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Vācaspati Miśra

Vācaspati Miśra

908 CE · Mithilā (Bihar)

c. 9th–10th c. CE (his Nyāyasūcīnibandha gives a date read as 841 or 976 CE — itself disputed)

Vācaspati Miśra is one of the most remarkable polymaths of Indian philosophy, a Maithila Brāhmaṇa who composed major commentaries in nearly every orthodox darśana with such fidelity that he was called 'he who is at home in all systems.' For Advaita, his Bhāmatī (a sub-commentary on Śaṅkara's Brahma-sūtra-bhāṣya) founded the Bhāmatī sub-school. He also wrote the Tattvavaiśāradī on Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the Nyāya-vārttika-tātparya-ṭīkā in Nyāya, the Tattvakaumudī in Sāṃkhya, and works in Mīmāṃsā. His own colophon dates a work to the year '898' in an unspecified era, read by different scholars as either 841 CE or 976 CE — so his precise floruit (9th vs. 10th c.) remains disputed.

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Mithilā (Bihar)

What they did here

Traditional birthplace of Vācaspati Miśra.

About Mithilā (Bihar)

Mithilā is a cultural region of the eastern Gangetic plain, chiefly in northern Bihar (India) and the adjoining Nepali Tarai, historically the kingdom of Videha. It is associated with Vācaspati Miśra (fl. c. 9th–10th c.), the polymath commentator on several schools of Indian philosophy, who is traditionally placed in this region.

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Vācaspati Miśra’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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