Kumārila Bhaṭṭa
c. 7th c. · Hindu Darshanas · Known
Kumārila led one branch of Mimamsa, the Hindu school that reads the Veda for what it commands. The Veda has no author, human or divine, and has always existed. He pushed that to its conclusion and denied a creator God outright, while holding Vedic command absolute and the only route to knowing your duty. Any cognition counts as true until something defeats it, Vedic command included.
Signature
The position Kumārila is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Universals
- leans Realism
- Authority
- Sacred Tradition
Positions on the 2 axes the sources answer
- Universals
- leans Realism (19 on a 0–100 scale from Realism to Nominalism)
- Identity
- strongly leans Unchanging (10 on a 0–100 scale from Unchanging to Changing)
18 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Kumārila refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Atheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Good and Evil
- Moral Realism
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - End of Things
- Division of Good and Evil
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Perception
- Direct Realism
What do we directly perceive? - Agency
- Karmic Causation
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Beginning of Things
- Eternal Cosmos
What is the origin of reality? - Authority
- Sacred Tradition
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Language
- Sacred Speech
What is the fundamental nature of language? - Law
- Sacred Law
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Death
- Karmic Cycle / Reincarnation
What happens at death?