Vācaspati Miśra

Part of a series on
Advaita
Origins Sramanic movement Yoga Hinduism Upanishads Vedanta Buddhism Precanonical Buddhism Madhyamika Yogacara Buddha-nature
Schools Vedanta Advaita Vedanta Bhāmatī Vivarana Vishishtadvaita Vedanta Modern Vedanta Neo-Vedanta Shaivism/Tantra/Nath Kashmir Shaivism Pratyabhijna Nath Inchegeri Sampradaya Neo-Advaita/Nondualism Neo-Advaita Nondualism
Moksha Moksha Anubhava Turiya Sahaja
Philosophy Advaita vedanta Atman Brahman Tat Tvam Asi Avidya Mahāvākyas Kosha Three Bodies Cause and effect Kashmir Shaivism Pratyabhijna Aham
Practices Advaita Vedanta Jnana yoga Svādhyāya Bhakti yoga Karma yoga Modern Vedanta Rāja yoga Shaivism/Tantra/Nath "Unfoldment of the middle" Self-enquiry
Scriptures Advaita Vedanta Prasthanatrayi Upanishads Bhagavad Gita Brahma Sutras Vivekachudamani Atma bodha Kashmir Shaivism Shiva Sutras of Vasugupta Tantra/Nath Dasbodh
Teachers Advaita teachers Tradional Advaita Vedanta Dashanami Sampradaya Jagadguru of Sringeri Sharada Peetham Gaudapada Adi Shankara Vācaspati Miśra Padmapadacharya Amalananda Modern Vedanta Vijnanabhiksu Ramakrishna Swami Vivekananda Swami Sivananda Swami Dayananda Saraswati Shaivism/Tantra/Nath Ramana Maharshi Nisargadatta Maharaj Neo-Advaita H. W. L. Poonja Andrew Cohen Gangaji Eckhart Tolle Mooji Robert Adams
Monasteries and Orders Advaita Vedanta Shri Gaudapadacharya Math Sringeri Sharada Peetham Govardhana Pīṭhaṃ Dvāraka Pīṭhaṃ Jyotirmaṭha Pīṭhaṃ Modern Vedanta Ramakrishna Mission Divine Life Society Chinmaya Mission Arsha Vidya Gurukulam
Scholarship Paul Deussen Hajime Nakamura Sengaku Mayeda
Categories Advaita‎ Advaita Vedanta‎ Vishishtadvaita Vedanta Advaita Shaivism‎ Kashmir Shaivism‎ Inchegeri Sampradaya‎ Nondualism

Part of a series on
Hindu philosophy
Āstika
Samkhya Yoga Nyaya Vaisheshika Mīmāṃsā Vedanta Advaita Vedanta Vishishtadvaita Dvaita Dvaitadvaita Achintya Bheda Abheda Bhedabheda
Nāstika
Cārvāka Ājīvika
Other schools Shaiva Pratyabhijña Pashupata Siddhanta Tantra
People
Acharyas Nyaya Akṣapāda Gotama Jayanta Bhatta Raghunatha Siromani Mimamsa Jaimini Kumārila Bhaṭṭa Prabhākara Dayananda Saraswati (Arsha Vidya) Advaita Vedanta Gaudapada Adi Shankara Vācaspati Miśra Vidyaranya Sadananda Madhusūdana Sarasvatī Ramakrishna Vivekananda Ramana Maharshi Siddharudha Swami Narayana Guru Sivananda Saraswati Chinmayananda Saraswati Nisargadatta Maharaj Dayanand Saraswati Nigamananda Paramahansa Vishishtadvaita Nammalvar Alvars Yamunacharya Ramanuja Vedanta Desika Pillai Lokacharya Manavala Mamunigal Dvaita Madhvacharya Jayatirtha Vyasatirtha Sripadaraja Vadirajatirtha Raghavendra Swami Achintya Bheda Abheda Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Jiva Goswami Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada Tantra Shakta Abhinavagupta Nigamananda Paramahansa Ramprasad Sen Kamalakanta Bhattacharya Bamakhepa Anandamayi Ma Others Samkhya Kapila Yoga Patanjali Vaiseshika Kanada Dvaitadvaita Nimbarka Shuddhadvaita Vallabha Acharya
Poet-Saints Purandara Dasa Kanaka Dasa Jagannatha Dasa Vijaya Dasa Gopala Dasa Basava Allama Prabhu Akka Mahadevi Dnyaneshwar Sankardev Jayadeva Namdev Ramananda Kabir Tulsidas Guru Ravidass Mira Bai Narsinh Mehta Surdas Samarth Ramdas Tukaram Eknath Janabai Brahmanand Swami Tukdoji Maharaj Tyagaraja Annamacharya Kancherla Gopanna Nayanars Muthuswami Dikshitar Syama Sastri
Yogin Nigamananda Paramahansa Sri Aurobindo Paramahansa Yogananda
Philosophers Ananda Coomaraswamy Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Swami Gahanananda Ravi Shankar

Vācaspati Miśra (900–980 CE) was an Indian philosopher who founded one of the main Advaita Vedanta schools, the Bhāmatī school (named after his commentary on Śankara's Brahma-sūtra-bhāṣya), and whose work was an important forerunner of the Navya-Nyāya system of thought.

Vācaspati lived near the frontier between India and Nepal (what is now Vachaspati Nagar (Andhra Thardhi), Madhubani). The details of his life have been lost, though he is said to have named one of his works after his wife, Bhāmatī. He wrote commentaries on the main works of all the major Hindu schools of thought at the time, as well as one non-commentary, Tattvabindu.

In Tattvabindu, Vācaspati examines four competing theories of linguistic meaning:

• Mandana Misra's (sphoṭavāda), which involves grasping the meaning of a word or sentence by perceiving a sphoṭa or single holistic sound, which is distinct from the elements (sounds or characters) that make up the word or sentence;
• the Nyāya theory which involves concatenating the memory traces (saṃskāra) 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, according to which the meaning of a sentence is derived from the meanings of its words, each of which has an individual meaning in the sentence as well as having syntactic relations with the other words — no sphoṭa or memory traces are required.

After examining each of these theories, Vācaspati presents his own theory, abhihitānvayavāda, according to which understanding of the meaning of a whole sentence is reached by inferring it, in a separate act of lakṣanā or implication, from the individual meanings of the constituent words.

Sources and further reading

Primary texts

• Bhāmatī (on Śankara's Brahmasūtrabhāsya)
• Tattvabindu
• Tātparyaţīkā (on Uddyotakāra's Nyāyavārttika)
• Nyāyasūcīnibandha
• Tattvakaumudī (on Īśvarakrishna's Sāmkhyakārikās)
• Tattvavaiśāradī (on Patañjali's Yogasūtras and Bhāsya)
• Nyāyakanikā (on Maṇḍana Miśra's Vidhidviveka)

Secondary texts

• S.S. Hasurkar, Vācaspati Miśra on Advaita Vedanta. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies, 1958.
• Karl H. Potter, "Vācaspati Miśra" (in Robert L. Arrington [ed.]. A Companion to the Philosophers. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001. ISBN 0-631-22967-1)
• J.N. Mohanty, Classican Indian Philosophy. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. ISBN 0-8476-8933-6
• V.N. Sheshagiri Rao, Vācaspati's Contribution to Advaita. Mysore: Samvit Publishers, 1984.