Appayya Dīkṣita
Appayya Dīkṣita was one of India’s leading intellectuals in the sixteenth century—a maverick who stood out even in a period when many self-proclaimed innovators sought to transform South Asia’s traditional disciplines of learning. A true Renaissance man, he authored at least one hundred books in a variety of fields, including nondualist philosophy (Advaitavedānta), Śaiva theology, Vedic hermeneutics (Mīmāṃsā), literary theory, grammar, and the study of the epics. Although he was supported only by minor courts at the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent, his work spread rapidly and drew both enthusiasm and ire in India’s major centers of learning in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The Banaras-based Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita, who famously revolutionized Sanskrit grammar, was influenced at least by his work on nondualism, and the renowned Jagannātha, “King of Pandits” at the imperial Mughal court in Delhi, criticized his views on literary theory so profusely that he was able to publish his tirades as a separate volume. It is no wonder that there are apocryphal traditions about personal friendship and enmity among these three eminent scholars.