Jaimini facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jaimini
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Jaimini is known for his studies of older rituals part of the Vedas.
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| Born | ~4th century BCE |
| School | Mimamsa |
Jaimini was an ancient Indian scholar who founded the Mīmāṃsā school of Hindu philosophy. He was a disciple of sage Veda Vyasa, the son of Parashara. Traditionally attributed to be the author of the Mimamsa Sutras and Jaimini Sutras, he is estimated to have lived around the 4th-century BCE. His school is considered non-theistic, but one that emphasized rituals parts of the Vedas as essential to Dharma.
Jaimini's guru was Badarayana, the latter founded the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, emphasizing the knowledge parts of the Vedas, and credited with authoring Brahma Sutras. Both Badarayana and Jaimini quoted each other as they analyzed each other's theories, Badarayana emphasizing knowledge while Jaimini emphasizes rituals, sometimes agreeing with each other, sometimes disagreeing, often anti-thesis of the other.
Jaimini's contributions to textual analysis and exegesis influenced other schools of Indian philosophies, and the most studied bhasya (reviews and commentaries) on Jaimini's texts were by scholars named Shabara, Kumarila and Prabhakara.
Contents
Works
Jaimini is most known for his great treatise Purva Mimamsa Sutras, also called Karma-mimamsa (“Study of Ritual Action”), a system that investigates the rituals in the Vedic texts. The text founded the Purva-Mimamsa school of Ancient Indian philosophy, one of the six Darsanas or schools of Ancient Indian philosophy.
Dated to ca. the 4th century BCE, the text contains about 3,000 sutras and is the foundational text of the Mimamsa school. The text aims at an exegesis of the Vedas with regard to ritual practice (karma) and religious duty (dharma), commenting on the early Upanishads. Jaimini's Mimamsa is a ritualist (karma-kanda) counter-movement to the Self-knowledge (Atman) speculations of the Vedanta philosophy. His Mimamsa Sutra was commented upon by many, of which Śābara was among the earliest.
Jaimini also wrote a version of the Mahabharata narrated to him by his preceptor Vyasa, but today, only the Ashvamedhika Parva of his work is available.
Other mentions
Samaveda
When Rishi Veda Vyasa divided ancient Vedic hymns into four parts based on their use in the sacrificial rites, and taught them to his four chief disciples – Paila, Vaisampayana, Jaimini and Sumantu, Samaveda was transmitted to rishi Jaimini.
"He divided the Veda into four, namely Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva. The histories and the Puranas are said to be the fifth Veda."
- Brahmanda Purana 1.4.21
Markandeya Purana
One of the major Puranas, the Markandeya Purana, opens with a dialogue between sage Jaimini and Markandeya.
See also
In Spanish: Jaimini para niños
