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Thinker · c. fourth century CE

Śabara

Śabara

Śabara authored the earliest completely extant commentary on Jaimini’s Mīmāṃsā Sūtra, defining the terms through which later Mīmāṃsakas argued about dharma, language, and knowledge.

Intellectual setting

Subsequent Bhāṭṭa and Prābhākara authors framed their divergent positions through detailed engagement with Śabara’s interpretation.

Key ideas

Commentarial foundation

His Bhāṣya makes the compressed sūtras available for sustained philosophical disagreement.

Authority and action

It explains Vedic injunction as central to knowing and carrying out dharma.

Legacy

His commentary remains the shared textual horizon for the school’s most consequential later disagreements.