Kultur- und Religionsgeschichte Südasiens
Cultural and Religious History of South Asia

SÜDASIEN-INSTITUT | SOUTH ASIA INSTITUTE
CENTRE FOR ASIAN AND TRANSCULTURAL STUDIES

   


Tue. 14th Dec., 2021
16:15-17:45 Hrs.

CATS, Building 4010,
Room no. 06, (010.00.06)

This is a hybrid event.

Online
ZOOM Link
Meeting ID: 832 6480 4133
Passcode: 737844

Abteilungskolloquium (WiSe 2021/22) | Colloquium (Winter Semester 2021/22)

▍ About Bādhas: A few remarks on suspension in Mīmāṃsā

Meera Sridhara
(B.A. Student)

What should one do when a normative system issues conflicting commands? Consider a command (vidhi) that says, ‘Do not harm any living being’ and another that says, ‘Sacrifice an animal during the Agnīṣomīya sacrifice’. Or consider the scenario where what direct testimony (śruti, i.e. the Vedas) says contradicts what human-authored ‘remembered’ texts (smṛti) say. The Vedic exegetical system of Mīmāṃsā develops a range of mechanisms to resolve such conflicts. Bādha or suspension is one such conflict-resolution strategy where the application of one of the two rules standing in conflict is temporarily suspended. In this talk, I will briefly outline what bādhas are, how they operate and outline their two primary types - prāpta and aprāpta bādhas. The Mīmāṃsā author Kumārila (7th c CE), in his commentary on Jaimini’s Balābalādhikaraṇa (Section on the relative strength of rules, JMS 3.3.14) provides a list of 36 bādhas. Someśvara (15th c CE) in his super-commentary thereon cites examples for each of them. I will look at this list to provide concrete examples of bādhas.

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