| Vāchaspati Miśra | |
| Religion: | Hinduism |
| Birth Date: | 9th/10th century CE |
| Birth Place: | Vachaspati Mishra Dih, Mithila (modern-day Bihar, India) |
| Death Date: | unknown, 9th/10th century CE |
| Philosophy: | Advaita Vedanta, Hinduism |
| Spouse: | Bhamati |
Vachaspati Mishra (IAST: Vācaspati Miśra), was a ninth or tenth century Indian Hindu philosopher of the Advaita Vedanta tradition, who wrote bhashya (commentaries) on key texts of almost every 9th-century school of Hindu philosophy. He also wrote an independent treatise on grammar, Tattvabindu, or Drop of Truth, which focuses on Mīmāṃsā theories of sentence meaning.
Vāchaspati Misra was born into a Maithil Brahmin family in Andhra Tharhi, Madhubani, Bihar.[1] Little is known about Vāchaspati 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.
He was a student of Maṇḍana Miśra, who was his main inspirator. He harmonised Shankara's thought with that of Mandana Miśra.[2] According to Advaita tradition, Shankara reincarnated as Vachaspati Miśra "to popularise the Advaita System through his Bhamati."
He wrote so broadly on various branches of Indian philosophy that later Indian scholars called him the "one for whom all systems are his own", or in Sanskrit, a sarva-tantra-sva-tantra.
The Bhamati school, named after Vāchaspati Miśra's commentary on Shankara's Brahma Sutra Bhashya,[2] [3] takes an ontological approach. It sees the Jiva as the source of avidya. It sees meditation as the main factor in the acquirement of liberation, while the study of the Vedas and reflection are additional factors.
Vāchaspati Miśra was a prolific scholar and his writings are extensive, including bhasyas (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 Charvaka.
Vāchaspati Miśra wrote the Bhamati, a commentary on Shankara's Brahma Sutra Bhashya, and the Brahmatattva-samiksa, a commentary on Mandana Mishra's Brahma-siddhi. It is believed that the name of his most famous work "Bhāmatī" was inspired by his devout wife.
He wrote other influential commentaries, such as Tattvakaumudi on Sāṃkhyakārika; Nyāyasucinibandha on Nyāya-sūtras; 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.
While some known works of Vāchaspati Miśra are now lost, numerous others exist. Over ninety medieval era manuscripts, for example, in different parts of India have been found of his Tattvakaumudi, which literally means "Moonlight on the Truth". This suggests that his work was sought and influential. A critical edition of Tattvakaumudi was published by Srinivasan in 1967.
In Tattvabindu Vachaspati Mishra develops principles of hermeneutics, and discusses the "Theory of Meaning" for the Mīmāṃsā school of Hindu philosophy. This is an influential work, and attempted to resolve some of the interpretation disputes on classical Sanskrit texts. Vāchaspati examines five competing theories of linguistic meaning: