uttara-mImAMsA???

[R.W.Perrett at massey.ac.nz]

I don't have the desired direct citation of an Advaitin text using the term
"Uttara-Mimamsa" self-referentially.  But I do have three comments that may
be relevant.

1. My understanding is that the term "Uttara-Mimamsa" refers to Vedanta,
not Advaita.  In other words, there is nothing specifically Advaitin about
it and Visistadvaitins and Dvaitins, for instance, have just as good a
claim to being Uttara-Mimamsakas (much as Bhattas and Prabhakaras have
equal claims to being Purva-Mimamsakas).

2. I can't verify this because I don't presently have access to the text,
but I suspect the term might appear in the Sarvasiddhantasamgraha.  If this
is correct and we were also to accept the traditional (but, alas, probably
spurious) ascription of this text to Samkara, then we would have a direct
reference by an early Advaitin.

3. I don't think Samkara uses the term in the Brahmasutrabhasya. However he
does call the words of the Mimamsasutra the "former section" (purva-kanda)
(III.3.1), the "first section" (prathama-kanda) (III.3.1,33,50) and the
"first instructions" (prathama-tantra) (III.3.25;4.27).  Hajime Nakamura
argues that this probably implies an already established practice of
distinguishing between a "prior-Mimamsa" (Purva-Mimamsa) or
"former-Mimamsa" (Praci-Mimamsa) and a "later Mimamsa" (Uttara-Mimamsa):
see his A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
1989), Ch.9.  Ganganatha Jha makes not too dissimilar comments about the
significance of BSBh III.3.33 in his Purva-Mimamsa in its Sources
(Varanasi: Banaras Hindu University, 1942), pp.5-6.

email: R.W.Perrett at massey.ac.nz