Abstract
This article provides a first investigation on the metarules adopted in the Mīmāṃsā school of textual exegesis. These are not systematically listed and discussed, but they can be seen at work throughout the history of Mīmāṃsā. The Mīmāṃsā school has the exegesis of the sacred texts called Veda as its main focus. The metarules used to understand the Vedic texts are, however, not derived from the Veda itself and are rather rational rules which can be derived from the use of language in general and which Mīmāṃsā authors recognized and analyzed. Since the metarules are considered to be not derived from the Veda, it is all but natural that later authors inspired by Mīmāṃsā apply them outside the precinct of the Veda, for instance in the fields of textual linguistics, poetics, theology and jurisprudence.
Acknowledgements
I am thankful to Alberto Pelissero for gathering us and making us reconsider the topic of paribhāṣās in the occasion of a workshop at the University of Turin in 2012. I also would like to thank Pietro Chierichetti, Tiziana Pontillo and Paolo Visigalli for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper, Gianni Pellegrini for taking care of the volume during the many years between the workshop and its final publication, and the insightful reviewer of EA/AS, especially for making me reconsider MS 2.1.46. Thanks are due also to Marco Lauri for suggesting improvements to the English form of the article.
Abbreviations
- A
Aṣṭādhyāyī
- ĀŚrS
Āśvalāyana Śrautasūtra
- MK
Kevālanandasarasvatī, ed. (1952–1954). Mīmāṃsākośa.
- MS
Jaimini’s Mīmāṃsāsūtra. In: Subbāśāstrī 1929–1934.
- ŚBh
Śabara’s Bhāṣya on MS, q.v.
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© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- Les manuscrits du sud de la vallée de l’Indus en écriture khojkī sindhī: état des lieux et perspectives
- Hell as “Eternal” Punishment? On the Depiction of Hell in Vīlhojī’s Kathā Gyāncarī
- Entwicklungen in der Darstellung Buddhistischer Erzählstoffe in Sri Lanka
- Mack the Knife and Knife-Black Dorothy Appositional Metaphoric Compounds: A Comparison and Contrast of the Varying Approaches in Sanskrit Treatises on Grammar and Poetics
- Music Theory, Mathematics, and Patterns of Innovation in the Saṅgītaratnākara
- Considerations About Traditions Influential in the Ahirbudhnyasaṃhitā
- Meanings Out of Rules. Definitions, Functions and Uses of Paribhāṣās in Śrautasūtras, Gṛhyasūtras, Vyākaraṇa, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta
- A General Overview
- The paribhāṣās in the Śrautasūtras: Problems, Opportunities and Premises for an Investigation
- Towards a Methodology for Applying the paribhāṣās in the Kauśikasūtra (II)
- From Commentary to paribhāṣās: Kātyāyana and Patañjali vis-à-vis Vyāḍi
- The Role of paribhāṣās in Mīmāṃsā: Rational Rules of Textual Exegesis
- … And What about the Vedānta Paribhāṣā’s paribhāṣātva? Some hypotheses on the use of paribhāṣās in later Advaita Vedānta
- Meanings Out of Rules: The Editor’s Overview
- Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
- Some More Notes on Siderits and Katsura’s Translation of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
- Rezension – Compte rendu – Review
- Otter, Felix: Grundkurs Sanskrit: Eine Einführung in die Sprache der altindischen Erzählliteratur
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Aufsätze – Articles – Articles
- Les manuscrits du sud de la vallée de l’Indus en écriture khojkī sindhī: état des lieux et perspectives
- Hell as “Eternal” Punishment? On the Depiction of Hell in Vīlhojī’s Kathā Gyāncarī
- Entwicklungen in der Darstellung Buddhistischer Erzählstoffe in Sri Lanka
- Mack the Knife and Knife-Black Dorothy Appositional Metaphoric Compounds: A Comparison and Contrast of the Varying Approaches in Sanskrit Treatises on Grammar and Poetics
- Music Theory, Mathematics, and Patterns of Innovation in the Saṅgītaratnākara
- Considerations About Traditions Influential in the Ahirbudhnyasaṃhitā
- Meanings Out of Rules. Definitions, Functions and Uses of Paribhāṣās in Śrautasūtras, Gṛhyasūtras, Vyākaraṇa, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta
- A General Overview
- The paribhāṣās in the Śrautasūtras: Problems, Opportunities and Premises for an Investigation
- Towards a Methodology for Applying the paribhāṣās in the Kauśikasūtra (II)
- From Commentary to paribhāṣās: Kātyāyana and Patañjali vis-à-vis Vyāḍi
- The Role of paribhāṣās in Mīmāṃsā: Rational Rules of Textual Exegesis
- … And What about the Vedānta Paribhāṣā’s paribhāṣātva? Some hypotheses on the use of paribhāṣās in later Advaita Vedānta
- Meanings Out of Rules: The Editor’s Overview
- Rezensionen – Comptes rendus – Reviews
- Some More Notes on Siderits and Katsura’s Translation of Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā
- Rezension – Compte rendu – Review
- Otter, Felix: Grundkurs Sanskrit: Eine Einführung in die Sprache der altindischen Erzählliteratur