Vachaspati Mishra was a 9th century Indian hindu philosopher of the Advaita Vedanta tradition. He wrote so broadly on various branches of Indian philosophy that he was known as "one for whom all systems are his own", or in Sanskrit, a sarva-tantra-sva-tantra. Vācaspati Miśra was a prolific scholar and his writings are extensive, including bhasya on key texts of almost every 9th-century school of Hindu philosophy with notes on non-Hindu or nāstikatraditions such as Buddhism and Carvaka. He also wrote one non-commentary, Tattvabindu, or Drop of Truth, which focuses on Mīmāṃsā theories of sentence meaning. Some of his works are lost to history or yet to be found. Little is known about Vācaspati 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. His scholarship is revered in the Hindu tradition, which believes that he was a Maithil Brahmin from Andhra Tharhi Bihar. It is believed that the name of his most famous work "Bhamati" was inspired by his devout wife.
Primary works
Tattvabindu is his original work, wherein he 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. Vācaspati examines five competing theories of linguistic meaning:
Mandana Misra's, which involves grasping the meaning of a word or sentence by perceiving a sphoṭa or single holistic sound, which is distinct from the elements that make up the word or sentence;
the Nyāya theory which involves concatenating the memory traces of momentary components of a word or sentence when we hear the final momentary component;
the similar Mīmāmsā theory, according to which our grasp of the meaning of a sentence lies in the memory traces created by the words; and
the Prābhākara Mīmāmsā theory, anvitābhidhānavāda, "the view on which denotation is constituted by what is connected." On this view, sentence-meaning is derived from the meanings of its words, which is fully given only by syntactic relations with the other words — no sphoṭa or memory traces are required; and
the Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsā theory, abhihitānvayavāda, or "the view on which connection is constituted by what has been denoted." On this view, word-meaning is denoted entirely first and then individual word-meanings are connected by means of lakṣaṇā (implication.
Vācaspati concurs with the Bhāṭṭa view, when he employs in other contexts, such as the Nyāya sub-commentary, the Nyāya-vārttika-tātparya-ṭīkā, and the Tattva-vaiśāradī.
Secondary works: Bhāṣya
Vācaspati Miśra is credited with influential commentaries such as Tattvakaumudi on Sāṃkhyakārika, Nyāyasucinibandha on Nyāya-sūtras, various important texts of Advaita Vedānta, Nyāyakānika, Tattvasamikṣa, Nyāya-vārttika-tātparyaṭīkā, Tattva-vaiśāradī on Yogasūtra, and others. While some known works of Vācaspati Miśra are now lost, others exist in numerous numbers. 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.
Primary texts
Bhāmatī
Tattvabindu
Tātparyaţīkā
Nyāyasūcīnibandha
Tattvakaumudī
Tattvavaiśāradī
Nyāyakanikā
Secondary texts
S.S. Hasurkar, Vācaspati Miśra on Advaita Vedanta. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies, 1958.
