Sankara Mishra (

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

: शंकर मिश्र), also known as Shankara Mishra, was an Indian

Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

scholar during the 15th century in

Mithila Mithila may refer to: Places * Mithilā, a synonym for the ancient Videha state ** Mithilā (ancient city), the ancient capital city of Videha * Mithila (region), a cultural region (historical and contemporary), now divided between India and Nepal ...

. He was a scholar of

Vaisheshika Vaisheshika or Vaiśeṣika ( sa, वैशेषिक) is one of the six schools of Indian philosophy (Vedic systems) from ancient India. In its early stages, the Vaiśeṣika was an independent philosophy with its own metaphysics, epistemolo ...

school of thought in the

Indian philosophy Indian philosophy refers to philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A traditional Hindu classification divides āstika and nāstika schools of philosophy, depending on one of three alternate criteria: whether it believes the Veda ...

. Vaisheshika philosophy is one of the six schools of the Indian Philosophy.

Early life

Sankara Mishra was born in a

Maithil Brahmin Maithil Brahmins are a Hindu Brahmin community from the Mithila region of the Indian subcontinent that comprises Tirhut, Darbhanga, Kosi, Purnia, Munger, Bhagalpur; Bokaro in Jharkhand and Santhal Pargana divisions of India and some adj ...

family at Sarisab Pahi village of the

Madhubani district Madhubani district is one of the thirty-eight List of districts of Bihar, districts of Bihar, India, and is a part of Darbhanga division. Its administrative headquarters are located in Madhubani, India, Madhubani. The district has an area of ...

in the

Mithila region Mithila (), also known as Tirhut, Tirabhukti and Mithilanchal is a geographical and cultural region of the Indian subcontinent bounded by the Mahananda River in the east, the Ganges in the south, the Gandaki River in the west and by the foothill ...

of Bihar, India. He was the son of the scholar Ayachi Mishra ( Bhavanatha Mishra) of the Nyaya Shastra. According to legend, it is said that

Lord Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hind ...

himself was incarnated as the son of the scholar ''Ayachi Mishra'' in the form of Sankara Mishra. It is said that Sankara Mishra introduced his self in ''Sanskrit Shloka'' at the court of the king Bhairavasimha of Mithila, when he was only five years old by age. The Sanskrit Shloka was, The king was influenced by the prodigious poetic talent of the little boy. Then the king imparted a gold necklace to the little boy Sankara Mishra as a reward. After that Ayachi Mishra, the father of the little boy, gifted the gold necklace to the nurse-maid also called as ''Chamain'' who helped the mother of the boy during the birth of the boy. It is said that during the birth of Sankara Mishra, his father and mother had no money to gift a reward to the nurse-maid, so they promised the nurse-maid that they would gift their son's first earning as a reward for her service of the maternity. It is also said that the nurse-maid excavated a pond in the village with the cost of the gift of the gold necklace.

Academic life and scholarship

Sankara Mishra in his texts had mentioned that his father Ayachi Mishra had given all the knowledge under the ''Kantha Vidya'' tradition. The Kantha Vidya means knowledge through oral recitation. He had mentioned that all texts written by him is the knowledge of his father. He had written the texts by listening the oral recitation from his father's mouth. He had written nineteen books. Sankara Mishra is well known for his commentary '' Upaskara'' on the

Vaisheshika Sutra Vaisheshika or Vaiśeṣika ( sa, वैशेषिक) is one of the six schools of Indian philosophy (Vedic systems) from ancient India. In its early stages, the Vaiśeṣika was an independent philosophy with its own metaphysics, epistemolo ...

of the Vedic sage Maharshi Kanaada. It is said that he might had composed the commentary text Upaskara before 1462 CE. Similarly he composed a Sanskrit text known as ''Rasarnava'' which is a very famous text in the

Sanskrit literature Sanskrit literature broadly comprises all literature in the Sanskrit language. This includes texts composed in the earliest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language known as Vedic Sanskrit, texts in Classical Sanskrit as well as ...

. It was later edited by the scholar '' Amaranatha Jha'' in 1920. Sankara Mishra was awarded with the honorific title ''Mahamahopadhyaya'' for his contribution to the

and the

References

{{India-philosopher-stub Indian philosophers Ancient Mithila University Mithila Hinduism Philosophers of Mithila