Acharya Hasti Mala
Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa was a Maithil Brahmin of north India. According to Tibetan scholar Tārānātha, Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa was a prosperous and blessed householder. He had many rice fields and 500 male servants and 500 female servants.
Tārānātha had described in details Kumārilla's scriptural debate with famous Buddhist ācārya Dharmakīrti and his defeat there. As a result he Alongwith his five hundred disciples accepted Buddhism.
As against this and his vow to uproot Buddhism from its roots in front of Śaṃkarācārya, he went in disguise to the famous Buddhist University at Nālaṃdā and studied Buddhist doctrine under the guidance of Buddhist ācārya Dharma Pāla who was also the principal of Nālaṃdā University.
After acquiring excellence in Buddhist doctrine, he invited Dharma Pāla for scriptural debate on pre-agreed terms. Ācārya Dharma Pāla was defeated by Kumārilla in this debate. As per the terms agreed, Dharma Pāla burnt himself to death in a lump of dry fodder.
Kumārilla forced his guru Dharma Pāla to die in fire of fodder. As per the doctrine of his guru Jaiminī and with deep faith in God, he also gave highest priority to karmas and as repentance for his dastardly act committed suicide by burning himself in fire of fodder.
Śaṃkarācārya
The great rejuvenator and establisher of Advaita (Brahmādvaita) doctrine, Śaṃkarācārya in the dream period of 32 years of his life composed huge corpus of Vedic literature. Alongwith this, he also established supremacy of Advaita doctrine from Himalayan kingdoms of Tibet and Nepal in north to southern coast, from the oceans in the east to the oceans in the west of this land of Āryas. In this process, he moved at a fast pace all over the country, he refuted not only Jainism and Buddhism but even pseudo Vedic traditions like Sāṃkhya, Naiyāyika, Mīmāṃ Śaka, Vaiśeṣikas etc to establish supremacy of his Brahmādvaita doctrine. Seeing him, all other scholars used to conclude that in his time, Śaṃkarācārya was possessed with unique intelligence, highly influential, exemplary aura, unique diligence and undefeatable debating skill amongst all dharms.
At the delicate age of 12, he acquired heart rendering expertise in Vedas and Vedāṃgas. By composing great bhāṣyas on 'Prasthānatrayī' at the age of sixteen, he astonished the scholars and experts of that time in this land of Āryans.
The basic mantras of his Advaita doctrine were 'tat tvamasi' and 'jīvo brahmaiva nāparah'. To see the prosperity and then all-pervading influence of Vedic doctrine Brahmādvaita on this land of āryas was the only desire Śaṃkarācārya had. To achieve his hidden desire / agenda, he composed Brahamsūtra bhāṣya, Gītā bhāṣya and Upniṣada bhāṣya based on 'Prasthānatrayī'. Alongwith three mahābhāṣya, he also composed four other bhāṣya, 11 stotra, 39 prakaraṇa for the benefit of commoners to learn and admire the Brahmādvaita doctrine. In bhāṣyas, he refuted doctrines of Jains, Buddhists Mīmāṃsakas and other similar religions to establish supremacy of Brahmādvaita doctrine.
Further he decided to take an all India victory march to refute the propaganda and doctrines of all religions other non-Vedic religion and establish supremacy of Vedic religion and his doctrine of Advaitavāda.
In the beginning he had scriptural debates with Maṃana Miśra. It is important to detail the reason why he went to Maṃana Miśra first.
After composing Brahmasūtra bhāṣya, Śaṃkarācārya thought, 'It will be ideal if someone can write a vārtika on this bhāṣya. He had heard of the profound praises of Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa and his expertise in writing bhāṣya. By writing two vārtikas on 'Sābara bhāṣya' namely Ślokavārtika and Taṃtravārtika, He had created an unparallel impact on scholars of the country. Śaṃkara therefore was aroused with strong desire to get the benefit of great experience and knowledge of Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa. He Alongwith his disciples went to banks of Triveṇi. He was extremely pained to know that Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa is burning his body in the fire of fodders. He immediately went to see Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa and saw that the lower part of his body was burning in fire. He also saw a very auspicious aura on his (Kumārilla's) face Alongwith tranquillity. Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa had earlier heard of the exemplary and unbeatable scholarship of Śaṃkara. He asked his disciples to worship Śaṃkara. Śaṃkarācārya presented his bhāṣya to Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa. Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa expressed his extreme happiness and regard to see the same and said, 'I have taken the vow to die in the fire of fodders otherwise I would have definitely written vārtika on this'.
On being asked by Śaṃkarācārya as to the cause of this death in fodder fire, Kumārilla Bhaṭṭa said, 'I have committed two great sins. One is to disgrace the Buddhist guru Dharma Pāla as per the terms of the scriptural debates became a cause of death in fodder fire. The other sin I committed is to refute God at many places to protect the doctrine of Jaiminī. I have full faith in God. In fact the foremost objective of Mīmāṃsā is to show supremacy of karmas over God. Therefore I had to refute the administrator and benevolent of this world i.e. God. Without going into further details I decided at my own sweet will to die in this fodder fire as repentance for my sins. My acts were without flaws. However for teaching people, I am observing such repentance at my own sweet will. Please induct my successor and disciple Maṃḍana Miśra in your doctrine of Advaitavāda. I am of the firm opinion that he will definitely bring glory to your doctrine of Advaitavāda all over the country.
Immediately Śaṃkarācārya bid farewell to Kumārilla and went to have scriptural discussions with Maṃḍana Miśra and arrived at the palatial building of Maṃḍana Miśra.
Actually Maṃḍana Miśra was the foremost amongst leading scholars of that time. He was the foremost leader in scholarship of all other religions other than Advaita. Śaṃkarācārya experienced that defeating Maṃḍana Miśra will be like defeating all other scholars of India. Finding such a disciple through the medium of scriptural discussions will be supremely beneficial for preaching his doctrine and Vedic religion. With these thoughts he started scriptural discussions with Maṃḍana Miśra.
The supreme intellectual Bhāratī, wife of Maṃḍana Miśra was made the referee to decide about the loser and winner in these scriptural discussions. While presenting his complete doctrine, Śaṃkarācārya declared that if he loses this discussion then he will give up his passionate cloths and wear white cloths of a householder.
Similarly Maṃḍana Miśra also vowed, 'I vow that if I lose this discussion, I will give up this householder's dress and become a monk.' On hearing the logic of Śaṃkarācārya, Maṃḍana Miśra became helpless and unable to respond. The rosary in his neck became dirt. His wife Bhāratī declared Śaṃkarācārya as winner and Maṃḍana Miśra as a loser. By defeating the greatest scholar of that time Maṃḍana Miśra, Śaṃkarācārya achieved envious position amongst the scholars of India.
Bhāratī said to Śaṃkarācārya, 'O scholar! You have defeated my husband now. However your victory will be complete when you defeat me also. Your victory is only half as the woman is better half of man.'
On hearing the responses of Śaṃkarācārya to the questions put by Bhāratī, she also became helpless in replying. As per the pre-agreed terms of debate, Maṃḍana Miśra renounced the householder's life and accepted monkhood by becoming a disciple of Śaṃkarācārya. After initiating Maṃḍana Miśra into monkhood, Śaṃkara renamed him as Sūreśwara.
After this, Śaṃkarācārya engaged himself in scriptural debates at 43 centres of power of different religions in the country and defeated all of them. Most of the defeated scholars had to convert to Vedic religion.
Time of Śaṃkarācārya
There is a big difference of opinion amongst scholars concerning the time of Śaṃkarācārya. But scholars of later part have finally established his time as Vikram 845-877 or 788-820AD.
An important fact of this unified effort of Śaṃkarācārya and Kumārilla was that Buddhism became extinct from this country. But the founding doctrine of Jainism was so beneficial for all that in spite of more severe attacks on them than on Buddhism, Jainsim continued to maintain an honourable and effective presence in this land of Āryas.
