Mīmāṃsā

Mīmāṃsā means “inquiry”, and here it names the inquiry into how the Vedas, the texts that enjoin the rituals of Vedic religion, are to be interpreted. Its foundational text is Jaimini’s Mīmāṃsā Sūtras, read through the commentary of Śabara. Later Mīmāṃsakas divided into two lines of commentary on Śabara: the Bhāṭṭas, who followed Kumārila, and the Prābhākaras, who followed Prabhākara.

To defend the Vedas’ unique authority, Mīmāṃsakas argued that the Vedas have no author and are eternal, and developed realist theories of knowledge and language that other schools, Hindu and Buddhist, had to answer.