Kumārila Bhaṭṭa

views updated

Kumārila Bhaṭṭa (7th cent. CE). A learned brahman of Bihar and follower of the Mīmāṃsā school. He actively opposed the Buddhists and Jains. Author of the Mīmāṃsā-vārttika and also the Ślokavārttika (the latter an extensive argument against the existence and the necessity of God), he adopted the principle of non-duality (advaita). For Kumārila, liberation was not mokṣa, but rather the state of the self free from pain.