Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume XVI: Philosophy of Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā

The introduction further examines the relation between Vedic authority and philosophical inquiry, the status of ritual action, the concept of apūrva, freedom and responsibility, ethical action, the relation between Mīmāṃsā and Buddhism, and the broader question of how ritual obligation can function independently of a creator God. It also discusses the Mīmāṃsā theory of language, especially the relation between words, sentences, injunctions, meaning, and action. The role of Vedic injunctions in generating knowledge of dharma is a recurring theme.

Part Two offers chronologically arranged summaries of a very large corpus of Mīmāṃsā literature, beginning with Bādarāyaṇa, Bādari, Atreya, Kārṣṇājini, and Jaimini, and continuing through Śabara, Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, Prabhākara, and later commentators and sub-schools. Major topics include perception, inference, verbal testimony, validity of cognition, sentence meaning, ritual classification, injunctions, sacrificial structure, apūrva, universals, absence, causation, language theory, epistemology, and hermeneutics. The volume therefore serves as a comprehensive reference for the historical development and philosophical architecture of Pūrva-Mīmāṃsā.

Table of Contents – Main Sections

• Contributors

• Part One: Introduction

  • Activism in Indian Thought

  • Vedānta as Mīmāṃsā

  • Comments on the Editor

• Part Two: Summaries of Works — Arranged Chronologically

  • Early Mīmāṃsā Thinkers: Bādarāyaṇa, Bādari, Ātreya, Kārṣṇājini

  • Jaimini and the Mīmāṃsāsūtra

  • Bādhāyana, Bhāradvāja, Upavarṣa

  • Śabara and the Śābarabhāṣya

  • Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and the Bhāṭṭa School

  • Prabhākara and the Prābhākara School

  • Later Mīmāṃsā Commentators and Sub-schools

• Bibliography

• Glossary-Index