Sarvadarshanasangraha 12.1

12.1

nanu dharmānuṣṭhānavaśād abhimatadharmasiddhir iti jegīyate bhavatā/ tatra dharmaḥ kiṃlakṣaṇaḥ kiṃpramāṇaka iti cet —

An objector may here ask, "Are you not continually repeating that merit (dharma) comes from the practice of duty (dharma), but how is duty to be defined or proved?" Listen attentively to my answer. A reply to this question has been given in the older[1] Mīmāṃsā by the holy sage Jaimini. Now the Mīmāṃsā consists of twelve books.[2] In the first book is discussed the authoritativeness of those collections of words which are severally meant by the terms injunction (vidhi), "explanatory passage" (arthavāda), hymn (mantra), tradition (smṛti), and "name." In the second, certain subsidiary discussions [as e.g., on apūrva] relating to the difference of various rites, refutation of (erroneously alleged) proofs, and difference of performance [as in "constant" and "voluntary" offerings]. In the third, Śruti, "sign" or "sense of the passage" (liṅga), "context" (vākya), &c., and their respective weight when in apparent opposition to one another, the ceremonies called pratipatti-karmāṇi, things mentioned incidentally (anārabhyādhīta), things accessory to several main objects, as prayājas, &c., and the duties of the sacrificer. In the fourth, the influence on other rites of the principal and subordinate rites, the fruit caused by the juhū being made of the butea frondosa, &c., and the dice-playing, &c., which form subordinate parts of the rājasūya sacrifice. In the fifth, the relative order of different passages of Śruti, &c., the order of different parts of a sacrifice [as the seventeen animals at the vājapeya], the multiplication and non-multiplication of rites, and the respective force of the words of Śruti, order of mention, &c., in determining the order of performance. In the sixth, the persons qualified to offer sacrifices, their obligations, the substitutes for enjoined materials, supplies for lost or injured offerings, expiatory rites, the sattra offerings, things proper to be given, and the different sacrificial fires. In the seventh, transference of the ceremonies of one sacrifice to another by direct command in the Vaidic text, and then as inferred by "name" or "sign." In the eighth, transference by virtue of the clearly expressed or obscurely expressed "sign," or by the predominant "sign," and cases where no transference takes place. In the ninth, the beginning of the discussion on the adaptation of hymns when quoted in a new connection (ūha), the adaptation of sāmans and mantras, and collateral questions connected therewith. In the tenth, the discussion of occasions where the non-performance of the primary rite involves the "preclusion" and non-performance of the dependent rites, and of occasions where rites are precluded because other rites produce their special result, discussions connected with the graha offerings, certain sāmans, and various other things, and a discussion on the different kinds of negation. In the eleventh, the incidental mention and subsequently the fuller discussion of tantra[3] [where several acts are combined into one], and āvāpa [or the performing an act more than once]. In the twelfth, a discussion on prasaṅga [where the rite is performed for one chief purpose, but with an incidental further reference], tantra, cumulation of concurrent rites (samuccaya) and option.