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Mīmāṃsā

Mīmāṃsā is the native tradition of Vedic exegesis. It not only explains difficult Vedic passages but also, more importantly, provides general rules of interpretation. The foundational text of Mīmāṃsā is Jaimini’s Mīmāṃsāsūtra (c. 50 AD), a work mainly concerned with rules for systematically interpreting Vedic passages, leading to the investigation of linguistic, epistemological, exegetical, and deontic issues. The oldest extant commentary on the Mīmāṃsāsūtra is Śabarasvāmin’s Śābarabhāṣya (c. 400 AD), a work which is also polemical in nature, refuting opponents from Buddhism and Vyākaraṇa. Mīmāṃsā holds the view that the Veda is authorless and the words in the Veda constitute a reliable means of knowledge.

Linguistic Tradition Group

Ancient Indian linguistics

A group of linguistic traditions

References

Bronkhorst, Johannes (2007), 'Vedānta as Mīmāṃsā.' In Bronkhorst, Johannes (ed.), Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta: Interaction and Continuity, 1-91. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Paper In Edited Volume

Freschi, Elisa (2012), Duty, Language and Exegesis in Prābhākara Mīmāṃsā. Including an edition and translation of Rāmānujācārya’s Tantrarahasya, Śāstraprameyapariccheda. Leiden: Brill.

Linguistic Notions

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Texts

The Mānameyodaya is an elementary mīmāṃsā treatise of the bhāṭṭa mīmāṃsā school. Its author is Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa.

Mīmāṃsāsūtra

The Mīmāṃsāsūtra (a.k.a. Jaiminisūtra) is the root text of the indigenous ritual hermeneutics tradition (mīmāṃsā). Its author is Jaimini.

Śābarabhāṣya

The Śābarabhāṣya (a.k.a. Mīmāṃsāsūtrabhāṣya) is the earliest extant commentary on Jaimini's Mīmāṃsāsūtra. It is one of the foundational texts of the indigenous ritual hermeneutics tradition (mīmāṃs...

Authors

According to the tradition, Jaimini was a student of Bādarāyaṇa, the author of the Brahmasūtra. Several works are attributed to Jaimini.

Nārayaṇabhaṭṭa

Nārayaṇabhaṭṭa (a.k.a. Nārāyaṇa Bhaṭṭa, Nārāyaṇa) was the author of the Mānameyodaya.

Śabarasvāmin is also known as Śabara

Linguistic Fields

Pragmatics is the study of meaning beyond the literal meaning of words and their composition into phrases and clauses, encompassing in very broad terms much of the ‘use’ of language in the real...

Semantics is the study of the meaning of linguistic expressions, and more specifically the study of the literal meaning of linguistic expressions (in contrast with pragmatics, the study of the u...