- Lived:
- 7th century CE · India — birthplace contested (traditions point south, or to Mithilā in the northeast)
- Tradition:
- Indian; Pūrva Mīmāṃsā — the orthodox school of Vedic ritual and interpretation
- The Big Idea:
- Knowledge is innocent until proven guilty — every cognition counts as valid unless something specific defeats it — and the authority of scripture needs no God behind it, only its own beginningless, authorless standing.
- In their words:
- "Understand that the validity of every means of knowledge is intrinsic; for a capacity that does not exist of itself cannot be given to it by anything else."
- If you remember one thing:
- The fiercest defender of ritual religion in Indian history argued against the existence of God — because, he insisted, the sacred law runs on its own, with no legislator required.