School · 100 BCE–1700 CE
Mīmāṃsā
Pūrva Mīmāṃsā is a Veda-affirming discipline of interpretation that asks how injunctions disclose dharma. Its thinkers developed influential accounts of linguistic meaning, epistemic authority, action, and the self-validity of cognition while disagreeing sharply within the Bhāṭṭa and Prābhākara lineages.
Shared questions
- How do Vedic injunctions establish dharma and guide action?
- Is a cognition valid by default or only through a further confirming source?
Internal disagreements
- Kumārila and Prabhākara developed divergent accounts of error, obligation, linguistic meaning, and knowledge.
Key texts
- Mīmāṃsā Sūtra · c. first centuries BCE–CE — Foundational aphorisms attributed to Jaimini.
- Śābara Bhāṣya · c. fourth century CE — The earliest fully extant commentary establishes the terms of later Mīmāṃsā argument.