Karma Mimansa

Author(s): Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Berriedale Keith

Page 84

GOD, THE SOUL, AND MATTER
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not in the optative verb, and he denies that from the action there arises directly the Apurva. On the contrary, the process is that the injunctive sentence lays down a mandate, Niyoga; this excites the man to exertion, and this exertion pertains to some form of action, indicated by the verb of the injunctive sentence. The exertion produces in the agent a result (karya) to which also the name of Niyoga is given by Prabhakara, on the ground that it is this which acts as an incentive to the agent to put forth exertion towards the performance of the action denoted by the verb of the injunctive clause. The Niyoga, however, is unable to produce its result, unless aided by something which Salikanatha styles fate, nor is it apparent that either in his terminology or in his view of the process Prabhakara's doctrine is any superior to that of Kumarila. It seems as if primarily it arose from nothing more important than the observation that the result produced in the agent was in one sense his motive to action as much as the sentence directing the action to be done, leading to a transfer of the term. Niyoga, naturally applicable to the sentence, to the condition in the agent to which the more orthodox name of Apurva was usually applied.
In simple sacrifices there is only one Apurva produced, but in more complicated sacrifices there may be several, as a rule four. Thus in the new and full moon sacrifices, consisting of two sets of three oblations at new and full moon respectively, there may be distinguished the Angapūrva, pertaining to the minor acts of the several oblations; the Utpattyapūrva, the result flowing from each of the three oblations in either set, the Samudāyāpūrva, the result of each group of three, and the Phalapurva, the result of the whole performance regarded as a unit. But it is not every action which brings about an Apurva; those actions, which are devoted simply to some material result, though a part of the sacrifice, such as the appointment of priests or the threshing of corn, are not credited with any such effect, as they serve an immediate purpose and need no further explanation.
In the view of both schools there is a clear relation between the injunction and the action of the agent; the former possesses a verbal energy (sabdi bhāvanā) in its tendency to produce action by the agent, while the latter puts forth