Though Srī Shaṅkara Bhagavatpāda is mostly credited with the intellectual end of Buddhism in India, whose physical end was affected by the Mohammedans, he only completed the task that was initiated by the great Pūrvamīmāmsakas led by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa. Srī Bhāratī Tīrtha, the current pontiff of Shringeri Sharada Peetham frequently stresses during various śāstrārthas the need for a lucid understanding of pūrva mīmāmsā as a pre-cursor to the study of Uttara mīmāmsā.
The condition prevalent in India before the advent of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa is described emphatically by Mādhavācārya in his Shankaravijaya. This hagiographical tale describes the advent of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa thus.
Lord Nārāyaṇa, according to this hagiography, assumed the form of Buddha to mislead the Saugatas unfit for Vaidika dharma through his nāstika teachings. The Bauddhas were completely carried away by this trick of the Lord and basing their conviction upon the asadāgamas taught by the Buddha, began to abuse the āstika darśanas. At one point in time, the entire Indian sub-continent seemed to be filled with such nāstikas. It seemed like a night that would never end. They preached that the Veda was nothing but a bunch of lies and denounced varṇa and āśrama dharmas. Laymen began to adopt this convenient dharma of the pākhaṇḍins and gave up their Nityakarma such as sandhyā, śāstrādhyana, japa etc. There were also others who adopted various Shaiva and Vaiṣṇava symbols such as śaṅkha, cakra, śūla, etc., denounced all karma and sometimes adopted sannyāsa influenced by the pākhaṇḍins. The Kāpālikas mercilessly carried out their gory rituals by severing the heads of Brāhmaṇas as they assumed that the worship using brahma-puṣpa offered them immense power. Some atimārgins scoffed at lōka-maryādā and prescribed transgression of every norm that led to chaos and disharmony. It is at this point that Lord Brahmaṇya incarnated as Kumārila Bhaṭṭapāda to uphold the virtue of karma-kāṇḍa. The purpose of his birth is described succinctly thus:
kāṇḍatrayātmakē vēdē prōddhr̥tē syād dvijōddhr̥tiḥ |
tadrakṣaṇē rakṣitaṁ syāt sakalam jagatītalam |
tadadhīnatvatō varṇāśramadharmatatēstataḥ ||
The uddhāra of three kāṇḍas (karma, upāsanā and jñāna) of the Veda results in the uddhāra of the Dvijas and the uddhāra of the Dvijas, in turn, brings about the uddhāra of the entire world as the Dvijas form the backbone of the varṇāśrama system. It was for the uddhāra of this Vaidika dharma that Brahmaṇya incarnated as Kumārila Bhaṭṭapāda. For the uddhāra of upāsanā kāṇḍa, Lord Mahāviṣṇu and ādiśēṣa had already incarnated as Saṅkarṣaṇa and Patañjali. Mahādēva himself would later incarnate as Shankara for the uddhāra of the final and liberating Jñānakāṇḍa. The responsibility of uddhāra of the first and the most important karmakāṇḍa was given to Lord Brahmaṇya who incarnated as Kumārila, resembling the moon that originated as the essence of Jaiminīya mahārṇava. As brāhmaṇya is firmly based on the karmakāṇḍa, it is Kumārila Bhaṭṭa who can be credited as rejuvenating brāhmaṇadharma and this earned him the title Su-Brahmaṇya:
viśiṣṭam karmakāṇḍam tvamuddhara brahmaṇaḥ kr̥tē |
subrahmaṇya iti khyātim gamiṣyasi tatō’dhunā ||
To assist him in this mission, Indra incarnated as a king named Sudhanvā and Brahmā as Maṇḍana, who would later become the chief disciple of Bhaṭṭapāda. Having mastered the Jaimnīya darśana in its entirety, Bhaṭṭapāda arrived at the Capital of Sudhanvā and struck the Bauddhas with his logic. Finding themselves defeated, the cunning Bauddhas approached the king and said, “O King! vāda is no certain way to establish the superiority of a doctrine. Jaya and apajaya depend on that moment and the yukti under a particular circumstance. If one is able to jump from the top of a tree and survive the fall, that would be the real proof of authenticity for his pet doctrine”. Although ridiculous, Kumārila Bhaṭṭa agreed to this condition, ascended the peak of a mountain and declared:
yadi vēdāḥ pramāṇaṁ syurbhūyāt kācinna mē kṣatiḥ ||
“If the Vedas are indeed true, I shall not be harmed”, saying so, he jumped down the cliff. Seeing him emerge unharmed, the Saugatas now approached the King with another objection: “O King, it is possible to survive on the basis of maṇi, mantra, auṣadha etc. and that is what this Brāhmaṇa probably did. So this cannot be a proof of the authenticity of his doctrine”. The King, who was by now fed up with the hypocrisy of the Bauddhas, came up with a solution. He posed a challenge to both the debating parties. The next morning, they had to guess what was present within a pot and this would prove not only the omniscience of the winner but the authenticity of his doctrine as well. The Brāhmaṇas, led by Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, performed a penance to appease Bhagavān Sūryanārāyaṇa who appeared before them and indicated an answer to the riddle. The King, who placed a snake within the covered pot, repeated the question to both the parties. The Bauddhas, on the merit of their mantra (of Lōkēśvara), predicted that it was a snake (bhujaṅga) that was present in the pot. But the Brāhmaṇas declared thus:
bhōgīśabhōgaśayanō bhagavāniti bhūsurāḥ ||
“It is the Great Lord Anantaśayana that is present within the pot”. And indeed there was an idol of śrīhari in the pot and the King himself was amazed. The Bauddhas finally had to accept their defeat.
Similar accounts of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa’s role in annihilating the Bauddhas can be seen in various works, within and outside the circle of Advaitins.
The Buddhists on the other hand present before us a different story. According to Tārānātha, the famous Bauddha dārśanika Dharmakīrti supposedly disguised himself as a Brāhmaṇa, learned under Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and then defeated him in a debate, leading to his conversion to Buddhism. This seems baseless on many accounts. Other than Tārānātha, no other authority, including that of the Bauddhas recollects this episode. There is not even a faint record of Kumārila Bhaṭṭa’s conversion or something that is even suggestive in this direction – on either the āstika or nāstika side. On a side note, Tārānātha agrees that Kumārila Bhaṭṭa defeated Buddhapālita, Dharmadāsa, Dignāga, Bhavya and other Bauddha stalwarts in his debates. It still remains a question as to why they did not abandon Buddhism if this were the case.
From an examination of ślōka vārtika, it becomes evident that Kumārila Bhaṭṭa’s understanding of Buddhism was more profound than most of his predecessors and contemporaries. The finesse of his arguments against the Buddhists outshines even those of Shankara in several respects. Though some hagiographies talk of his debate with Shankara and his eventual immolation, there are many who disagree and argue that he led a complete life along with his two wives and six sons, instructing several famous Mīmāmsakas, Prabhākara being one among the many. Among his literary works, ślōka-vārtika, Tantra-vārtika and Tuptika are important. Laghu vārtika, Br̥hatṭīkā, and Madhyamaṭīkā are his other works. It is easy to note that Kumārila Bhaṭṭa was an independent thinker as he is extremely pronounced in some of his disagreements with śabara svāmin in his works, like the case where he deals with the Cōdanā sūtra in ślōka-vārtika.