Friday, 14 April 2023

MIMAMSA - THE STUDY VEDIC RITES


The word Mimamsa in Sanskrit is formed that maatum Icchaa Mimamsa i.e., “ma” is the root of the word san is the qualifying pratyaya or prefix means “esteemed or sacred inquiry”, an exposition.  Therefore, Mimamsa goes further, to find out the significance of the Mantras, their intent. The term Mimamsa though suggested two branches viz., PurvaMimamsa and UttaraMimamsa,  its indicates mainly PurvaMimamsa which deals about the KarmaKanda which holds the sacrifices and rites which dealt in Vedic texts.  Moreover, among the Pada-vakya-Pramanas, Mimamsa is considered as Vakya which explain this Darsana through many sentences like Athatho Dharma jijnaasa, Syenena Abhicaran Yajathe etc.,

The PurvaMimamsa-Sutra was written by Jaimini Maharshi, its Bhashya was written by SabaraSvamin, and its Vartika by KumarilaBhatta. KumarilaBhatta’s BhattaDipika remains the most important PurvaMimamsa work.  KumarilaBhatta was an incarnation of KumaraSvamin or Lord Subrahmanya. Prabhakara was an another great scholar who was the founder of another school of in the same darsana.  He has written a commentary on PurvaMimamsa in which he expresses views which, on some points, are divergent from KumarilaBhatta’s.  So, two different schools are identified in Mimamsa - Bhatta Mata and Prabhakara Mata.

Jaimini’s PurvaMimamsaSutra is a voluminous work and has twelve chapters, each having a number of “Padas” and each Pada having a number of “adhikaranas.”  In all, there are1,000 adhikaranas.

Six methods are mentioned: Upakrama-Upasamhara, Abhyasa, Apurvata, Phala, Arthavada and Upapatti.  According to Mimamsa, the meaning, the intent, of Vedic mantras may be understood applying these methods.




(This blogpost is a Blogchatter's #BlogchatterA2Z2023)



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