Mimamsa

Mīmāṃsā, also known as Pūrva Mīmāṃsā, is one of the six classical schools of Indian philosophy. It concentrates on the exegesis of the Vedas, especially the ritual or karmic portion (karma-kāṇḍa), and seeks to determine how Vedic injunctions are to be correctly understood and performed. The school is traditionally associated with a hermeneutic project: to establish the authority, interpretation, and efficacy of Vedic rites.

The principal corpus is the Purva Mīmāṃsā Sūtras, attributed to Jaimini (roughly dated in the early centuries CE). The oldest surviving commentary is Shabara’s Bhāṣya on these sutras. Two major sub-schools arose in the medieval period: the Bhāṭṭa and the Prābhākara traditions, represented by later interpreters such as Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and Prabhākara, who debated questions of scriptural interpretation, the nature of authority, and the status of ritual action.

Key doctrinal features include the primacy of śruti (the Vedas) as a source of valid knowledge, with sabda (verbal testimony) as the principal pramāṇa for the performative injunctions and prohibitions that govern ritual action. Mimāṃsā holds that correct ritual performance yields results through dharma and that knowledge about Brahman or liberation is not the primary aim of the ritual.

Influence of Mimāṃsā extends to Indian hermeneutics, linguistics, and jurisprudence. It shaped later debates within Vedānta and contributed to the broader discussion of epistemology and ritual authority in Indian philosophy, remaining a foundational reference in the study of classical Indian thought.