c.686 - c.745
Indian Reformer

Kumarila Bhatta was a South Indian teacher and religious reformer.

As a youth he was converted to Buddhism, but he returned to Hinduism and became a great defender of Vedic philosophy.

Kumarila was instrumental for developing the old vedic Brahmanism into Hinduism by using the concept of trinity. That meant the worship of three universal gods: Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer.

He also debated Buddhist and Jain teachers. He hoped, through his revival Hinduism, to keep these two religions from spreading to South India.

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