Studies in Kumārila and Śaṅkara

The book is organized around three core studies. “Kumārila on Ahiṃsā and Dharma” investigates the tension between non-violence and Vedic ritual obligation, with particular attention to sacrificial violence, Buddhist and Jaina critiques, and Kumārila’s insistence that dharma cannot be reduced to a universal moral rule. “Human Reason and Vedic Revelation in the Philosophy of Śaṅkara” examines how Śaṅkara establishes the authority of the Upaniṣads while still granting reason a disciplined role in clarification, refutation, and doctrinal defense. “Śaṅkara and Kumārila on the Plurality of Religious Traditions” analyzes the intellectual strategies by which classical Hindu thinkers respond to religious diversity, including the limits of tolerance, inclusivism, orthodoxy, and the status of non-Vedic traditions. Together, these studies present Kumārila and Śaṅkara not simply as isolated philosophers, but as two complementary figures through whom the structure, resilience, and ambiguity of Hindu orthodoxy become philosophically visible.