VEDÂNTA-SÛTRAS WITH THECOMMENTARY BY SA@NKARÂCHÂRYA.
Transliteration of Oriental Alphabets adopted for theTranslations of the Sacred Books of the East.
[Transcriber's Note: The sequence "@n" is used to transcribe thecharacter "n" with a horizontal line (a "macron") across thetop.]
To the sacred literature of the Brahmans, in the strict sense ofthe term, i.e. to the Veda, there belongs a certain number ofcomplementary works without whose assistance the student is,according to Hindu notions, unable to do more than commit thesacred texts to memory. In the first place all Vedic texts must, inorder to be understood, be read together with running commentariessuch as Sâyana's commentaries on theSamhitâs and Brâhmanas, and theBhâshyas ascribed to Sa@nkara on the chief Upanishads. Butthese commentaries do not by themselves conduce to a fullcomprehension of the contents of the sacred texts, since theyconfine themselves to explaining the meaning of each detachedpassage without investigating its relation to other passages, andthe whole of which they form part; considerations of the latterkind are at any rate introduced occasionally only. The task oftaking a comprehensive view of the contents of the Vedic writingsas a whole, of systematising what they present in an unsystematicalform, of showing the mutual co-ordination or subordination ofsingle passages and sections, and of reconcilingcontradictions—which, according to the view of the orthodoxcommentators, can be apparent only—is allotted to a separatesâstra or body of doctrine which is termedMîmâmsâ, i.e. the investigation or enquiry[Greek: kat ezochaen], viz. the enquiry into the connected meaningof the sacred texts.
Of this Mîmâmsâ two branches have to bedistinguished, the so-called earlier (pûrva)Mîmâmsâ, and the later (uttara)Mîmâmsâ. The former undertakes tosystematise the karmakânda, i.e. that entire portionof the Veda which is concerned with action, pre-eminentlysacrificial action, and which comprises the Samhitâsand the Brâhmanas exclusive of theÂranyaka portions; the latter performs the same{Intro 10} service with regard to theso-called jñânakanda, i.e. that part ofthe Vedic writings which includes the Âranyakaportions of the Brâhmanas, and a number of detachedtreatises called Upanishads. Its subject is not action butknowledge, viz. the knowledge of Brahman.
At what period these two sâstras first assumed adefinite form, we are unable to ascertain. Discussions of thenature of those which constitute the subject-matter of thePûrva Mîmâmsâ must have arisen at avery early period, and the word Mîmâmsâitself together with its derivatives is already employed in theBrâhmanas to denote the doubts and discussionsconnected