elisa freschiVeṅkaṭanātha as a way for reconstructing the history of Sanskrit philosophy in South India: The Bṛhaṭṭīkā – elisa freschi https://elisafreschi.com These pages are a sort of virtual desktop of Elisa Freschi. You can find here my cv and some random thoughts on Sanskrit (and) Philosophy. All criticism welcome! Contributions are also welcome! Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:06:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Veṅkaṭanātha as a way for reconstructing the history of Sanskrit philosophy in South India: The Bṛhaṭṭīkā https://elisafreschi.com/2016/01/15/ve%e1%b9%85ka%e1%b9%adanatha-as-a-way-for-reconstructing-the-history-of-sanskrit-philosophy-in-south-india-the-b%e1%b9%9bha%e1%b9%ad%e1%b9%adika/ https://elisafreschi.com/2016/01/15/ve%e1%b9%85ka%e1%b9%adanatha-as-a-way-for-reconstructing-the-history-of-sanskrit-philosophy-in-south-india-the-b%e1%b9%9bha%e1%b9%ad%e1%b9%adika/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2016 11:28:38 +0000 elisa freschi http://elisafreschi.com/?p=2131 Veṅkaṭanātha is an important milestone for the reconstruction of the history of Indian philosophy. In fact, he is a historical figure and the reconstruction of his thought is also facilitated by the contextual knowledge already available about the times, the cultural and geographical milieu, and the religious tradition related to him. Thus, the study of Veṅkaṭanātha and of his sources allows one to undertake a study of Indian philosophy as known to him and of the changes he implemented in its interpretation. An interesting instance is that of Kumārila’s lost Bṛhaṭṭīkā (henceforth BṬ). This was presumably (see Kataoka 2011, pp. 25–60) an enlarged and revised version of Kumārila’s Ślokavārttika (henceforth ŚV) and has not survived in full. Outside Mīmāṃsā, it was last quoted by the Buddhist author Ratnakīrti (fl. 1070) and by the Jains Vidyānanda (fl. 940), Anantakīrti (fl. 950) and Prabhācandra (fl. 1040 or later).*
After them, some other Mīmāṃsā authors seem to have known at least some excerpts of the BṬ: Pārthasārathi Miśra (11th c.?, see Freschi 2008 and Kataoka 2011, p. 112), commenting on the ŚV, refers to examples found in the BṬ, as does Someśvara (fl. 1200, according to Kataoka 2011, p. 112), and, as late as in the 16th c., Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa quotes a verse on arthāpatti attributing it to the BṬ (Mānameyodaya, arthāpatti section, see this post).
In his Seśvaramīmāṃsā (henceforth SM) on Pūrva Mīmāṃsā Sūtra 1.1.4, Veṅkaṭanātha dealt with a controversial issue (the possibility of yogipratyakṣa, or intellectual intuition) treated in both the ŚV and the BṬ, but he only elaborated on the ŚV arguments, neglecting altogether their improved version in the BṬ. This improved version has reached us thanks to extensive quotes embedded in a Buddhist text, Śāntarakṣita’s Tattvasaṃgraha, but Veṅkaṭanātha might not have had the chance (nor felt the need) to read that Buddhist text. Thus, if the dates suggested above are correct, the BṬ was possibly lost —at least in the Eastern part of South India and at least outside Pūrva Mīmāṃsā— before the year 1300.

*These dates are based on Potter’s online bibliography, previously printed as Potter 1995.

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