Prakasatman (c. 10th Century CE)

Prakasatman was a famous Advaitin scholar who founded the sub-tradition of Advaita-Vedanta known as the Vivarna school. Prakasatman wrote his famous commentary to Padmapada’s Panca-padika. Prakasatman also wrote the Sabda-nirnaya and the Nyaya-muktavali, a commentary on the Vedanta-sutras.

The Vivarana school of Prakasatman concentrates on epistemological approaches to establishing Advaita. Thus, these authors hold that since there is only the one Brahman, that Brahman Itself is both the locus of avidyA and the object of avidya. A keen analysis of perception and inference is done, through which the non-reality of difference is established. In this approach, the later authors share company with both Padmapada and Suresvara.

The one problem that critics have against this school of thought is that since Brahman is of the nature of pure consciousness, to describe Brahman as the locus of avidya would go against the omniscience of Brahman. It would also attribute contradictory qualities, namely knowledge and ignorance, to the same Brahman.

The Vivarana authors get around this problem by distinguishing between pure consciousness and valid knowledge (pramajnana). Pure consciousness is cit, the real essence of Brahman, but valid cognition at the vyavaharika level presumes an avidya. The ultimate substratum of all cognition, and therefore also of this avidya, is Brahman.

 

SOURCES:
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/bhavir.html#bha