Re: [INDOLOGY] mīmāṃsā

Wed Sep 21 07:35:41 UTC 2016

Patrick, your more detailed elaboration of your point of enquiry supplied
many things that were missing in your thread initiating post. It is these
details that I was trying to gather through my responses to your
'naïve-looking' question which I knew did not have the naivety  it
reflected,  in its actual background.

Now that you made the details clear, let me converse with you on those
lines.

1. Yes, at the outset , the karmakānḍa practitioner of 2016 feeling
compelled to follow the scriptural injunctions to perform the rituals and
believing that he is performing the rituals exactly the way his ancestors
or 'beginners' of the rituals performed them  is part of the general
cultural universal of ritual performance. In a purely oral society of ,say,
a tribal community, the norms of the ritual may not be perceived to be
coming from a 'scripture' or its injunctions. But pattern is the same.
Members of organized, say, semitic religions, may consider the norms to
have been 'written down' in a 'book'. Nevertheless, they too share the
feature of believing that they are re-enacting the performance of the
rituals performed by their ancestors or 'beginners' of the rituals, in
spite of the changes in the details of the performance. Just as the
contemporary 'Hindu' considers his ritual to be 'Vedic', in spite of the
changes, they too consider their rituals to be of Judaism or Christianity
in spite of the changes. This belief that present form has continuity with
or from the past one is vital to each of these cultures because identity of
each of these is anchored to this belief in continuity.

2. What makes the 'Hindu' scene more complex than this is that it has an
auto-anthropology of issues such as what a ritual is(kim karma), what are
its functions (karmaNaa kim labhate), how a praising hymn or a narrative in
a hymn is in fact an injunction to perform a ritual (arthavaada), the
spirit or  'psychological' effect (jnaana) of a ritual , the relative
significance (praadhaanya) of the performance (karma) or the spirit
(jnaana) of the ritual (i.e. can  rituals be given up if their spirit is
achieved through other means or are there no substitutes for the ritual to
get its effect ?). Different schools of Vedanta take different positions
with regard to these relative significances etc.

3. What is interesting is, not all Bhakti schools downplay the
significance of rituals. In fact, Viśiṣṭādvaita and Dvaita stand opposed to
Advaita in this aspect.

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 9:43 AM, Michaels, Axel <michaels at asia-europe.uni-
heidelberg.de> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
>
>
> in my recent book „Homo ritualis—Hindu Rituals and Ist Significance for
> Ritual Theory“ (OUP, 2016, ch. 9), I have elaborated on the relation of
> Pūrvamīmāṃsā and the practice of ritual as exemplified in the Arthasaṃgraha
> and other texts.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Axel Michaels
>
>
>
> *Von: *INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> im Auftrag von
> "Olivelle, J P" <jpo at austin.utexas.edu>
> *Datum: *Dienstag, 20. September 2016 um 09:53
> *An: *patrick mccartney <psdmccartney at gmail.com>
> *Cc: *"indology at list.indology.info" <indology at list.indology.info>
> *Betreff: *Re: [INDOLOGY] mīmāṃsā
>
>
>
> Try, Mīmāṃśānyāyaprakāśa edited and translated by Edgerton.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 19, 2016, at 10:45 PM, patrick mccartney <psdmccartney at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> Dear Friends,
>
>
>
> I find myself intrigued by the idea that there are people today compelled
> to carry on the karmakāṇḑa rituals.
>
>
>
> I read a brief passage that alludes to the mīmāṃsā thought-world as
> providing textual evidence and injunctions for this practice of reenacting
> scriptural commandments, which were originally meant for a group of people
> in a different time and place. However, it only mentions mīmāṃsā and does
> not mention any specific author or text.
>
>
>
> I would like to read this text but, as I know very little about mīmāṃsā I
> do not really know where to start. I thought I might find some help here in
> locating the passages I seek.
>
>
>
> Thank you for your help.
>
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
> Patrick McCartney, PhD
>
> Fellow
>
> School of Culture, History & Language
> College of the Asia-Pacific
> The Australian National University
> Canberra, Australia, 0200
>
>
> Skype - psdmccartney
>
> Phone + Whatsapp:  +61 414 954 748
>
> Twitter - @psdmccartney
>
>
>
> academia <https://anu-au.academia.edu/patrickmccartney>
>
> ·
>
> Linkedin
> <https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=241756978&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile>
>
>
>
> #yogabodyANU2016 symposium
> <http://chl.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/658/yoga-and-body-past-and-present-symposium?#tab>
>
> <http://chl.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/658/yoga-and-body-past-and-present-symposium?#tab>
>
>
>
> Ep1 - Imagining Sanskrit Land <https://youtu.be/jMi7tkPBbJ4>
>
>
>
> Ep 2 - Total-am <https://youtu.be/7tAp8m9RHPU>
>
>
>
> Ep 3 - Jalam ≠ Chillum <https://youtu.be/cLZeuCT_mwQ>
>
>
>
> Ep 4 - It's Time to get Married
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B3un7aHEAc>
>
>
>
> A Day in our Ashram
> <https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ek+din+hamaare+ashram+mein>
>
>
>
> Stop animation short film of Shakuntala
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVqBD_2P4Pg>
>
>
>
> Forced to Clean Human Waste <http://youtu.be/y3XfjbwqC_g>
>
>
>
> One of my favourite song
> <http://trinityroots.bandcamp.com/track/all-we-be>s
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )

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