Karma Mimansa

Author(s): Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Berriedale Keith

Page 20

DEVELOPMENT AND LITERARY HISTORY 11
Vākyapadiya of Bharthari; neither Hiuen-Thsang nor I-tsing mentions him; he was before Samkara; he attacked the Jain theory of an omniscient being as propounded in the Aptamīmūrizsā of Samantabhadra, but is not answered by Akalanka in his Astašati, which comments on the Aptamimańsā. On the other hand, he is freely attacked by Vidyānanda and Prabhācandra, who both lived before 838 A.D. Vidyānanda assures us, doubtless correctly, that he crit cised the Buddhist Dharmakirti, and Prabhākara, on the latter point agreeing with the result above arrived from
internal evidence. The upper limit of date is, therefore, anot earlier than 700 A.D. The lower limit depends on his precise chronological relation to Sarpkara and the latter's exact date. Later tradition, the Sarkaravijayas of Madhava and the pseudo-Anandagiri, would make him an older contemporary, but the interval may have been considerably longer
Only slightly later than Kumārila was Mandana Misra, author of the Vidhiviveka, a treatise on the significance of injunctions, and the Mimāmsānukramani, a summary of Sabarasyāmin's Bhâsya. The tradition of the Samkaravijayas makes him out to be identical with Sureśvara, a pupil of Samkara, but Anandagiri's account insists that he was also a pupil of Kumārila. The identification with Sureśvara, which might be suspected because of the lateness and inferior character of the authorities, is to some extent confirmed by Vidyananda's description" of Mandana Misra as Vedāntavādin, which could hardly apply to him unless he were the author of the works ascribed to Sureśvara, His direct connection with Kumārila, however, need not be insisted upon. His lower limit of date is fixed by the fact that the famous Vācaspati Miśra devoted the Nyāyakanika to the exposition of his Vidhiriveka, and Vācaspati probably lived about 850 A.D. He wrote also the Tattvabindu* on Kumārila's views.
Of the later writers the most important is perhaps Pārthasarathi Miśra, who wrote the Sastradipika to explain
* Ibil. p. 228. * Ed. Pondit, XXV-XXVIII, 1903-6. 3 Ed, Benarcs, 1892. + Ed. Benares, 1891. He is earlier than Madhava.