The presentation shall focus on the problem of how to read the text of Sāyaṇa’s Vedabhāṣyabhūmikā, a short treatise in itself, which seems deliberately engaged in an interśāstric discussion on the authorization for Vedic learning: who may have the right to transmit, receive and speculate on the Veda, when and on what grounds. I will also consider the historical background: how to interpret a South Asian empire which succeeded in substituting its actual history with a legendary image; how to determine the personal identity of a commentator and a minister in service of that empire; and how to conceive of a text with several competing ideas about its identity.
