Mimamsa (Purva Mimamsa)

Founder

Maharshi Jaimini

Era

c. 3rd century BCE

Central thesis

The Veda is the self-authoritative, beginningless source of dharma, and its core meaning lies in its injunctions (vidhi) regarding ritual action. Right performance of Vedic rites produces apurva, an unseen potency that yields its result at the appropriate time. Mimamsa develops a sophisticated hermeneutics for interpreting scripture and an epistemology in which valid cognition is intrinsically self-validating.

Key texts

Mimamsa Sutras of Jaimini
Shabara Bhashya
Shloka-vartika and Tantra-vartika of Kumarila Bhatta
Prabhakara’s Brihati

Pramana (accepted means of valid knowledge)

Pratyaksha (perception)
Anumana (inference)
Upamana (comparison)
Shabda (verbal testimony)
Arthapatti (postulation)
Anupalabdhi (non-apprehension — Bhatta school)

View of liberation (moksha)

Classical Mimamsa focuses primarily on dharma and svarga (heavenly result of ritual); later Mimamsakas accept moksha as cessation of rebirth, attained by exhausting karma through prescribed action and abstaining from prohibited and desire-driven acts.

Modern exponents

Francis X. Clooney
John Taber
Lawrence McCrea
Parimal G. Patil

Key concepts

Apaurusheya (authorless eternality of the Veda)
Vidhi (injunction) as core scriptural meaning
Apurva (unseen ritual potency)
Svatah-pramanya (intrinsic validity of cognition)
Bhatta vs Prabhakara sub-schools