THE MIMÄNSÄ NYÄYA PRAKÂ^A OR ÂPADEVÏ: A TREATISE ON THE MIMÄNSÄ ^ SYSTEM BY ÄPADEVA TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH, WITH AN INTRODUC- TION, TRANSLITERATED SANSKRIT TEXT, AND GLOSSARIAL INDEX, BY FRANKLIN EDGERTON Salisbury Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology in Yale University NEW HAVEN: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1929 Copyright 1929 by Yale University Press Printed in the United States of America PREFACE This book is the outcome of my stay in the city of Poona, August and September, 1926. During this period I read the Mïmânsâ Nyäya Prakâéa with Pandit Wamana Sastri Kinjawadekar, Head of the Poona Mïmânsâ Vidyâlaya, which is affiliated with the New Ifaona College. With the help of Pandit Kinjawadekar's oral explanation (in Sanskrit) of the text I then made a rough English translation, which I have since thoroly revised with the aid of Chinnaswami's commentary in the edition to which I refer as "C," and of other works. I have also attempted to trace, so far as possible, all the quotations from Vedic and other texts contained in the book. It would be of some interest to study in this way all the quotations in the Bhâipya on the Jaimini Sütras. The results could not but throw light on the history of Vedic tradition. Chinnaswami made a start towards tracing the quotations of our text, but his references are not always accurate or reliable, and are furthermore not as complete as they might be. ! The Mïmânsâ system has attracted little attention in the west. The little tjhat has been written about it, as in Keith's handbook (The Karma-Mimansa), or even in Radhakrishnan's Indian Philosophy] (Volume 2), the work of an Indian scholar, deals^ chiefly with the metaphysical and epistemological aspects of the system. But these are relatively unimportant, from the point of view of I the Mîmânsâ itself. They are, therefore, practically ignored in the Mïmânsâ Nyäya Prakâéa, which is nevertheless recognized |as the best introduction to the system. (So Chin- naswami describes it in his Sanskrit introduction, p. 1; and he unquestionably voices the general opinion of Hindu pandits.) As it appears here, the Mîmânsâ may best be described as a system of legal logic. It undertakes to lay down principles by which the laws of the Vedic ritual may be interpreted. For it regards the: entire Veda as a code of law—ritual law, of course. The sole purpose of the Veda is to lay down a beneficent course , of human action. But—especially when regarded from this view- iv Preface point—the Veda appears to be confused and unsystematic. le needs to be systematized and codified. The Mïmânsâ worked out a system of principles of interpretation and interrelation of the various elements in the Veda. Its object is to formulate a set of rules or logical principles by which the real meaning of the1 vVeda, and the interrelation of its various parts, may be under- stood, and so applied to human action—duty, or dharma, The historic importance of the system lies in its application to \ various departments of Indian literature and culture. In the j first place, as we might expect, the commentators on Vedic texts were as a rule trained Mïmânsakas. Especially the com- mentaries on the Brâhmana and Sütra texts can hardly be under- stood without some familiarity with Mïmânsâ technique. (This is somewhat less true of the commentaries on the mantras, the Saih- hitâs, because the Mïmânsâ deals with them only in an ancillary way, regarding them as only subordinate elements in the Veda; see 203, 239 ff. of this work.) Secondly, Hindu law is deeply indebted to the Mïmânsâ for its principles of interpretation. The "legal logic" worked out in connexion with the code of the ritual could be, and was, equally applied to the interpretation of secular law. This has long been recognized. See e.g. Ganganath Jha, The Präbhäkara School of the Pürva Mîmânsâ, Allahabad, 1911, pp. 308-317; Keith, Karma-Mimansa, pp. 97-107; and especially P. V. Kane, A Brief Sketch of the Pürva-Mlmänsä System, Poona, 1924, pp. 26-39, in which the author, a dis- tinguished lawyer of present-day India, shows how the Mïmânsâ rules of interpretation still possess the greatest practical impor- tance for the interpretation of Hindu law, and are and should be recognized by the courts.—Furthermore, the Mîmânsâ contains not a little that is interesting from the point of view of theoretical linguistics, as will be shown later. When the time comes to write a general history of linguistic theories, this school will play an important part in the Indian section of that work.1 In no other work, probably, are these rules stated as succinctly and clearly as in this Apadevï or Mïmânsâ Nyâya Prakâsa; certainly in none that has been translated. It is, in fact, the lOn this subject see my article, "Some Linguistic Notes on theMïm- ânsâ System," in Language (the organ of the Linguistic Society of America), 4.171-177. Preface v most familiar introductory work to the system known in India. It is the favorite text used by Hindu pandits to initiate their pupils into the Mîmânsâ. Its only possible rival is the Artha- samgraha of Laugâkçi Bhäskara (edited and translated by Thibaut, Benares Sanskrit Series No. 4, 1882)? This text is, however, too brief to be clear in many parts, as Thibaut rightly says in his Preface. He there says that he would have preferred the Âpadevï, but selected the Arthasamgraha simply because of its much smaller bulk. Our text is more complete and much more lucid. On the other hand, it far surpasses in brevity and clarity the long-winded and fine-spun writings of Kumärila, which have been translated by Ganganath Jha (see the Bibliography). It seems, therefore, worth while to make it accessible to western scholars. It has never before been translated into any language. Altho the text has been repeatedly printed in India, and altho I have not had access to manuscripts of it, it has seemed desir- able to reprint the text also along with the translation, because anyone using the latter will certainly wish to refer constantly to the former, and because the Indian editions are not readily accessible and are little known in the west. 1 have added a Glossarial Index, which is intended to combine the features of an index of important Sanskrit words and a glossary of technical terms. Among the latter I include not only special terms of the Mïmânsâ, but all terms peculiar to Indian philosophical and grammatical systems which occur in the work, and which might not be easily comprehensible to one not familiar with these fields. I hope that in this way the book may be made fairly clear and simple even to students of Sanskrit who have had no previous acquaintance with these technical departments of literature. F. E. New Haven, Connecticut January, 1929 2 Thibaut's introduction to this work contains a very valuable tho brief sketch of the important points of the Mïmânsâ system; it deserves to be much better known than it is. Nowhere else in any occidental language can there be found so lucid and excellent a summary of this part of the system. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 I. The constitution of the text here printed 3 II. Contents of the work 4 III. The author 17 IV. Sources 18 V. Vedic references 23 Quotations from texts of the Taittiriya school 28 Quotations from texts of the Maitrâyanïya school.. 32 Quotations from the Pancavinâa Brähmana 32 Quotations from texts of the Vajasaneyin school... 33 VI. Bibliography 33 Translation 37 Invocation, 1 39 Dharma; bhâvanâ, 3 39 Sâbdï bhävanä, 4 40 Vidhi, 10 . 42 Viéiçta-vidhi involves matvartha-laksanâ, 13 44 Pûrvapakça suggestion that 'somena yajeta' is a guna-vidhi, 24 48 Refutation of suggestion that 'somena ya]eta; is a guna- vidhi, 47 57 Utpatti-vidhi, 63 62 Viniyoga-vidhi; six pramânas, 66 64 1st pramâna; âruti, 68 64 Subject is implied, not exprest, in the verb-form, 75 68 2d pramâna; linga, 90 74 3d pramâna; väkya, 105 80 4th pramâna; prakarana, 116 83 Prakarana applies only to actions, 122 86 Mahâ-prakarana; applies only in prakrti, 129 89 Avântara-prakarana, 152 .... 99 5th pramâna; sthâna, 169 105 6th pramâna; samâkhyâ, 181 110 Classification of angäni, 182 110 vii viii Table of Contents Angâni always related to apürva, 192 114 Prayoga-vidhi, 196 117 Six pramänas for order; 1st, âruti, 199 118 2d pramâna; artha, 201 119 3d pramâna; pätha, 202 119 4th pramâna; sthäna, 209. 123 5th pramâna; mukhya, 213 124 6th pramâna; pravrtti, 219 126 Adhikâra-vidhi, 225 129 Mantra; niyama-vidhi, 239 134 Parisamkhyä-vidhi, 244 135 Nämadheya, 249 137 Udbhid is a name, 256 139 Citrä is a name, 265 143 Agnihotra is a name (tatprakhya-nyâya), 273 146 Syena is a name, 302 157 No fifth criterion for names (vaiévadeva-nyâyà), 303 157 Niçedha, 320 164 Paryudâsa, when niçedha is impossible; two cases, 329.... 167 (1) Introduction by 'tasya vratam/ 332 168 (2) Contingence of option, 341 ; 170 Paryudâsa not upasamhâra, 351 174 Arthavâda, 364 178 Meaning of éâbdî bhâvanâ, 368 179 Meaning of ârthï bhâvanâ, 383. 185 Salvation by ritual action, 393 188 Text 191 Invocation, 1 193 Dharma; bhâvanâ, 3 193 Sâbdï bhâvanâ, 4 193 Vidhi, 10 195 Viéiçta-vidhi involves matvartha-lakçanâ, 13 195 Pûrvapakça suggestion that 'somena yajeta' is a guna-vidhi, 24 197 Refutation of suggestion that 'somena yajeta' is a guna- vidhi, 47 202 Utpatti-vidhi, 63 205 Viniyoga-vidhi; six pramänas, 66 206 1st pramâna; éruti, 68 206 Table of Contents ix Subject is implied, not exprest, in the verb-form, 75 208 2d pramäna; linga, 90 211 3d pramäna; väkya, 105 213 4th pramâna; prakarana, 116 215 Prakarana applies only to actions, 122 217 Mahä-prakarana; applies only in prakrti, 129.