Mīmāṃsā

Mīmāṃsā, “inquiry, deep reflection”

Smṛti has other meanings too: see all meanings of Smṛti.

Grammar: feminine noun, the desiderative of the root man (to think): “the wish to think through”, inquiry and deep reflection.

Meaning: the śāstra that inquires into the meaning of the Veda; one of the vidyās (branches of sacred learning) that the Agni Purāṇa names with Nyāya, Dharmaśāstra and Purāṇa.

In the scriptures: at the opening of the Agni Purāṇa, Agnideva, who says “I, who am Vishṇu, am Kālāgni Rudra“, teaches Vasishṭha Maharshi that the two vidyās, parā and aparā, are both forms of Vishṇu. The aparā vidyā is the four Vedas, the six Vedāṅgas, Kośa (the lexicon), Mīmāṃsā, Dharmaśāstra, Purāṇa, Nyāya-śāstra, Āyurveda, Saṅgīta-śāstra, Dhanurveda and Artha-śāstra; the parā vidyā is the one that teaches Brahma, which cannot be seen or grasped and is eternal (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 1). In the same way the Purāṇa says that all the subjects of learning, Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā and the other vidyās, are Hari alone, the one Vishṇu, in manifest and unmanifest forms; Śrī Mahāvishṇu alone is of the form of the eighteen vidyās (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 174).

In the rite for the king, the fourteen vidyās are asked to protect him: the four Vedas, the six Vedāṅgas, and Mīmāṃsā, Nyāya, Dharmaśāstra and Purāṇa, with the upavedas Āyurveda, Gāndharvaveda and Dhanurveda (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 219).

At the close of the Purāṇa, Agnideva says again that chandas, śikshā, vyākaraṇa, nighaṇṭu, jyotisha, nirukta, dharma-śāstra, mīmāṃsā, nyāya, āyurveda, purāṇa, dhanurveda, gāndharva, artha-śāstra, vedānta and the rest are all forms of Śrī Hari: this is the aparā vidyā, and the vidyā that teaches the supreme truth of the ātmā is the parā vidyā. The Mīmāṃsā-śāstra is among the vidyās the Agni Purāṇa itself shows (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 383).

Related terms: Nyāya · Vidyā · Aparā Vidyā · Dharmaśāstra · Vedāṅga

Sources

• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 1, 174, 219, 383