Darshana #5 of 6 · c. 3rd century BCE
पूर्व मीमांसा
Purva Mimamsa Darshana
Pūrva Mīmāṃsā
Founder: Maharshi Jaimini
Root text: Mimamsa Sutras (मीमांसासूत्र)
Central thesis
The Vedas are eternal, authorless (apaurusheya), and infallible. The "earlier inquiry" (purva mimamsa) establishes the rules for correctly interpreting Vedic injunctions and shows that dharma — and ultimately liberation — comes from the precise performance of ritual.
Summary
Purva Mimamsa is the school that took as its task the systematic defence of Vedic ritual. Where the Upanishadic tradition (Uttara Mimamsa / Vedanta) read the Vedas for knowledge of brahman, Jaimini's school read them for vidhi — for binding injunctions that prescribe action. The Mimamsa Sutras open athato dharma jijnasa — "now therefore the inquiry into dharma." Dharma, for Mimamsa, is whatever the Veda enjoins; the Veda is self-validating because it is eternal and authorless. The school developed an extraordinarily refined hermeneutics — distinguishing vidhi (injunction) from arthavada (eulogy), nitya (regular) from naimittika (occasional) from kamya (desire-fulfilling) rites — that still governs how Hindu legal and ritual texts are read.
Key concepts
- ●Apaurusheyatva — the Vedas have no human author
- ●Dharma as that which is enjoined by the Veda
- ●Apurva — the unseen potency stored by ritual that produces its future result
- ●Vidhi vs arthavada — injunctions vs supporting praise
- ●Self-validity (svatah pramanya) of valid cognition
Accepted pramanas
Means of valid knowledge
- · Pratyaksha (perception)
- · Anumana (inference)
- · Upamana (comparison)
- · Shabda (verbal testimony)
- · Arthapatti (postulation)
- · Anupalabdhi (non-apprehension)
Liberation path
Originally, the goal was svarga (heaven) through ritual; later Mimamsakas like Kumarila and Prabhakara accepted moksha through nishkama karma — desireless performance of obligatory rites combined with self-knowledge.
Key texts
- · Mimamsa Sutras of Jaimini
- · Shabara Bhashya
- · Sloka Vartika of Kumarila Bhatta
- · Brihati of Prabhakara
Modern relevance
Mimamsa rules of interpretation are still cited verbatim in Hindu personal law and in temple-management litigation across India. The school's defence of Vedic eternality also underwrites every traditional Vedic recitation lineage.