  Having flourished in the latter part of the seventh century ce, Kumārila Bhaṭṭa was roughly contemporaneous with the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti, whose own predecessor Dignāga was among the philosophical rivals whom Kumārila critically engaged; Kumārila has long been recognized as a significant influence on his younger contemporary Śaṅkara (fl. c. 710). Kumārila thus wrote at a time of profoundly significant philosophical activity in India, contributing much to a pan-Sanskritic discourse—sometimes referred to as pramāṇa-śāstra, or the “discipline of epistemic warrants”—that was characterized by shared standards of rationality and inter-traditional debate. Pressed from all sides by opponents from rival schools of thought, Indian philosophers at this time were keen to maintain the consistency of their various commitments in the face of critique; with all these disputants sharing a Sanskritic philosophical vocabulary that had been refined particularly by Buddhists, India’s philosophical traditions quickly developed in subtlety and sophistication from this point on.