Jayarasi Bhatta

Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa (fl. c. 800) was an Indian philosopher and the author of Tattvopaplavasiṃha (tattva-upa.plava-siṃha “The Lion that Devours All Categories”/”The Upsetting of All Principles”) in which he professed radical skepticism, which posits the impossibility of knowledge. In his work, he attempts to show the contradictions of various philosophical positions as well as the counter positions. This methodology makes him aligned to the Ajñanins of ancient India and Nagarjuna. The text was discovered in a single manuscript in the 20th century. Its original 1940 edition attributed it to the materialist Charvaka school, but scholarly opinion on this point remains divided. The work is primarily epistemological in nature, reminiscent of the sceptical philosophy of David Hume.