The University of Nalanda c11.68

c11.68

Dharmakīrti may be said to have done a great service to Nālandā and incidentally to Buddhism, if he defeated the great Mīmāmsaka—Kumārila and the still greater Vedāntist—Śankara—as would appear from the account of Taranath.² According to this account, Dharmakīrti refuted each and every one of Kumārila’s uncommon assertions by a hundred arguments. Not content with this success, Dharmakīrti, like a king performing the Aśvamedha sacrifice, announced by means of a bell, that those persons willing to join the dispute with him should come forward. Śankarācārya took up the challenge and sent a messenger to Śrī Nālandā to say that he was willing to join the dispute. But, as at this time, Dharmakīrti was not at Nālandā, having gone somewhere in the South, the controversy was postponed till the next year. Then, at Benares, in the presence of King Prasanna, Dharmakīrti and Śankara started the debate. Before the actual debate opened, Śankara laid down the conditions, which the defeated party must fulfil. He said that if Dharmakīrti and his party lost in the debate, they should either jump in the Ganges or join the Tirthyas (i.e. join Hinduism) but if Śankara and his party lost, they would jump into the Ganges and die. Śankara was defeated several times. At last, he prepared himself to die, but, before taking this last step, he forbade his pupil Bhaṭṭācārya to continue the debate and triumph over the cropped-head monks. He finished his instructions to the pupil with the prophetic words, "If you cannot triumph, I shall be born as your son, I shall crush them."