Karma Mimansa

Author(s): Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Berriedale Keith

Page 18

DEVELOPMENT AND LITERARY HISTORY
Of Sabarasvāmin, whose commentary forms the starting point for later discussion, we know practically nothing It is an idle fiction which makes him the father of the mythical founder of the Vikrama era (57 B.C.), of Bhartrbari, and Varāhamihira, his true name being Adityadeva, while he adopted the soubriquet Sabara, when he disguised himself as a forester to avoid Jain persecution. The form of his name and his relation to the Vrttikāra suggest that 400 A.D. is the earliest date to which he can be assigned; the later limnit is vaguely indicated by his priority to Prabhākara, Kumarila, and Samkara.
With Prabhākara and Kumārila there comes a sharp divergence in the unity of the teaching of the school, whose followers henceforth are divided between the adherents of Prabhākara, or the Guru par excellence, and the supporters of Kumãrila Bhatta. It does not, however, appear that Prabhākara initiated the views which he became noted for expounding; he cites in the Brhati, his great'exposition of Sabarasvâmin's Bhāşyu, the opinions of a Värttikakära who presumably must be regarded as the true founder of the school. The Brhati itself is unfortunately only extant in imperfect form ;' it was cominented on by Śālikanātha in his Rjurimala, formerly erroneously regarded as simply a commentary on the Sabarabhāsya, while in his Prakaramapañcikā? the same author deals with the more important epistemological and metaphysical views of his teacher. The Brhati seems to have passed comparatively early into oblivion, though a passage from it is cited in the Mitaksarā and its author's views were well known in Mimāmsā circles
The relation of Prabhākara and Kumārila is represented by tradition as those of pupil and teacher ; the tradition is fairly old, as it occurs in the Sarvasiddhäntasamgraha (I, 18, 19; VII, 15) attributed, doubtless wrongly, to Samkara himself. But the discovery of the text of the
1 See Gangānātha Jhā, The Prabhākara School of Proa alimtātrisa (1911).
Ed. Benares, 1903-04; the text is defective, and the Prameyaparayana is lacking. He uses Uddyotakara (e.g. p. 44) and Dharmakīrtı, and therefore is not before 650-700 A.D., but is probably before Kuma. rila Prabhākara thus dates about 600-650 A.D.