Maṇḍana’s concept of instructions facilities round his try to scale back them to statements of instrumentality. Commanding to X to do Y would quantity to say that Y is the instrument to grasp a objective of X. Maṇḍana establishes (in his eyes) this level within the first a part of the siddhānta inside one among his masterpieces, the Vidhiviveka ‘Discrimination about Instructions’. This consists in some verses and a really prolonged autocommentary thereon. The primary a part of the Vidhiviveka covers objectors, the second (the siddhānta) opens with six verses and commentary explaining this view.
Nonetheless, Maṇḍana then has to harmonize this level with the pre-existing Mīmāṃsā account of duties distinguishing between three units of sacrifices, specifically:
- —nitya karman ‘mounted sacrifice’, to be carried out often (sometimes every day), it doesn’t matter what, however the place a efficiency yathāśakti ‘as a lot as one can’ is appropriate.
- —naimittika karman ‘occasional sacrifice’, to be carried out each time the event arises (e.g., an eclypse or the start of a son). As within the above case, yathāśakti efficiency is appropriate.
- -kāmya karman ‘elective sacrifice’, to be carried out provided that one desires their outcomes and which must be carried out precisely as prescribed (yathāvidhi or yathānyāya), no enjoyable of the norms allowed.
As soon as a sacrifice has been undertaken, even whether it is kāmya, its completion turns into obligatory and the way in which of such completion stays yathāvidhi within the case of kāmya sacrifices.
How can this distinction be saved if all instructions are nothing however statements about instrumentality? Wouldn’t a press release about instrumentality correspond solely to the kāmya class?
Maṇḍana dedicates to this downside the subsequent verses and commentary of his Vidhiviveka, the place he examines a number of potentialities. The primary constraints, are, once more, retaining the excellence between nitya/naimittika sacrifices on the one hand and kāmya sacrifices however, in addition to the excellence between yathāśakti and yathāvidhi modes of efficiency. He due to this fact explores a number of doable understanding of śakti ‘skill’, phala ‘consequence’ and adhikāra ‘eligibility, particularly in dialog with Prābhākara Mīmāṃsā interlocutors insisting on how all sacrifices are obligatory and the way the mentions of consequence discovered at the side of kāmya rituals is barely a technique to establish the adhikārin ‘eligible individual’ for his or her efficiency. As an illustration, which type of consequence might make it doable for a command a couple of nitya karman to steer one to carry out the sacrifice each single day? Are there actually outcomes which can be at all times desired? And even when such a consequence may very well be discovered, why would one have to hold a distinction within the yathāśakti and yathānyāya efficiency? If all sacrifices are devices to grasp a sure consequence, why would a few of them want an correct efficiency and different not so? The scenario is additional difficult by the presence of elective sacrifices prescribed to individuals ‘who need heaven’ (svargakāma). Wherein sense are they completely different from nitya sacrifices, that additionally result in heaven?
Sadly, the Vidhiviveka is characterised by a terse model, to say the least. Maṇḍana was most likely a lot into the subject that at instances he appears to take necessary intermediate passages with no consideration and simply leaves the reader surprise. Thankfully, a extra beneficiant commentator, Vācaspati, solves a lot of the doubt and provides additional fascinating discussions in his Nyāyakaṇikā.
Final, Sanskritists and philosophers of obligation have an obligation of gratitude to Elliot Stern, who created the primary important version of the textual content, together with additionally its beforehand unpublished commentaries.
Curious to know extra? We are going to talk about chapters 12–14 of the Vidhiviveka on this workshop: https://philosophy.utoronto.ca/event/workshop-maṇḍana-on-ritual-duties/
