Nibandha

(“collection”) Genre of thematic commentarial literature that became prominent in medieval northern India. The
nibandhas were compendia of Hindu
lore, in which the compilers culled
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Nibandha
excerpts on a particular theme from the
Vedas, dharma literature, puranas, and
other authoritative religious texts, and
then compiled them into a single organized text. Excerpts from these same
authoritative texts on a different theme
would be compiled into a different volume, and so on. The compilers would
often have to reconcile conflicting texts,
or judge which passage was preferable
to another. Such judgments were generally done using rules for textual interpretation developed by the Purva
Mimamsa philosophical school, one of
the six schools of traditional Hindu philosophy. The Purva Mimamsa school
had originally developed these rules for
interpreting the Vedas, the oldest and
most authoritative Hindu religious texts.
In many cases the nibandhas had
between fifteen and twenty volumes,
attempting to provide an exhaustive
investigation of Hindu religious life.
Among the most influential nibandhas
are the Kalpataru, compiled by
Lakshmidhara in twelfth century, and
the Viramitrodaya, compiled by Mitra
Mishra early in the seventeenth century.