as the Nyāya sub-commentary, the Nyāya-vārttika-tātparya-ṭīkā, and the Tattva-vaiśāradī.
Vācaspati Miśra is credited with influential commentaries such as Tattvakaumudi on Sāṃkhyakārika,Nyāyasucinibandha on Nyāya-sūtras, various important texts of Advaita Vedānta,Nyāyakānika (an Advaita work on science of reason), Tattvasamikṣa (lost work), Nyāya-vārttika-tātparyaṭīkā (a subcommentary on the Nyāya-sūtras), Tattva-vaiśāradī on Yogasūtra, and others.
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