मीमांसायां विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

MĪMĀṀSĀ-PARIBHĀṢĀ
OF
KṚṢṆA YAJVAN

Translated and annotated
by
Swami Madhavananda

0

Publisher’s Note

Foreword

Key To Transliteration And Pronunciation

Introductory

Varieties Of Brahmana Sentences

The Injunction Regarding Performance

Three Kinds of Injunctions

Six Tests of a Subsidiary

What is a Subsidiary

Two Main Divisions of Subsidiary Rites

A Fourfold Division of Subsidiary Rites

How an Injunction Functions

Four Tests of Names

Corroborative Statements

Sacred Texts

Criteria of a Difference of Rite

Threefold Vedic Subject-matter

Order

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Mīmāṁsā-Paribhāṣā was first translated and annotated by Swami Madhavananda of revered memory. He became the ninth President of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. A profound scholar, he has translated a number of Sanskrit scriptures into English, his magnum opus being the translation of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad with the commentary of Śaṅkarācārya. There are several other translations of Sanskrit treatises by him, all published by us.

In his learned `Foreword’ to this rare but popular treatise on this subject, the translator has pointed out its importance in the study of the Mīmāṁsā (more correctly, Pūrva-Mīmāṁsā) system of Indian Philosophy. There is hardly any more useful information that can be added by us.

The first edition of this book was published by the Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math. It was long out of print. At our request, the present authorities of the Saradapitha have accorded permission to us to bring out this second edition, for which our grateful thanks are due to them.

PUBLISHER

4 July 1987
Advaita Ashrama
Mayavati, Himalayas

ABBREVIATIONS

Ṛ-V.

…

Ṛg-Veda

Tan. Vār.

…

Tantra-Vārttika

Tāṇ. Br.

…

Tānḍya Brāhmaṇa

Tai. Ā.

…

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka

Tai. Br.

…

Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa

Tai. S.

…

Taittirīya Saṁhitā

Mai. S.

…

Maitrāyaṇī Saṁhitā

…

Note

Pū. Mī. Sū.

…

Pūrva-Mimāṁsā Sūtras

Rām.

…

Rāmāyaṇa

Vāj. S.

…

Vājasaneya Saṁhitā

Sat. Br.

…

Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa

Ṣaḍ. Br.

…

Ṣadviṁśa Brāhmana

FOREWORD

The Pūrva-Mīmāṁsā is one of the six systems of Hindu philosophy which have come down to us from hoary antiquity. They fall into three groups, viz., Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika, Sāṁkhya and Yoga, Mīṁāṁsā and Vedānta. Each has its special field of inquiry, where it zealously defends its findings, but in other matters it is content to borrow from the others. The word pūrva means initial, and mīmāṁsā, a reasoned conclusion. The system is so called because it aims at a rational settlement of the doubtful points in the initial or ritualistic portion (karma-kāṇḍa) of the Vedas, while the Uttara-Mīmāṁsā or Vedānta deals with their final or philosophical portion (jñāna-kāṇḍa), consisting of the Upaniṣads.

Some millenniums ago, sacrifices to different deities formed a very important part of the religious life of the cultured sections in India, and for a proper performance of them the Mīmāṁsā was indispensable. Even to-day it has great influence over Hindu society, inasmuch as the Vedas and Smrtis, which prescribe religious duties for the Hindus, as also Hindu law, are interpreted according to the tenets of the Mīmāṁsā. But as its speculative side was intended to serve the purpose of rituals, it is neither comprehensive nor very convincing as a philosophy.

According to the Mīmāṁsā (as also the Vedānta), the Vedas are eternal, being only revealed to certain *ṛṣis *or seers. As such they are free from human defects, and their authority is unquestionable. The Mīmāṁsā goes so far as to say that even words are eternal and their meanings fixed. Unlike the Nyāya, both systems regard knowledge as self-valid, that is, as carrying conviction of its truth unless invalidated later. But the Mīmāṁsā is sharply at variance with the Vedānta both in its objective and method. For it is an inquiry into righteous action (dharma); it believes in a real objective universe as well as in a plurality of selves, although these are admitted as eternal and omnipresent; and it glorifies heaven, to which the performance of rituals is held to be the way. But the Vedānta in its highest or monistic phase is an inquiry into Brahman or the Supreme Reality; it looks upon the whole phenomenal world as illusory; and it exhorts us to strive for Liberation, consisting in the realisation of our essential oneness with Brahman, through knowledge, to which devotion and self-less work are indirect helps. The whole emphasis of the Mīmāṁsā is on the mechanical performance of rites, and it has no use for God as the author of the periodical manifestation and dissolution (sṛṣṭi and pralaya) of the world, nor does it believe in them.

The basic work on the Mīmāṁsā is the Pūrva-Mīmāṁsā Sūtras, or Aphorisms, of Jaimini (probably 200 B.C.), which has been commented on by Sabara Svāmin. Two other illustrious thinkers, Kumārila Bhatta and Prabhākara—the latter supposed to be a pupil of the former—have written expositions on this work and have come to found two distinct schools of this system. Subsequent writers on the Mīmāṁsā have more or less elaborated the views of these two masters, notably Kumārila, who tried to bring the Mīmāṁsā as close as possible to the Vedānta.

Some knowledge of the canons of the Mīmāṁsā is essential for an understanding of the philosophical literature of India. The Mīmāṁsā-Paribhāṣā, which means, “A lucid exposition of the Mīmāṁsā,” is the smallest popular treatise on the subject. Very little is known of its author, Kṛṣṇa Yajvan; but his book, setting forth some of the salient ritualistic principles of the system, culled from Jaimini’s Sūtras, is a veritable boon for beginners. Somewhat more comprehensive is the Artha-Saṁgraha by Laugākṣi Bhāskara, and still more so is the Mīmāṁsā-Nyāya-Prakāśa (or Āpadevī) by Anantadeva. Of these, the former has got two English translations, but the Mīmāṁsā-Paribhāṣā has none. Hence the present attempt.

In preparing this edition, I have received substantial help from the excellent edition with two Sanskrit commentaries by Professor D. T. Tātācārya Siromaṇi of the Sanskrit College, Tiruvadi (Tanjore). I am also indebted to Mahāmahopādhyāya A. Cinnasvāmi Śāstrī, Professor of the Mīmāṁsa and Vedānta in the Calcutta University, as also to Paṇḍita Pañcānana Śāstri Tarka-Sāṁkhya-Vedānta-tīrtha of the Yogendra Catuṣpāṭhī and the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta, for helping to clear some doubts. For the text I have consulted, besides the edition named above, the Nirṇaya-sāgara edition of Bombay, the Chaukhamba Sanskrit Series and another edition of Benares, and three editions published in Calcutta. Valuable information on the intricacies of Vedic sacrifices has been obtained from the Yajña-kathā, in Bengali, by the late Principal Rāmendra Sundara Trivedī.

The translation has been made faithful and reasonably literal. Copious notes have been given to elucidate the text, which has been divided into sections with suitable headings, and references have been given to a good many of the quotations. An Index also has been added. It is hoped that the book will fulfil a real need of the English-knowing students of Indian philosophies.

MADHAVANANDA

Belur Math,
November, 1948.

KEY TO TRANSLITERATION

AND PRONUNCIATION

Sounds like

अ

o in son

आ

a in master

इ

i in * i*f

ई

in feel

उ

u in full

ऊ

oo in boot

ऋ

ṛ

somewhat between

** **

r and ri

ए

a in evad

ऐ

y in my

ओ

o in over

औ

ow in now

क

ख

ckh in blockhead

ग

g (hard)

घ

gh in log-hut

ङ

ṅ

च

ch (not k)

छ

chh in cat*ch * him

ज

झ

dgeh in hedgehog

ञ

n (somewhat)

ट

ṭ

ठ

ṭh

th in ant-hill

ड

ḍ

ढ

ḍh

dh in godhood

ण

ṇ

n in under

त

French t

**थ **

th in * th*umb

द

d in them

ध

theh in brea*the * here

न

प

फ

ph in loop-hole

ब

भ

bh in abhor

म

य

र

ल

व

v in avert

श

ष

ṣ

sh in show

स

ह

ṁ

m in hum

ḥ

half h in huh!

MĪMĀṀSĀ-PARIBHĀṢĀ

माधवानन्दानुवादः

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CONTENTS

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

ABBREVIATIONS

FOREWORD

KEY TO TRANSLITERATION