A home for the śāstra.

Jaimini · Śabara · Kumārila · Prabhākara

The exegetical śāstra of the Veda. How do we know dharma? How does an injunction work? What is the relation of a word to its meaning? Pūrva Mīmāṁsā builds an entire philosophy of language and ritual to answer.

Pūrva Mīmāṁsā — the exegetical śāstra of vidhi, mantra and dharma. Jaimini, Śabara, Kumārila and Prabhākara.

• Codanā-lakṣaṇo'rtho dharmaḥ — dharma is known only through Vedic injunction.
• Two schools: Bhāṭṭa (Kumārila) and Prābhākara (Prabhākara, Śālikanātha).
• Twelve adhyāyas, ~2,700 sūtras, two and a half millennia of commentary.

Bādarāyaṇa · Śaṅkara · Rāmānuja · Madhva

The inquiry into Brahman. Beginning from the Upaniṣads and the four sūtras of Bādarāyaṇa, the Vedānta tradition unfolds into the great schools of Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita and Dvaita — each with its own bhāṣya, its own vārttika, its own argumentative apparatus.

Uttara Mīmāṁsā — the inquiry into Brahman. Bādarāyaṇa, Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja, and the Advaita prakaraṇa tradition.

• Athāto brahma-jijñāsā — now, therefore, the inquiry into Brahman.
• Three principal schools: Advaita, Viśiṣṭādvaita, Dvaita; many sub-schools.
• Prakaraṇa texts — Pañcadaśī, Vivekacūḍāmaṇi, Naiṣkarmyasiddhi — make the bhāṣya tradition reachable.