Karma Mimansa

Author(s): Berriedale Keith
Publisher: Berriedale Keith

Page 89

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THE KARMA-MIMĀSĀ
essential part of the Veda, but they contain also passages which cannot be treated as dealing with either positive or negative injunctions, and are classed either as explanatory matter, Arthavāda, or name, Nāmadheya. The Arthavada (1, 2,1-30) at first sight seems not to be entitled to authority, but Kumārila and Prabhākara alike defend its validity, the latter against the charge that such sentences are inexpressive, since they are not construed with injunctive verbal forms The value of the Arthavāda, both hold, lies in it either extolling desirable, or censuring forbidden, acts; it thus comes into immediate connection with injunction or prohlbition. Hence it follows that, in cases where it might be possible to extract from an Arthavāda an injunction, it is needless to do so, the passage being adequately explained if it remains eulogistic of some action already enjoined Arthavadas may be variously divided, but the simplesi division is into three classes: the first is where in contradıction of some other means of proof a quality is asserted to exist, as in “The post is the sun," which serves to extol the brilliance of the post. Or it may merely reiterate a truth known otherwise, as in "Agni is a protection from the cold." Or it merely may refer to something which has happened, neither contradicted by other means of proof nor already known.
The case of name (I, 4, 1-16) is far more obscure; discussions regarding it usually turn on one or other of the sentences udbhida yajeta pasukamah, "he who desires 07: :':. 3acrifice with the udbhid”; citrayā yajeti
sim: .," the citră”; agnihotram juhoti, "he offers 1. W : "; and syenenabhicaran yajeta, "he who practices witchcraft should offer the syena sacrifice." It seems at least plausible to suppose that the subdivision owes its creation to the practical necessity of dealing with a limited number of obscure sacrificial terms, but was later extended into a wider area. In the developed theory, the justification of the classification of name is given as follows Each word in the injunction must be brought into effective
Thibaut, Arthasangraha, pp. xii, xili ; Mimantsānyāyaprakisa, Pp 85 ff.