Mimamsa and Vedanta : Interaction and Continuity: Papers of the 12th World Sanskrit Conference

The second half of the first millennium witnessed various important developments in Indian thought. Among these, the increasingly active participation in philosophical debates of those who maintained that everything worth knowing is found in the Veda is particularly striking. Vedanta established itself as an independent school of though during this period, ready to defend its positions against other schools, whether Brahmanical or non-Brahmanical. More or less simultaneously, Mimamsa underwent important modifications which brought it closer to certain Vedanta positions. Interestingly, both the most important representatives of Vedanta (Sankara and others) and the Mimamsaka with "Vedantic' inclinations (Kumarila Bhatta is a prominent example) claimed that they faithfully applied the rules of interpretation that were characteristic of Mimamsa.